Night Sky Photography -- 09-28-2021 -- The Constellations Taurus The Bull & Auriga The Charioteer

Hello fellow night sky watchers!

Well y'all I had to stay up extra late this evening (about two hours after midnight) to capture several really good shots of the brightest stars of the Constellations Auriga The Charioteer and Taurus The Bull rising in the east with the beautiful Last Quarter Moon.

In the first photo, using the moon as a guide, you can see the constellation's brightest stars Capella and Aldebaran, along with the bright star, Elnath, which connects both constellations together in the sky dome.

Capella is the brightest star in the constellation Auriga -- the sixth-brightest star in the night sky -- and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega.

Capella is the Latin word for nanny goat, and this bright star is often called the Goat Star. The mythological charioteer character, Auriga, is often depicted in mythology holding a female goat and her kids, along with the reins of a chariot.

Relatively close to us at about 42.9 light-years from the Sun, Capella appears to the naked eye to be a single star. In fact that bright point of light is made up of four separate stars, two of which (Capella Aa and Capella Ab) are a binary pair of large type-G yellow giant stars estimated to be anywhere from 10 to 12 times the size of the Sun. The other pair, Capella H and Capella L, are smaller red dwarf stars.

Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull, is the brightest star in the Constellation Taurus The Bull and generally the fourteenth-brightest star in the night sky. The red giant is 65 light-years from the Sun and measures about 44 times the size of the Sun.

The traditional name Aldebaran derives from the Arabic term al Dabaran meaning "the follower" because it seems to follow the Seven Sisters (Pleiades) in the night sky.

Connecting both constellations is the bright star Elnath (or Beta Tauri). The second-brightest star in the Constellation Taurus the Bull, the B7 giant star is approximately 134 light-years away from the Sun. Elnath is estimated to be about 4.5 times the size of our Sun. The name Elnath comes from the Arabic word meaning "the butting" (or the Bull's horns).

In my second photo, I outlined the constellations as they are depicted. You can also see the Pleiades Star Cluster just above Taurus, which appear as a little dipper of five small, bright stars (two of them were not visible in the shot). You can also see the bright star, Rigel, just above the treetops on the bottom right.

Rigel (Beta Orionis) is a blue supergiant star and the second brightest star of Constellation Orion The Hunter, approximately 860 light-years from Earth. Like Capella, Rigel is a star system made up of at least four stars that appear as a single blue-white point of light to the naked eye.

Together, these bright points of light make up part of the Winter Hexagon (or Winter Circle) asterism that also includes the stars Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius. Capella is the northern most of these stars in the Winter Circle -- highlighted in blue here in my third and final photo of the evening.

Well folks, this concludes my presentation for the evening, my first one of the 2021 autumn season. Hopefully I will be able to bring you more soon, clear skies permitting. Until then, have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!

General Wade Hampton's Great Beefsteak Raid -- September 16-17, 1864

The Great Beefsteak Raid, September 16, 1864. Artwork by Mort Kunstler.

The following true story is perhaps one of my favorite events of the War Between the States.

In September of 1864 as summer was beginning to end, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union Army of the Potomac was entering the third month of their siege of the city of Petersburg, Virginia against the entrenched forces of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Since the start of the Overland Campaign in May of that year, the Army of the Potomac now under Grant's command, relentlessly pounded Lee's Confederate Army; leap-frogging south and westward from the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, to Cold Harbor and now Petersburg, the last obstacle between the Union army and the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Both sides were settling in for a long and grueling siege that would ultimately last close to nine months. Grant's invading Yankee army was cutting off important rail supply lines and slowly tightening the noose around Lee's besieged army and the Confederate capitol.

South of Petersburg, away from the main battle lines, the country was the setting for brutal guerrilla warfare. Confederate cavalry forces ranged deep behind the lines, regularly raiding isolated Union outposts, and scouts and spies from both sides roamed behind the lines gathering information on their opponents, looking for weaknesses.

One of those scouts was a sergeant in the Confederate cavalry named George David Shadburne.

Born in 1842 in Brenham, Texas, Shadburn was the son of a hotel keeper from the State of Kentucky. At 18 years of age, Shadburne enlisted in Company A of the Jefferson Davis Legion Cavalry as a private on Thursday, December 19, 1861, near Centreville, Virginia. The Legion served gallantly in the eastern theater under the command of then Colonel Wade Hampton  and took part in Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's ride around the Union army in June of 1862. In the summer of 1863, the Legion fought at Brandy Station, Gettysburg, and Bristoe Station during Lee's failed second invasion of Pennsylvania.

