Dancing in the Moonlight

Roswell Part Deux

Well made it down to Roswell and Albuquerque New Mexico for the Annular Solar Eclipse and what a thrill!


To see this event live was nothing short of spectacular. Met some cool people from all over the world, New York, Germany ect. Saw the campy Roswell and dropped into the UFO museum and Research Centre.


Traveled the nostalgic Route 66, actually collected a piece of the road

And while I was there I went an hour out of Albuquerque to see the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, another thrill.


So what's next celestial wise you may ask. well a biggie, this Tuesday June 5th is the rare transit of Venus over the face of the Sun, weather permitting I will be out getting some pics and posting later. I will leave you with a little clip I put together of the eclipse.

Roswell

  Wow, had some crazy auroras going on just the other night (above image)  also had the Moon, Pleiades and Venus conjunction happening the same night (below image).

 
   Now I know what you're thinking, WOW...... Bob that is just too amazing...well amazing as all that is, even something more amazing,  got my flight, car and hotel booked, heading down to Roswell New Mexico via Albuquerque. Always wanted to go there and now that there is going to be an Annular Solar Eclipse there May 20, was a no brainer.

   Now an Annular Solar Eclipse is when the Moon fits nicely inside the Sun like the image below, will be a great photo op, and I will be there at the right time and place to take advantage of it

 Albuquerque has the famous Route 66, a road I have always wanted to travel, so taking on a bit of history on the way down to Roswell.
Will be taking lots of pics and updating the blog regularly so stay tuned

Total Lunar Eclipse

Just finished viewing and imaging a Total Lunar Eclipse, so thought I'd post some images.


The next Total Lunar Eclipse won't be til April of 2014, having said that there will still be a lot of celestial delights going on before then, especially in 2012.

First off because of all the solar activity going on, 2012 promises to bring lots of Auroras.

The Evening of Saturday March 3 you'll see the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Mars in the sky at the same time with Orion right in the middle of them. A few weeks later Monday March 26 we get to see a triangle shape conjunction of the Moon, Pleiades and Venus, doesn't happen that often, should be cool to view and image.

Venus gets real close to the Pleiades, almost right in the mix Tuesday April 3, again a rare occurrence and won't happen again for another 8 years.

Now on Sunday May 20 the American Southwest gets treated to a Partial Solar Eclipse..but not just any kind of Partial, It will be an Annular, very rare, when the Moon fits just inside the Sun. Most of Canada will receive a regular Partial Solar Eclipse but I am seriously considering driving down to the states just to see and photograph it, it's that cool.

Another biggie....Tuesday June 5 we get a transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, most of Canada will get to see some or all of the event.

Last but not least Monday August 13 we get a daytime Occultation of Venus as the Moon sweeps in front of it. Theses are just some of the major events taking place... a very good year, then we got the whole end of the world thing going on December 21. I'll try to keep you up todate closer to the events so you don't miss.