Here comes the sun!
I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving, a successful shopping experience on Black Friday and safe travels home this weekend.
After Black Friday Sunrise
Tag: sunrises
Sunrise ~ Ides of September
I went to bed a bit disappointed with the cloud cover. My astronomy club’s monthly star party got cancelled because of lingering overcast. I spent a pleasant evening with my husband watching the first part of Sergeant York while he napped. I only made it about thirty minutes myself before I dozed off.
I woke up to clouds creeping up from the south. I didn’t have any chance at all to glimpse the last vestige of the dying moon (it’s turns new today), so I took the lemons the dawn gave me and made sunrise lemonade.
I went up the hill and setup the camera and tripod east of Lansing City Hall. I took several photos over the course of thirty or forty minutes, right up until sunrise, when it fizzled. To see the best of the photos in an album from this morning, click on the image of pre-dawn Venus (centered) below:
Cool Early Morning Trio
Cool, because at 72 degrees, that was as cool as it was going to get on Friday, but also because I could clearly see bright Venus (lower left of triangle), slighter dimmer Jupiter (top of triangle) and even dimmer Aldebaran (middle right of triangle). I like the cloud arrangement this morning a bit more than yesterday, but either one provides refreshing relief from the heat. Here’s a close-up of the trio:
I heard on the radio this morning our forecasted high was set for 105 degrees (our third or fourth day of excessive heat) with an extension of our heat advisory until next Wednesday. Ugh. My daughter in Texas is enjoying cooler weather than I am in Kansas. That just seems wrong.
Wispy Moonless Sunrise
I didn’t plan to get my camera out for the third morning in a row this week. There was no chance of seeing any moon, since only six hours had passed since the old moon became the new moon.
But when I went outside to take out the trash, I looked east and saw some nice pastels caressing the thin wispy clouds. I could still easily see Venus and Jupiter and barely discern Aldebaran, at least for the first few minutes.
Then the bolder colors began to shine forth.
At one point, I could see Venus shining brightly through a pink cloud. The photograph I took did not do justice to what I actually saw with my naked eye, but if you look closely, you can probably spy Venus behind the cloud.
Beautiful Start to a Busy Weekend
The sun rises early enough now that I can take a few minutes out of my morning routine to setup the tripod and camera to take some nice photos. I took all of these from my driveway while eating my cereal. Gorgeous morning! I had hoped to capture the tiny sliver of a crescent moon, but the pink, orange and gold clouds obscured it.
Tomorrow morning, I walk in the KC Heart Walk. Tomorrow evening, I have my first night as a team member at ASKC‘s Powell Observatory, with a topic of ‘Galaxies Galore’ to learn and observe. Sunday, I hope to get a chance to catch my breath, and maybe catch a movie.
Disembodied Sun Rises on Holy Week Wednesday
Strange optical illusion shortly after the sun rose today. The sun appeared to float before the clouds on the eastern horizon (see photo above). This next photo has slightly better colors:
This will be my last post until after Easter (except for the already scheduled ‘Remembering Roxy’ post which will magically appear early Friday morning).
I will leave you with a prayer for today, Wednesday of Holy Week (Year B):
Creator of the universe,
you made the world in beauty,
and restore all things in glory
through the victory of Jesus Christ.We pray that, wherever your image is still disfigured
by poverty, sickness, selfishness, war, and greed,
the new creation in Jesus Christ may appear
in justice, love, and peace,
to the glory of your name.Amen.
Stunning Sunrise
I enjoyed the commute to work this morning, thanks to a stunning sunrise that slowly swept across the entire dome of the cloud speckled sky. I did regret leaving my DSLR at home, so all the photos in the album below come courtesy of my cell phone’s camera:
Why can’t these types of sunrises (or sunsets) occur on weekends, when I have ample time, equipment and few distractions?
Final Sunrise of a Lambish March
March went out softly, like a fluffy puffy lamb yesterday. I took a series of photographs from my front step landing via the tripod. Except for the first couple of photos and the last three (which aren’t of the sunrise at all), I didn’t change the position of the camera for probably a half an hour.
Click here to view the entire album.
I set the AWB to the Cloudy setting, remembered to turn the AutoFocus back on and took a couple of initial photos to get oriented.
This sunrise didn’t evolve into anything stunning or spectacular. Still, not the worst sunrise I’ve ever photographed.