Wartime photograph of Sergeant George D.
Shadburne of General Wade Hampton's
Iron Scouts.
Photo courtesy of National Archives.

By late 1863 Shadburne rose to the rank of sergeant because of his fighting passion and was assigned to Hampton's 2nd South Confederate Cavalry. When now Major General Wade Hampton took command of the Army of Northern Virginia's cavalry corps after the death of Stuart at The Battle of Yellow Tavern in May of 1864, he made Shadburne a chief of his "Iron Scouts" that summer.

The Iron Scouts were a select group of cavalry troopers from the four companies of Hampton's battalion, which included members of the 1st and 2nd SC Cavalry, the 1st NC Cavalry, and the Prince William Virginia Cavalry. Serving from late 1862 to the war's end, Wade Hampton's Iron Scouts were a key component of the comprehensive intelligence network designed by Generals Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, and Wade Hampton. The Scouts were stationed behind enemy lines on a permanent basis. Sometimes wearing Yankee uniform coats, they skillfully eluded capture while they killed and captured Union pickets and couriers, interfered with supply lines, destroyed telegraph lines, and provided critical military intelligence to their generals.

Just before daybreak on the morning of Tuesday, August 30th, Sergeant Shadburne was on patrol behind the Union lines along with another Iron Scout, Private John Elliott, along the Blackwater River just two miles from Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia when they came across a large herd of cattle grazing on the James River near Coggin’s Point. The herd was being guarded by a contingent of Union guards at Beechwood Farm, a former home of secessionist Edmund Ruffin.

Later that evening under the cover of darkness they returned with two more Iron Scouts; Privates Shakespeare Harris and Rufus Merchant. The four men easily passed through the Union pickets -- something the Scouts were quite good at by this point -- and spent the night counting the number of cattle.

On Sunday, September 5th, Shadburne submitted a thorough report of the Union defenses east of Petersburg near Coggin's Point. In addition to noting the positions and strength of the Union forces, Shadburne also mentioned that the corral containing the 3,000 head of cattle intended for consumption by Grant's army was guarded by only 120 men and about 30 unarmed civilians.

In actuality the Union force was larger: 250 men of the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry Regiment and a detachment of about 150 men from the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Along with the civilian cattlemen who handled the herd, the force still came to slightly less than 500 men overall.

Knowing that this beef would soon be issued to Northern soldiers, General Hampton put forth a plan to do a bit of cattle rustling to his superior General Robert E. Lee on Wednesday, September 8th.

Hampton's plan for the raid involved the cavalry division of Major General W.H. Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee, the brigades of Brigadier General's Thomas L. "Tex" Rosser and James Dearing, and about 100 men from Brigadier General's Pierce M. B. Young and John Dunovant's brigades, as well as a dozen members of his own Iron Scouts to act as guides and several "certified Texas cattle thieves."

Because they did not have a complete investment of the Petersburg lines, the Union rear areas were vulnerable to attack. At that time most of the Union cavalry divisions under Major General Philip Sheridan were in the Shenandoah Valley. This left the entire Federal rear picketed by the single under-strength cavalry division of about 700 men under Brigadier General August V. Kautz.

Hampton choose September 15th for the raid because Grant himself was known to be in the Valley in conference with Sheridan at the time. The next day, Thursday, September 9th, General Lee gave Hampton his approval for the raid.

Leaving their camps on the late evening of Wednesday, September 14th Hampton's force of about 3,000 Southern cavalrymen and four artillery pieces began a ride of more than 100 miles around the Union Lines.

Major General Wade Hampton III, commander in
chief of the Army of Northern Virginia Cavalry Corps
1864-65.
Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress.

He led his cavalry force to the south of Petersburg and the Union trenches, in order to eventually turn north behind Union lines. Hampton was able to penetrate the Federal rear by a roundabout route, passing through Dinwiddie Court House and Stony Creek Station. He chose to cross where the Cook's Bridge over the Blackwater River once stood, knowing that an attack from there would be unexpected. He had some engineers reconstruct the bridge.

Successfully reaching their destination two days later, at about 5 A.M. on the dawn on Friday, September 16th, Hampton's force attacked the Union position with a three-prong strike, with the center directed toward the cattle. Rooney Lee's division was used to screen off the Rebel left, as that was the flank closest to the Union lines around Petersburg, while Generals Rosser and Dearing's men attacked and overwhelmed the Union camp and successfully captured the herd along with 11 wagons and 304 prisoners after a brief fight.

