Night Sky Photography -- 12-28-2022 -- Mercury & Venus Conjunction In Southwestern Sky

Good evening fellow stargazers!

Well my friends, the year 2022 AD is just about over and this one is going to be my final planetary/night sky photography of the year.

Oh don't worry, there will be plenty more outstanding photographs of the planets, stars, and heavenly events appearing in the sky dome over my corner of South Carolina coming up next year as well. Our beautiful night sky never fails to offer something wonderful if you know where to look for it.

For my final planetary photography of the year, its only fitting that the following shots take place just after sunset in the southwestern sky where I was able to capture two lovely photos of the conjunction of the inner planets Mercury and Venus.

As you can see tiny Mercury is about 1.4 degrees northeast of Venus (about three full moons apart) appearing about 35 minutes after sunset.

Mercury and Venus will remain close on Thursday, December 29th also, but they won’t be this close again until 2024 and then they’ll be too close to the sun to see without a telescope and a filter, so try not to miss it tomorrow night if y'all want to see it for yourselves.

Well, I hope that y'all enjoyed my photographs, and not just the ones today. Its my pleasure to post these humble night sky offerings and share my love for amateur astronomy to you my readers and fellow night sky enthusiasts across this wonderful world of ours. I hope to be able to continue to do so for a long time to come.

Until next time I want to wish all of y'all a very Happy New Year!

Town of Lowrys Christmas Parade 2022 -- Celebrating 40 years!

 

Once again your favorite blogger once again took part in the annual Town of Lowrys Christmas Parade, the largest Christmas Parade in upstate South Carolina that showcases the rural heritage of this part of the state.

This year marked the 40th anniversary of the first Town of Lowrys Christmas Parade, which has been an annual tradition in Chester County, South since 1982. This year's parade featured over 350 entries with horse-drawn carts, tractor-drawn floats, rodeo performers, Christmas decorated tractors and farm animals, and lots of family friendly themed floats. One of the largest gatherings since the parade's founding.

As usual I joined fellow members of the 3rd Brigade, South Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans on their tractor-drawn float. Again my thanks to the members of the Brigadier General Micah Jenkins Camp #1569 for sponsoring the float in the parade.

I was honored to help decorate the float and then be in the parade with them passing out candy to eager children (and equally eager adults) watching the parade.

The following are the photos I took of the parade, both before and during.

Float sponsored by the Brigadier General Micah Jenkins Camp.

A nice Grinchy couple.

The front of the parade coming back around the loop.

I had to jump off a moment and get a shot of the float in the
parade itself on the return loop.

 

 

And that my friends and fellow travelers concludes the 40th Anniversary Town of Lowrys Christmas Parade 2022. It was a wonderful turnout and everyone left pleased by their experience -- especially the kids who probably got more candy than they did during Halloween less than two months before.

For all of my readers and visitors to this blog across this wonderful world of ours, I'd like to wish all of y'all a safe, happy, and a very Merry Christmas 2022!