| ||
| Some cool photos of a rare planetary alignment: I captured the above images in the Laguna Mountains, about 45 minutes east of San Diego. In the first photo, Venus is seen to the lower right of the moon, below Venus is seen Mars, with Saturn appearing closer to the horizon. The picture to the right was taken a few minutes later. Venus, Mars, and Saturn shine brightly to the lower right side of the moon, and Jupiter is seen at the top of the photograph. |
 |
| Wow -- we're spinning! The star, around which the other stars appear to be spinning at the "top" of the above photograph, is Polaris, the North Star. Of course what this image really shows us is that we are spinning -- that our planet is rotating. Images like this 12-minute exposure illustrate several physical principles, from basic geometric axioms to quantum effects. The color shifts of celestial objects inform us of the elemental constituents of these objects and/or about their motion relative to Earth based observation. In longer exposures the "star trails" are more dramatic and the sky color typically shifts more toward -- well, see if you can figure it out... (if you can figure it out, or if you already know, this 'quiz' might interest you). |
 |
| above: A total solar eclipse (July 11, 1991) photographed from my backyard. This was special to say the least. A little to the south, in Baja California, this totality lasted almost seven minutes (it was slightly less in my backyard). No eclipse, seen from anywhere on Earth, will match this until June 13, 2132! |
 |
|
Sunspots, auroras, meteor showers, comets, radio interference, near-Earth asteroids, plasma emissions, and all manner of current "space weather" conditions for the inner solar system can be found at: http://www.spaceweather.com/ |
 |