During the fight, an attempt was made by the Union defenders to scatter the herd was thwarted by the fact that the Confederates attacked from all sides, thus hemming in the cattle. To the south and at Sycamore Church, another contingent of Southern cavalry skirmished with a Federal outpost, capturing most of the command.

Capturing the beef was only the first step; now they had to get back to the Confederate lines with them. By 8:00 A.M., less than three hours after the camp was attacked, Hampton had his force back on the road. Rosser and Dearing were sent ahead to secure the Jerusalem Plank Road and prevent any Federal force from descending along that avenue with Lee's division bringing up the rear with the cattle using a large number of shepherd dogs brought along to help with the herding.

By 10:00 A.M. the Confederates and their newly acquired cattle were back at Cook's Bridge on the Blackwater. After re-crossing the Blackwater Swamp, Hampton’s horsemen sent the captured herd on a more southerly route across the Jerusalem Plank Road at Hawkinsville, leading towards Freeman’s Ford on the Nottoway River.

Meanwhile the Union reaction to these events was very limited.

The 2nd Cavalry Division, under Brigadier General Henry E. Davies, and Kautz, were hastily sent out after the Rebels, but they were only able to muster some 2,800 men between them. At about 2:00 P.M. Davies and his 1,200 Yankees came up against Rosser's force along the Jerusalem Plank Road. He was able to drive Rosser back about three miles before he came upon a prepared position at Belches Mill, held in force by Dearing and the four artillery pieces. Without Kautz's support, Davies did not feel strong enough to engage the Confederates and simply skirmished with them until about 8:00 P.M. 

Meanwhile Hampton was getting the cattle across the Nottoway River, moving about two miles, or so, south of Rosser's position.

Davies eventually decided to move by his right flank to try and bypass Rosser's position and intercept the retreating column, but Hampton anticipated this and during the night moved to Wilkinson's Bridge on Rowanty Creek, where he could block any Federal advance.

After driving in some of Hampton's pickets early on the morning of Saturday, September 17th, Davies learned that the cattle had been taken across the Nottoway the previous day and were therefore beyond his reach. Davies broke off the pursuit and fell back towards the Union lines at Petersburg that evening. Kautz had followed the line of Hampton's retirement but, with his undersized force, had never felt strong enough to vigorously engage the Confederate rear-guard, and so accomplished little except to scoop up some 18 head of cattle that had straggled from the captured herd.

Map showing the route taken by General Hampton's Confederate Cavalry during the Great Beefsteak Raid.
Map courtesy of the Petersburg National Battlefield NPS.

By 9 A.M. on the morning of September 17th, Hampton was back behind Confederate lines with the fresh beef for the Army of Northern Virginia's commissary. His men had captured more than 300 Union prisoners and approximately 2,486 steers (roughly about 2 million pounds of beef) for Lee's hungry troops in the Petersburg trenches.

In his after-action report to Lee, Hampton wrote: "the command returned to their old quarters after an absence of three days, during which they had marched upward of 100 miles, defeating the enemy in two fights, and bringing from his lines in safety a large amount of captured property, together with 304 prisoners. Of the 2,486 cattle captured 2,468 have been brought in, and I hope [to] get the few remaining ones. Three guidons were taken and eleven wagons brought in safely, several others having been destroyed. Three camps of the enemy were burned, after securing from them some very valuable stores, including quite a number of blankets. My loss was 10 killed, 47 wounded, and 4 missing."

It was one of the most brilliant cavalry raids of the war.

Of the raid, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln remarked with some grudging admiration, "It was the slickest piece of cattle rustling I ever heard of."

During a rather strained dinner missing a juicy beef steak, Grant was allegedly asked by one of his officers, "General, how long will it take to starve out Lee and take Richmond?" Grant removed the cigar from his mouth, studied the ash intently for a minute then quietly replied, "Forever, if you keep feeding Lee’s army with beef."

Despite the daring raid's success, its strategic impact was not as great as the large number of cattle taken might seem to indicate. For whereas the Union had the resources to replace its lost cattle, the Confederates lacked hay or grain to spare for feed. They were therefore forced to slaughter the cattle almost as soon as they had secured them. The ensuing "feast" on the Confederate side might be better described as a rush to consume the beef before it spoiled, largely because salt for preserving meat was scarce in the Confederacy.

