Monday Meme: Cat Dracula

Night Sky Photography -- 10-16-2025 -- Jupiter With The Twins

Late this evening I captured this great shot of the giant planet Jupiter rising in the eastern sky with the largest stars of the Constellation Gemini stars Castor and Pollux, with all the major stars of the nearby Constellations Orion The Hunter and Taurus The Bull nearby. The planet Jupiter, the fifth planet of our Solar System, will remain close to the bright star Pollux for the remaining months of 2025 so you won't have trouble locating it.

A very important fact for all you amateur stargazers. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 21st, the Orionids Meteor Shower will be at its peak and anywhere between 10 to 30 meteors can be spotted an hour. You can best spot them in the space between the Constellation Orion near Betelgeuse and the Constellation Gemini.

Monday Meme: The Silence Of The Oompa Loompas

Night Sky Photography -- 10-09/10-2025 -- Luna Occults The Seven Sisters In The Eastern Sky

Greetings fellow stargazers! 

On the evening of Thursday, October 9th, the waning gibbous moon occulted (passed in front of) the Pleiades Star Clusters, also known as the "Seven Sisters" cluster just before midnight. 

In my first shot I was able to capture a really good shot between the trees of the eastern sky with the brightest nearby stars of the three closest constellations: Taurus, Aquila, and Perseus. I also labeled the approximate location of the planet Uranus, which is currently close to the Pleiades as viewed from Earth, but unfortunately too far away to see with the naked eye.

My second shot is the close-up of our lovely Luna occulting the brightest stars of the miniature dipper that makes up the Pleiades. I was able to capture the remaining "Seven Sisters" well despite the bright moon glare.

My final photo was taken over an hour later in the early hours of Friday, October 10th showing Luna and all of the Pleiades very close together once the Moon moved away in its orbit going eastward.

Overall I believe all of the photos came out very well. Let me know what y'all think in the comments below, and as always have a wonderful evening.

Little Chickadees Visiting My Feeders

Hello y'all!

The beautiful little Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) are probably one of my favorite backyard visitors to my feeders. The closer we get to winter, the more of them will begin to arrive in groups.

These tiny visitors are very common throughout the American Southland, and are not to be confused with their more Northern and Canadian cousins, the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) although the two species are known to crossbreed in places where their ranges overlap in North America.

The following are the photos I took of these birds over the first week of October of this year.