Monday evening twilight. The 3.2-d crescent moon and Venus were eye-catching above the southern flank of Bristol Head as the late-afternoon clouds dissipated.
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| Sony A7iii + Nikon 180mm f/2.8 Ai-s. |
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| Olympus E-M1iii + Olympus 75mm f/1.8. |
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| Comet C/2023 A3 and a meteor. Olympus 75mm f/1.8. |
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| 75mm f/1.8 |
The comet is still there, but getting fainter. It can be seen with binoculars, but that will become harder as the moon gets brighter.
This morning clocks reverted to Standard Time. When I stepped out onto the back porch at 5:30 am (MST) to grab some firewood I spooked a deer. I also noticed that stars were visible in spite of some clouds low to the horizon.
Jupiter currently rules the late evening and early morning sky. At magnitude -2.7 it is 3.3 times brighter than Sirius.
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| Orion and Jupiter over Bristol Head. E-M1iii + Leica 9mm f/1.7 lens. |
Venus is now the "Evening Star". It is currently the brightest planet, at magnitude -4.
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| Venus, 31 Oct. Olympus 50mm f/2 ED |
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| Barnard's Star (circled). 01 Nov, 7:50pm MDT. Nikon 180mm f/2.8 Ai-s. |
Barnard's Star is 6 ly distant and has the largest proper motion (movement relative to the more distant background stars) of any known star (10.3 arcsec/year). It is getting some attention because of the close pass by comet C/2023 A3. Barnard's Star is more than twice as old as our sun, and will live much longer, over a trillion years.
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| Our star, the Sun. 01 Nov. AT102ED f/7 + Lunt solar wedge. |
The sun is near the peak of the current solar cycle, with many active sunspots.