For days afterwards, the Southerners would taunt the Yankee sentries, thanking them for all the food and inviting them over for dinner. There was so much beef available that Confederate sentries would sometimes offer it in unauthorized trades with Union sentries for certain luxury items of which the Federal soldiers had a plentiful supply, but the Confederates lacked. After the beef was eaten or spoiled, the Confederates reverted to their previous, dire food situation.

All the same at the cost of just over 60 casualties all told, Hampton had captured hundreds of Yankee troopers, embarrassed the Federal high command, and most importantly, had secured 2,468 cattle for the nearly starving Confederates in the trenches of Petersburg. It was one of the last great hurrahs for the proud Army of Northern Virginia even as Grant was already slowly tightening the noose around Petersburg and Richmond.


Sources for this article include the following:

Virginia Civil War Trails, Glory at a Gallop: Tales of the Confederate Cavalry by William Riley Brooksher and David K. Snider. Pelican Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 9781589800588.
Wade Hampton III by Robert Ackerman. University of South Carolina Press, 2007. ISBN-10: ‎ 1570036675.
Gentleman and Soldier: A Biography of Wade Hampton III by Edward G. Longacre.‎ Rutledge Hill Press, 2003. ISBN-10: 1558539646. 
Wade Hampton's Iron Scouts: Confederate Special Forces by D. Michael Thomas. The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018. ISBN: 9781467139380.

The Faces Of War -- Confederate Dead At Sharpsburg

Confederate dead on the Hagerstown Turnpike, north of the Dunker Church near
Sharpsburg, Maryland following the bloodiest single day of the War Between the States (1861-1865).
Photograph taken by Alexander Gardner courtesy of the Library of Congress.

"Before the sunlight faded, I walked over the narrow field. All around lay the Confederate dead...clad in ‘butternut'...As I looked down on the poor pinched faces...all enmity died out. There was no ‘secession' in those rigid forms nor in those fixed eyes staring at the sky. Clearly it was not their war."

       ~Private David L. Thompson, Company G, 9th New York Volunteers surveying the dead after the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam Creek), Maryland on Wednesday, September 17, 1862.

The Battle of Sharpsburg still remains America’s bloodiest single day of war, with over 24,000 casualties, including over 5,300 dead.

Never Forget!

The Star-Spangled Banner -- Poem & U.S. National Anthem

Robert McGill Mackall’s 1976 oil painting depicting Mary Young Pickersgil,
her 13 year-old daughter, Caroline, and a niece, Eliza Young, sewing the
Star-Spangled Banner, the U.S. Flag that flew over Fort McHenry
in Baltimore, Maryland during the War of 1812 (1812-1815).
Image courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society.

The Star-Spangled Banner

By Francis Scott Key

*O! say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming:
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam --
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;

'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave.
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave!

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Bless'd with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just --
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

*The highlighted first paragraph and chorus make up the U.S. National Anthem.

The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner, U.S. Flag (1795-1818).

In 1813 the United States was once again at war with Great Britain, and the city of Baltimore, Maryland was preparing for an eventual attack by the British.

U.S. Army Major George Armistead, the commander of nearby Fort McHenry near Baltimore Harbor, felt that the fort was prepared for an attack, and only lacked a suitable flag. He expressed this concern in a letter to Major General Samuel Smith, the head of the military commander for Baltimore. Armistead wrote, "We, sir, are ready at Fort McHenry to defend Baltimore against invading by the enemy. That is to say, we are ready except that we have no suitable ensign to display over the Star Fort and it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance."

It was resolved that the flag of Fort McHenry would be a garrison flag measuring and incredible 30 X 42 feet.

The seamstress commissioned by Armistead to create this large flag was a 29-year-old local widow named Mary Young Pickersgill, the sister-in-law of U.S. Navy Commodore Joshua Barney.

In early summer 1813, she began the job with the assistance of her then 13 year-old daughter, Caroline, her two nieces, Eliza Young and Margaret Young, a 13-year-old African American indentured servant, Grace Wisher, and likely her elderly mother, Rebecca Young -- another notable flag maker. Additional local seamstresses were also hired during the summer.

Pickergill's team worked 10-hour days sewing the flag, using 300 yards of English wool bunting, often working late into the evening, until midnight at times. Initially they worked from Pickergill's home, but as their work progressed they needed more room and had to move to Claggett's Brewery across the street to continue their commission. The ladies were able to complete the job in six weeks and delivered the flag to Fort McHenry on Thursday, August 19, 1813.

