The early show

The last two mornings have been clear, a rarity around here, since this past winter was even wetter than they usually are.  I haven't had many opportunities to get out and admire the sky and its many wonders.  

Therefore, since it was clear, I jumped at the chance to see what I could see and record it.   

I don't have a wide variety of celestial bodies to show you, but I enjoyed getting out there. I hope you enjoy them as well.  I wandered, while taking them, from our balcony, to the croquet court outside the café, and then finished off at 'Arthur's Corner.' That's at the end of the third floor of the Palms. I got an excellent sunrise there.  

This first picture shows Venus just above the tree and the Moon just starting its rise, just before 6 a.m. 

I zoomed in on Venus.  These two pictures were taken on September 12, 2023. (You might notice that Venus is against a black background here. I actually took this picture before the one just above.)

 

I took all of the following shot on the morning of the 13th. It's about 5:30 a.m. in this one.  That's Venus again of course, to the left of center stage.  That's a jet just to the right of the tip of the Sky Tower, and if you look to the left, at about the same height above the bottom of the frame, you'll see a helicopter. (Btw, the Sky Tower is 7.5 miles away)  

You'll notice in this next one that both the jet and the helicopter have moved to the right, although the jet is moving faster of course. 

I'm up at Arthur's Corner now, and the sky is beginning to show some color. 

Venus is at the very top of the picture now while the thin, crescent of the Moon is barely visible in the lower center of the shot. It's so dim that you may have to scroll down to see it in subsequent photos and them come back up to this one to find it.  

See, there it is.

Going closer...note the bird in the distance to the left 

And closer...the bird is below the Moon now.  

And very close now.  

The morning is progressing, and the sun will be up soon.  I got a chair from inside the Atrium and made myself comfortable to wait.  There are a few minutes to go but it's already brilliant out here. 

While we're waiting, let's look at our circle drive and the front of the Atrium.  

Okay, here we go. Sunrise, zooming in. There is the first glint of the sun. The day has started.  

Here's another with lots of zoom, and with a bird.  I love birds in sunrise pictures.  I wasn't going to use this picture, but then I spotted the bird and enlarged it.  

And, seconds later, I got this. Oh, I like the effect on this one.   

But, let's make it bigger yet so we can fully appreciate it. 

I was warned by the guy that sold me this camera to use caution when shooting into the Sun.

I never allow the sun to get too big and only shoot toward it while it's on a horizon.  Even so, the camera, which was dialed for this picture to auto, set its shutter speed to 1/2000, which is its fastest.    

I really like that.  Sometimes the clouds are useful, aren't they? 

I liked it so much in fact, that I sent this shot over to Harvey Norman and bought an 8" by 12" printed photo of it.  I put it up on our apartment door for anyone who passes by.  

Okay, one more close up. But this might be a little too close.  I don't know.  See what you think. (I do like to be able to look into the full intensity of the sun without hurting my eyes.)  

I enjoyed getting up to watch 'the early show,' and take these pictures. The village was mostly deserted, but I did meet Stan, the night porter, who was out delivering the morning newspaper to those folks who get it. I smelled the sweet alyssum when I went down to the croquet court and it was slightly chilly, but not windy.  A good way to begin the day.

I hope that you've enjoyed seeing these pictures. I took a walk up the hill from Newmarket, as far as the entrance to Mt. Hobson in Remuera today. (9/16/23), snapping pictures as I went, and on my return, discovered a morning market going on at the French Cultural Center. That generated a whole new set of photos and a video of a four-person band entertaining the crowd. I don't know which I'll show you first, but there are two posts worth of photos in my pipeline now so you ought to plan to check in again next week.   

Of course, since this post you've just read is my 599th, I may do something different next week to mark the next one.    -djf

BTW, I thought I'd give you an update on our plan to make our own Limoncello.  We were successful!  Here is a picture of a small bottle of it. 

We started with 40% vodka and ended with 26% Limoncello, the same strength as some 'real' Italian Limoncello on the market. We found that it was quite easy to make. We brought a bottle to our village Cabaret Night and shared it until the bottle was empty. That was fun.

We have already started another batch.  In three weeks, we'll add the syrup and then put the bottles away for several months before trying them.  It's supposed to get even better with age.  -djf