Good evening fellow stargazers, and happy September equinox, y'all!
Well, the summer here in South Carolina has come and gone, and the autumn season has finally arrived. With it comes shorter days and longer nights, as well as the start of the six week countdown to Halloween (October 31st) -- the highlight of this season for your favorite blogger!
Longer nights also means better opportunities for night sky and early evening photography of interesting stellar activities in the sky dome. Fall conditions are also usually mean less cloudy evenings here in the Carolinas than in the summer months and tropical storm season winding down.
Just after midnight on Sunday, September 22nd -- the official first day of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring for my readers south of the Equator -- I was able to capture two really beautiful shots of the Waning Gibbous Moon and the Pleiades Star Cluster just between the trees.
The Pleiades (or "Seven Sisters") can be seen as a tiny dipper of stars located near the Constellation Taurus the Bull. The open cluster is about 444 light-years (or, 136 parsecs) from our Sun, making it the closest star cluster to our Solar System. The Pleiades are just barely visible in the night sky to the naked eye under certain conditions; but its much easier to see with a really good telescope, a pair of binoculars, or in my case a 35X optical zoom camera lens.
Fortunately the moon had yet to pass in front of the Pleiades, and wouldn't for at least three more hours, and so I was able to capture all of the brightest stars of the cluster just outside of the lunar glare.
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos and hopefully I'll be able to bring y'all some more as this autumn season progresses. Till next time have a wonderful Dixie evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, fellow stargazers!
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