366 Theme 292: Distance

Another image from the Black Forest Star Party. We had two very nice nights of stargazing, and one of rain and clouds. It was nice to go to a star party and actually see stars.

The obvious non-stellar object in the top center of the image is M31, the Andromeda galaxy. This is the most distant object most people can see with their naked eye, albeit from a dark sky sight. This object is approximately 2.5 million light years away and is made up of billions of stars. 

(The link to M31 in  this post and the Zodiacal link in the previous post are to Catching the Light , the site of a fellow astronomy club member and professional sports photographer Jerry Lodriguss. It is well worth a visit.)

366 Theme 248: Pyramid

I attended the Black Forest Star Party this past weekend, which was held at Cherry Springs Stare Park in Potter County Pennsylvania. This park is the second International dark sky park in the world.

This image is of the zodiacal light, also known as the false dawn. as it points up to the right and merges with our home galaxy the milky way, forming this pyramid of light. The zodiacal light is sunlight scattered off of dust in the solar system. It can only be seen at a very dark site. Sadly, light pollution in the industrialized world has robbed most of us of the night sky and sights such as this. I had to travel over fives hours to reach Cherry Springs, which is one of the few remaining dark sky sights east of the Mississippi river.

The bright white spot in the lower right of the image is the star Sirius shining through the trees. Sirius is the brightest star in our night skies.

366 Theme 63: Key

cay |kē; kā|
noun
a low bank or reef of coral, rock, or sand. Compare with key 2 .
ORIGIN late 17th cent.: from Spanish cayo ‘shoal, reef,’ from French quai ‘quay.’

Taken on my trip to the Florida Keys. A very small key. (Ok, a bit of a stretch, but I like the image. And I'm 320 behind with four months to go!)

The turtles remind me of two old men talking. I wonder what they have to say. And if you look close you can see alligator teeth marks on the far turtle. That would be an interesting story.

366 Theme 269: Feet

The distinctive yellow feet of the snowy egret.

366 Theme 189: Spots

A mangrove buckeye with eye spots to confuse predators.

366 Theme 172: Black and White

With a touch of blue.

On my first trip to the Everglades I was driving into the park when I saw one of these fly over. I quick pulled over and got my binoculars on it. I then looked it up in my field guide (Sibley's). A wood stork. What was the chance of me seeing a wood stork fly over? Nice.

Well pretty good actually, as I discovered when I pulled into the Royal Palm visitor center. There were a dozen or so in the parking lot! I wasn't in New Jersey any more.

366 Theme 322: Portrait

Of a juvenile great blue heron. The lighting is a bit harsh, as this was taken under the bright midday sun. The resulting shadows giving the bird a bit of an angry look. Maybe she was annoyed at all the paparazzi!