Tag: astronomer

Old Places

Places you feel good in. I’m a guy who doesn’t own anything. There is nothing I can call my own. The sky can be out or not. Up there the creek is always clear. Long ago I said to my father, ‘this is my creek’. He knew I didn’t mean it belonged to me, but I felt peace there. There were places he felt the same.

Lisa and I, along with Willow, spent the night up at the top of the creek, we went high where the water runs out at this time of year. We starred skyward and felt the spirits fly through our chests. Lisa counted the piles of bear shit, noted if they were fresh, she carried bear spray and a knife with a quick release. She pointed out cedar boughs in the darkness and asked if I could cut her a few.

A mountain Martin stood stiff, eyes glowing, curious at our intrusion. A large bull elk climbed a rock slide to stay clear of us. There is still enough of my self to quicken my heart and want to go after him. When young it is simple to kill. A pellet to a birds breast. Killing is easy, now older, I even have trouble pulling the trigger on plants in fall. My edge now is not killing.

This place can punch your heart and make you cry.

Luck

A Perseid radiating from Perseus.

Hoping for clear skies. I will be heading into the bush shortly to spend the night looking for Perseids, with plans to go straight to work in the morning. It should be a short day. I’ll be bushed and Willow will have to hang out at work for awhile.

The moon is close to new so won’t come up until about 4am so won’t be a problem. As long as the clouds and smoke can hold off it could be good viewing.

Judging the peak can be a crap shoot, I’ve been lucky and not so on occasion. The trick is being out where you have the best chance of seeing them. I compare it to fishing. You never catch anything if you don’t put a hook in the water. The truth is, catching them is only a part of the fun.

***

Pulled some of the garlic today. It is Russian Red hardneck and looks good. Big bulbs that take up almost my entire palm.

The grasshoppers wanted no part of them. They were planted last October and had to be dislodged with a pitch fork and thoroughly shook to dislodge the soil.

Now I have to figure out what will be seed and what we can eat. Good gardeners say to save the biggest heads for seed.

It was a good year for garlic, despite the challenges the garden endured.

In the end, like most things, it comes down to luck. All you have to do is show up and put a line in the water.

Early March

Worm moon above the ridge.

Cold mornings. They can’t last into the afternoon, the sun is gaining power.

Ghosts

The souls came out and flew sideways, flattening out, then through me. They are hard to avoid. My Mother always said, don’t be afraid of them.

Here I am in the bush dodging souls, flying fast, like bats coming out of the night, when I can’t even see my hand in front of my face.

Willow says, hang in there.

They take my breath with them. Someday I’ll ask for it back.

Early Morning

Willow and I were up early with hope that the skies were clear. To our delight the stars were shining. So off to the other side of Swansea for dark skies to try and catch a glimpse of Comet 2022 E3 ZTF.

I couldn’t find it with my naked eye but was hopeful the camera could pick it up. I knew roughly where it should be located among the stars and pointed the camera in that direction.

Comet 2022 E3 ZTF has passed around the sun and is nearing its closest distance to Earth. The last time the comet passed near the sun was 50,000 years ago.

Sure enough, once home and the pictures downloaded I was able to locate the Comet, but it is very dim. I am not sure if I could be able to spot it with my eye alone. However, I stand a better chance now that I know exactly where to look.

It was nice to be out looking at the stars after, what seems, like a long stretch of overcast skies.

memory walk

Brilliant Jupiter hangs in the west.

A quiet morning walk. Orion is up. Mars is red between the red giants Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. To set your eyes on them is to get your bearings. To realize the biggest and fastest is only because it’s closest. An optical illusion.

Orion, Taurus, Pleiades, Mars and four satellites.

The cemetery is dark. I know my way around. The tourists still haven’t blocked Mom and Dad’s view. They used to dig the graves here, a chore given to them by my Grandfather, for extra money after the war. They will be the last of us buried here. Lake view even for the dead has skyrocketed.

It’s an easy walk under the stars.

Venus & Crescent Moon

A thin crescent moon with faint earthshine. Venus shines in the dawn. The communication tower can be seen on top of the original Pinto mountain.

Was up in the middle of the night admiring the stars. This morning a brilliant conjunction of Venus and a waning crescent moon rose above the mountain horizon. A spectacular sight, enough to take your breath, and one that cannot be captured properly with a camera.

A reminder that I must start getting out more to put myself in position to see such splendour. I have been delinquent, as of late, in my nighttime excursions.

Line Up

Haze in the east. The waning moon mid right. Lake Windermere the way it should be.

The sky cleared on Saturday morning. Willow and I awoke early and headed out to see the planet alignment of Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn. We looked for high ground with an unobstructed view of the east.

We waited for the moon to rise. By then it was getting light. I could not see any of the planets with my naked eye. I tried several settings on my camera to pick up the planets, hoping I could see them when enlarged on the computer screen, however was unsuccessful.

Moon rise.

A couple things could have been working against me. First, there was a slight haze in the east and could have easily obscured the dim light of the planets. Second, it gets light early here at our latitude of 50°N. And finally, I may have brought the wrong lens, opting for a wide angle instead of a lens that could have focused and enlarged a small part of the sky.

It was still a rewarding morning. We listened to chicken drumming and turkey’s gobbling. Four large Swans flew low over our heads, Willow seemed fine, but I was touched. When the sun got close to rising the song birds started up.

A few Crocuses on the trail in daylight heading out.

Strong Thermal Emissions

Due north towards the lights of Invermere.

Good reports of Northern Lights recently, unfortunately I have slept through the best storms.

Damn chilly in the morning. Last Saturday I shed the long underwear for the year and I’m tempted to put the long thermal underwear back on. Every year it goes on earlier and comes off later. Maybe there will come a time, despite global warming, they will stay on year round. Just for the record, it is not the same long underwear I wear for 7 months straight. I do change them every month or so, usually when my leg hair starts growing through them.

light

Willow and I went out early to catch the grouping of planets coming up in the east. We never saw Saturn, Mars or Venus. We were too early and cold. I pointed the camera down the lake southeast and took a few pictures. Willow sat beside the tripod. She whined a few times and I saw her shiver when I turned on my flashlight to check I was still focused on infinity.

A photograph is made of light. The camera records it without sentimentality or prejudice. The photographer adds that later, trying to show a story to the viewer. The viewer also adds their thoughts to the image. Sometimes the image touches and tells a different story to many different people. That’s called art. Sometimes a picture captures a time and place. That’s a document.

This photo is light only. The light of The Milky Way. The Dark Horse near the centre of the galaxy. The Scorpions Tail. The purple and green aurora signalling flares from the our sun. The lights of Windermere and Fairmont in the distance. The sun showing below the horizon, marking another day.

Some of the light has been here forever while other, even brighter light is recent.

The Northern Lights and stars reflect in the lake. Do the fish take direction from this light? Does it trigger when they spawn, when they go into the many creeks feeding the lake? There isn’t many native fish left in Lake Windermere.

By comparison humans have only had the ability to cast light, shading the skies, for a short time. To capture light even less.

I worry what happens to our souls when we can’t see Andromeda, Aurora and the The Milky Way. Like the fish we may forget our way.