I sat on the front steps, reading the last few pages of Wild Swans, a book I started in early to mid March and the final book I had chosen to read for “Destination: Anywhere” – the Kansas City Public Library‘s Adult Winter Reading program for 2012. I would read a few paragraphs or a page, and then get up and snap a photo. The morning atmosphere soothed and calmed me, relaxing me so much while I read, that I nearly forgot about the sunrise.
Once I realized the clouds and sun were not going to do anything amazing, I took a few photos of my neighbors’ flowering trees. I returned the camera and tripod inside and finished the book just a few minutes later.
March may have left like a lamb, but Mars still hangs in the sky at night smack dab in the middle of Leo, the Lion. I’m looking forward to more planetary observing in April.
On the Seventh Day of Christmas
I slept in, until six o’clock. That’s an hour longer than I usually laze around in bed. I knew I had two things to get done before long after waking up. The first involved the annual dissemination of sticky buns to friends. I started two batches of dough going, one in the bread machine and one via the mixer, with about fifteen minutes to spare before the sun rose at twenty of eight.
Since I had over an hour to wait for the dough to rise, I grabbed my camera bag and tripod and ran for the van. I drove a block to my south and setup on the grounds of the Lansing City Hall cul-de-sac. I experimented with the aperture priority setting so I can attempt to get a star like effect when the sun rose. I succeeded (see below) but also forgot I had accidentally smudged my lens with my fingers a couple of days ago and forgot to clean it. So some of the later photos with more star-five effect had to be trashed thanks to smudgy fingerprints obscuring the sunlight.
Click here for the slideshow of the rest of the photos.
I packed up the camera and gear as soon as the sun cleared the horizon. I still had plenty of time before the dough needed to be rolled out and sweetened with brown sugar and cinnamon. I made a quick run to the grocery store to buy the disposable aluminum lidded cake pans I needed to place the sticky buns in for delivery to our friends. Once I returned home, I woke up Rachelle, who helped make the caramel glaze to pour into the pans and evenly distribute the individual rolls among the six pans. This year we only made about sixty rolls, instead of the usual hundred or hundred and twenty. We covered them with the clear plastic lids and attached the storage and baking directions to them. Rachelle and I then left to deliver the rolls.
Once we returned home, Derek and Royna had also arrived back from their overnight visit with their friends. I suggested that Rachelle, Royna and I drive to downtown Leavenworth to sample some of the loose tea available from the Queen’s Pantry. Royna found three she liked and Rachelle found one. We walked across the street to the antique mall where Rachelle found some jewelry and I found a paperweight for a coworker. Our last stop downtown was the Kansas Country Store where I tried to find some rawhide treats for the Rotts, but found a half-price Rottweiler 2012 calendar instead. I dropped Rachelle off at her friend’s house and Royna and I returned home to while away the afternoon watching movies.
We decided on Mexican for a family dinner out and traveled to Zona Rosa to revisit Aubelos. Terry and I had tried that restaurant back in October for my birthday. Derek and Royna had also tried and liked it previously. I called ahead and reserved a table for the five of us. I missed the sunset at five o’clock because I was busy getting ready to leave for dinner. I did step outside briefly, but the sky was so clear and devoid of haze or clouds that the sunset would have been ‘boring’ for me to photograph. The drive to Zona Rosa via K-5 and MO-152 was uneventful and our dinner was delicious (and fast). We were back home before half past seven. Rachelle donned her excessively ugly Christmas sweater and left to spend New Year’s Eve with her friends. Derek and Royna will start packing and get some rest before hitting the road southbound for North Texas tomorrow morning.
And so I come to my final paragraph of my final blog post for 2011. I believe we’ve had a good year. We had a couple of milestones (25th wedding anniversary and 15th year at my employer). We started renovating our house, replacing the roof and the driveway and repairing the chimney. I’m keeping the miles down on both our cars by participating in a vanpool, which also helps reduce my carbon footprint by taking at least four other vehicles off the roadways five days a week. We spent the holidays with our kids, always the highlight of our year. I hope and pray 2012 will bring all of us peace and prosperity, harmony and grace.
Have a very Happy New Year!
Sunday Sunrise Surprise
Just in case you missed the sunrise this morning, here it is:
To see the rest of the photos I took this morning, click this link. Or if you prefer a slideshow, follow this link.