Night Shift

Tonight, the moon was only visible completely by 9 o'clock. So here is a photo of the moon taken at 9:03 PM.

Stay tuned to check out a photo of the moon in the morning.

I Found The Moon!!!

I found the moon in the sky tonight. It is just a day after a full moon. Here is a photo of the moon at 9:16 PM.

Lens Improvement

So I have my good camera with the 3,000 dollar telephoto lens(thanks, Mom) and I have two pictures for you today.

It was a really cloudy night, as you can see in this picture.

Both pictures were taken at 7:32.  Now that I have the good lens you can expect MUCH better pictures.

Better, Coming Soon...

 Here is a photo of the moon taken at 7:28 PM. Sorry, but you can't see much else.  I will have my better camera lens tomorrow night!

Winter Circle

Here is a photo of the moon taken at 7:25 PM.

If you looked at the sky today, you could see a bright circle of stars surrounding the moon. This is called the Winter circle and its a beautiful sight.

Time Flies

I can't believe how the moon "grown" over the last week. If you look in the sky, you can also see that it has moved due west and is continuing it's path towards a full moon. Jupiter is still in the sky as well as Venus [right above the horizon] but they are nowhere near the moon anymore. Here is a photo of the moon taken at 7:32 PM.

Also, be sure to check out our photo gallery in order to see all the phases of the moon shown on the blog so far.

The Moon and Jupiter

Nothing that interesting tonight. Jupiter and the moon are moving farther and farther away from each other. Here is a photo of the moon and Jupiter taken at 6:04 PM.

Here is a photo of the moon  taken at 6:00 PM.

Pollution

Over the weekend, I had to go to my sisters cheerleading in Las Vegas. (She won, shoutout to HB Storm.) It was my turn to do the moon log, but we ran into some problems.  One, the moon looks different in Las Vegas than it does in Orange County, and two, you can see NOTHING in the Vegas night sky.  Even the moon looks dull:

The reason the Vegas sky is so devoid of stars is because of two reasons.  The first is that the air quality is so low, and the second is the light pollution caused by the Las Vegas strip.  Light is also known as photopollution, and it is excessive artificial light that obscures the night sky.  Light pollution is bad because it obscures the night sky, but also because it has adverse effects on the environment.  Studies have shown that too much exposure to light can cause anxiety in animals and humans.  Excessive exposure to artificial light indoors is shown to cause increased blood pressure up to eight points!  Light pollution also disrupts ecosystems.  It can confuse and change the migration patterns of nocturnal animals.  Also, some spiders avoid light, while others don't mind making their webs on light sources.  Since insects are attracted to light, this gives an advantage to the spiders who build their webs near lamps.  Light pollution is a problem not many people know about, and is being fought by the International Dark-Sky Association.

-Seth

Supposedly, You Should Be Excited...

Tonight was basically just like any other night, except not really. Supposedly, you should see what is called The Hyades. If you look closely, it looks like an arrow with a bright star at the end named Aldebaran. Here is what they would look like:

  

Also out tonight is a famous cloud cluster named Pleiades. If you look at the photo, its the small cluster on the bottom right corner. If you can see it, it would be right above the moon. Here is a picture of the cluster:

 

Here is a photo of the moon taken at 7:34 PM.

Here is a photo of the moon and Jupiter taken at 7:42 PM.

Venus was also out tonight, but i couldn't get a good photo of it. Sorry!

Clear Skies

I went outside again to see if the sky cleared, AND IT DID!!!! So, on that note... Here is a photo of the moon taken at 7:37 PM.

Here is a photo of the moon and Jupiter taken at 7:41 PM.

Foggy

It is so foggy outside that you can't see any stars and barely the moon. I played around with the settings on the camera and got some peculiar pictures. Here is a photo of the moon taken at 5:54 PM.

For those of you who live in a cloud-less place, the moon should look like this:

And in case you were wondering, no I did not take this photo. Aside from the moon, Jupiter is below it (just a little bit to the right), and venus is near the horizon.

From Day to Night

Here is a photo of the moon taken at 4:34 PM.

Here is a photo of the moon taken at 6:09 PM. Just to clear the confusion, these are two separate pictures of the moon.

Tonight, the moon and Jupiter were right across from each other today. Here is a picture of the moon and Jupiter taken at 6:02 PM.

Just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, Venus was out tonight. This time thought it was to far away from the moon to get a photo of them both. Here is a photo of Venus taken at 6:21 PM.

Ditto

Here is a photo of the moon taken at 6:24.

Tonight I was able to take a picture of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, since they were all close together. Here is a photo of the moon, Venus and Jupiter taken at 6:34.

Three Stars In a Row

I was looking in the night sky to see if I could recognize any star constellations, when I saw this:

You see the three stars in a row? I have identified them as Orion's Belt. Here is my reasoning, "... Orion the Hunter, marked by the distinctive row of three stars–the belt of Orion..." This photo of Orion's Belt was taken at 7:24 PM. 

Visiters

Observation #2:
Here is a picture of the moon taken at 6:57 PM. If you look at the part of the moon that is not lit, you can see the outline of the rest of the moon as well as some of it's craters. Sorry for the mirrored image above the moon.

Tonight you could see not only Venus, like yesterday, but you can also see Jupiter. Here is a picture of the Moon and Venus taken at 7:07 PM. Sorry that the moon is a bit blurry. And don't be confused by the photo, it is not a full moon. You can find Venus in the left-hand corner.

Here is a photo of the Jupiter taken at 7:04

We're Stalking the Moon

Observation #1:
Here is a picture of the moon taken at 6:02 PM. It's just now starting its monthly cycle.