The giant 15-Star U.S. flag flew over Fort McHenry peacefully for a year before the fort was attacked by the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore (September 12-15, 1814).

On Tuesday, September 13, 1814, British warships fired over 1,600 cannonballs and rockets onto Fort McHenry during an often rainy day and evening for nearly 25 hours until the next morning on September 14th.

A week earlier, Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old American lawyer and amateur poet, had boarded the British flagship on the Chesapeake Bay on a mercy mission in hopes of persuading the British to release of Dr. William Beanes, a friend who had recently been arrested and was a prisoner. The British agreed to release Beanes, but both Key and Beanes were forced to stay with the British until the attack on Baltimore was over. Key watched the proceedings from a truce ship under guard on the Patapsco River eight miles away.

On the morning of the 14th, Key saw the large 15-star American flag still waving above Fort McHenry. Inspired by the sight he began jotting down verses to the poem on the back of a letter he was carrying.

His brother-in-law, commander of an American militia at Fort McHenry, later read Key's words and had it distributed under the name "Defence on Fort M'Henry." It would be was printed in the Baltimore Patriot newspaper and, within weeks, Key's immortalized words would appear in print across the country.

Key's poem was later set to the tune of a British song called "To Anacreon in Heaven", the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentleman's club of amateur musicians in London. The song eventually became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner".

On Wednesday, March 4, 1931 U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed the bill passed by the U.S. Congress the day before officially making the Star-Spangled Banner the official U.S. national anthem.

As for the famous flag itself, following the War of 1812, the original Star-Spangled Banner of Fort McHenry remained in the possession of the Armistead family though some of the flag (including one of the stars) were stripped off and given as souvenirs by Armistead's widow in memory of her husband who died in 1818 and those who fell in defense of the fort. 

One anecdotal story claims that Armistead's nephew, Confederate Brigadier General Lewis "Lo" Armistead, carried a piece of the flag in his uniform coat pocket during the War Between the States (1861-1865) until his death at the Battle of Gettysburg following Pickett's Charge on Friday, July 3, 1863.

Today the restored original Star-Spangled Banner is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-12-2021 -- The Red Star Antares & Formalhaut in the Southern Sky

Good evening fellow stargazers!

The summer of 2021 will soon be coming to a close here in the Northern Hemisphere with the arrival of the autumn equinox on Wednesday the 22nd later this month.

Here in my little corner of Dixie, the fireflies will soon disappear for the year -- as will all those loud Cicadas! -- and the sunshine will soon make way for earlier and earlier evening skies. The stars overhead in our sky dome will also change with the tilting of the Earth towards the winter constellations over the next few months.

The bright red star Antares, the summer star for the Northern Hemisphere, will continue to appear to move westward following the setting sun.

This evening Antares was close to our lovely Luna, still a day away from her first quarter phase, and I was able to capture a really good shot of this conjunction just above the tree line.

The 1st-magnitude star Antares is the brightest star in the Constellation Scorpius the Scorpion -- which unfortunately I was unable to capture being too low on the horizon at this time. Its also the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky. Antares is often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion".

The name Antares itself means "The Rival of Ares" (the Greek name for their god of war, Mars for the Romans) because of the star's distinctive red coloring and the fact its noticeably brighter in the sky dome than Mars, except for those times ever two years when the Red Planet is in close opposition to the Earth. In actuality, Mars is actually more of an orange-yellow glow, while Antares is always quite red as you can see in the photo.

Antares is a red supergiant star approximately 604 light-years from our Sun. In terms of size, Antares is about 700 times larger than our own star and about 9,000 times brighter. So big that if Antares replaced our own Sun in our Solar System, it would engulf all of the inner planets and the asteroid belt!

Yet, despite this massive size, Antares is relatively cooler than our sun. Our bright star burns as a whopping 11,000 F while Antares is somewhere around 6,500 F -- still pretty hot, but cool as far as stars go. This lower temperature is what gives Antares its distinctive red coloring.

While Antares appears as a single star when viewed with the naked eye, but it is actually a binary star, with its two components called Scorpii A and Scorpii B. The brighter of the pair is the red supergiant itself, while the fainter is a hot main sequence star.

A couple of hours later into the evening I captured a bright trio in the southeast: the two gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, along with the bright white star Foralhaut.

Fomalhaut (Alpha Piscis Austrinus) is sometimes called the Loneliest Star because it’s the only bright star in a wide stretch of sky. It's also called the Autumn Star because it appears more clearly in the southern sky in the fall months in the Northern Hemisphere. Fomalhaut certainly can be considered to be the star that announces the arrival of fall in the Northern Hemisphere because it stands out in what is otherwise a rather empty region of the autumn sky.

