Here comes the sun.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNS_SUmCJm4

Maybe using this song to open my post is over-the-top trite. I mean, come on. Couldn't I have found some other song related to the sun to use instead? 

Well, I did look. And I couldn't find one half as good in my opinion. You're welcome to try of course and let me know if you find a suitable substitute. 

Besides, I found this version that I had never seen before. (Boy, that was a long time ago) I thought it appropriate to view sun pictures by. (I know, that's a sin of syntax) 

I was sitting and enjoying the late-fall sun about two weeks ago. It's far less likely to crisp up your skin than the full-summer version is, if you bask in it without protection. It occurred to me then that I had never tried to get a proper picture of the sun and I wondered if I could. I'd like to get rid of the glare and be able to see it as it really is. Hmmmm?

There it is in all its glaring glory at about 2:30 p.m. 

I don't remember where/when I picked these up.  (Possibly the U.P. State Fair) It was years ago and I've never used them until now. Just hold them up in front of the camera lens and snap! I'm a solar observer. 

Actually, I'm quite pleased that this worked so well because Mercury will transit the sun in November of this year and I'd love to be able to post pictures of it. 

This was taken at 90 power.

This is what 120 power looks like. 
Can you imagine a little dot (Mercury) against the sun? What a cool picture that would be. I hope that I get a chance to try. 

I also have a couple of pictures of the moon and Jupiter and Saturn that I'd like to show you. The night I took these shots was warm, almost balmy, and I was sitting on the deck after dinner, simply enjoying how it felt to do so. Since I was out there anyway, when the moon started coming up I thought that I might as well snap a few pictures. Grabbing my camera was the work of a moment. 

I took these two shots and a bunch of others as well. Many of them didn't turn out too well and I discarded them. Even these are just so-so. 

Two or three days later, Jeanne was on a site she likes and often visits called https://earthsky.org/  She wasn't aware that I had been taking pictures a few nights earlier. 

She looked up from her screen at one point and said to me, "Well, this is interesting. The moon has been occulting (passing in front of) Jupiter the last few nights and it will again tonight at 12:45 a.m. It also occulted Saturn, but that was when it was much lower in the sky and may not have been as visible."

I said, "Hmmm."  I brought up my pictures and found that I had two that showed, not an occulting, but the period before the occulting of Jupiter and the period just after Saturn. 

In this one, the moon is just up. Jupiter is at about 11 o'clock in relation to the moon. The moon will overtake and hide Jupiter later on. 

In this one you can see Saturn just below the moon. 
(I was having focus trouble because of the clouds. Both the moon and Saturn disappeared behind them shortly after this picture was taken) 

What a coincidence it was that working independently, Jeanne and I each contributed something to the other's enjoyment of the night sky. 

I thought of staying up until 12:45 that night and trying to get a picture of the moon just about to occult Jupiter but decided against it. I was tired and it was somewhat cloudy anyway. My chances probably weren't that good.  

I'll close this post the way I opened it. With a song, this time about the moon, and since I'm going to show you a post very soon about foraging and harvesting, I'll make it a harvest moon song.   -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MtEsrcTTs