The 18th brightest star in the night sky, Fomalhaut is part of the faint Constellation Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish. The name Fomalhaut derives from the Arabic Fum al Hut, meaning Mouth of the Fish.

Fomalhaut is a hot bluish-white star about 25 light-years away. It’s almost twice the mass and size of our Sun, but radiates at about 17 times the Sun’s energy. Fomalhaut itself is a young star, just 440 million years old. That’s in contrast to the estimated 5 billion years for our Sun. Because Fomalhaut is hotter and brighter than our Sun, it also has a shorter life span of somewhere around 1 billion years. Stars like our Sun have life spans of about 10 billion years.

Both Antares and Fomalhaut are considered to be two of the four key stars of the night sky, sometimes referred to as the Royal Stars, or the Celestial Guardians (or "archangel stars"): Antares as Uriel, the Watcher of the West; Aldebaran representing Michael, the Watcher of the East; Fomalhaut representing Gabriel, the Watcher of the South; and Regulus as Raphael, the Watcher of the North.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos and presentation. Please let me know in the comments below and, as always, have a wonderful Dixie Day and y'all keep your eyes to the night skies, ya hear!

Remembering 9-11 -- 20 Years Later

The now iconic image of firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Billy Eisengrein raising the
U.S. Flag at Ground Zero in New York City after the deadly terror attacks on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
The scene was immortalized by photographer Thomas E. Franklin of The Record newspaper of
Bergen County, New Jersey.

Twenty years ago today on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, radical Islamic militants carried out the deadliest foreign terrorist attack on American soil to date. 19 Al-Queda militants hijacked 4 American airliners. It was the date of the deadliest foreign attacks on the United States since the Imperial Japanese bombing of the U.S Naval Stations at Pearl Harbor during World War II.

Two of the airliners were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center trapping people in the 110 story buildings unable to escape. Within a couple of hours the towers both collapsed and covered New York City in smoke and debris, killing not only those trapped inside the towers but also many of the police and emergency service personal that arrived to help rescue wounded civilians.

The third hijacked plane hit the Pentagon building in Washington D.C. while the 4th crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, another potential attack on D.C. that was thwarted by the passengers themselves who sacrificed their lives.

Nearly 3,000 people, including citizens from 78 countries, died that day. Thousands more were wounded and the families of those who perished would never be the same again.

Our world would be changed forever.

World Trade Center: 2,763 Killed (including 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 police officers, 37 port authority personal, and the 87 people aboard American Airlines Flights 11 & the 60 people aboard United Airlines Flight 175).

The Pentagon: 189 Killed (including the 64 people aboard American Airlines Flight 77).

United Airlines Flight 93: 40 Killed among the passengers and crew.

Every year on September 11th, America honors Patriots Day in memory those who lost their lives during this day of national tragedy. Their memories will never be forgotten.

Every year on September 11th New York City lights up two towers of light to mark the spot where
the World Trade Towers both stood in the city's skyline.

(*It should be noted that none of these figures include the dishonorable 19 al-Queda terrorist hijackers that this blogger feels do not deserve to be remembered among the honored dead.)

Celebrating the 55th Anniversary Of Star Trek -- 1966 To Present

This historic moment took place on a recreation of the original Enterprise bridge at Destination Star Trek 2016 in
Birmingham, UK. Star Trek alumni from all five major television series, as well as several of the major motion
pictures and guests gathered for this group photo.
Shown here are: William Shatner (James T. Kirk --TOS) is seated in the captain’s chair,
 George Takei (Hikaru Sulu -- TOS) at the helm, and Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov -- TOS) at navigation,
Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi - TNG), Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax -- DS9), Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed -- ENT),
Armin Shimerman (Quark - DS9), Alice Krige (The Borg Queen - ST First Contact), Chase Masterson (Leeta -- DS9),
Connor Trinneer (Charles "Trip" Tucker III -- ENT), Max Grodenchik (Rom -- DS9),
Jeffrey Combs (Shran -- ENT/Weyoun -- DS9), Nicole de Boer (Ezri Dax -- DS9),
Casey Biggs (Damar -- DS9), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim - VOY), Greg Grunberg (ST - 2009),
along with Leonard Nimoy’s son Adam Nimoy, and Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden.

Photo courtesy of Destination Star Trek and Fandomcons.com.