Night Sky Photography -- 10-11-2018 -- The Young Moon, Jupiter & Antares

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

This evening I was able to get a wonderful pair of shots at dusk in the middle of my hometown of Chester of the Young Crescent Moon with the planet Jupiter beside the Chester City Hall building on Main Street. The shot faces west right above the stoplights at the corner of Main Street (SC HWY 72) and Pinckney Streets (SC HWY 9). 

The first is the wide shot, and the second the close up. Both of them were taken about a half hour, or so, after sunset.

Also included in the photos is the bright star, Antares. 

Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky, and the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. Antares is flanked by the stars Sigma and Tau Scorpii in the center of the constellation.

The constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion.
Antares "the heart of the scorpion" is the bright star
in the upper part of the
constellation.

Well, I hope y'all enjoyed how well these photos came out, and as always it is my pleasure to share them with y'all. Hope to have some more wonderful evening photos for y'all soon, until then keep looking to the night skies, y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 09-02-2018 -- Jupiter & Moons, Mars & Venus

Good evening to all my fellow stargazers!

This evening about one hour after sunset at dusk two beautiful wanderers and two bright stars appeared out of the western sky. Venus and Spica, the brightest star in the Constellation Virgo closer to the western horizon, with Jupiter and Zubenelgenubi, the main star of the constellation Libra, following them higher in the western sky.  

Jupiter and Venus appeared first. I took a good closeup of Jupiter and once again captured three of the four Jovian Moons: Io, Ganymede and Europa. Soon the two bright stars appeared and I captured these images of Jupiter and Venus with their new evening companions.

One final shot I took was a beautiful shot of Mars rising in the eastern sky. Because its orbit is still closer to Earth for the next couple of months, Mars still appears larger in the sky and continues to shine brightly as the summer winds down towards autumn.

I hope y'all enjoyed these photos. Have a wonderful evening and keep looking to the night skies, y'all! 

In Memory of Silent Sam and Civility

In Memory of Silent Sam and Civility

By C.W. Roden ~ The Man Deniers Fear The Most

I remember a time when this country I love as dearly as I love any member of my family, and second only to the love I have for my Lord and Savior, believed in the idea of civility. 

Even though we shared different viewpoints, different backgrounds, different views of American identity; at the very least, despite out differences, we were united enough as a nation to respect that the other person deserved the right to be counted and heard as a fellow American.

I can even remember being a boy in the 1980s and literally seeing Hands Across America, literally people of all backgrounds across this nation joining together to achieve at least the semblance of a united country.

Today, the memory of that degree of unity and civility seems like it happened on another planet, or part of a idealistic dream. I know that as a kid I probably saw things with rose-colored glasses, that we were no more united as a nation then as we are today politically and socially. All the same acts of vandalism, wanton destruction, and the denigration of our fellow Americans memories were not the cultural norm then.

Sometime in the evening hours of Monday, August 20th, a mob of regressives and intolerant anti-Confederate heritage reactionaries at the University of North Carolina campus toppled the famous Confederate statue "Silent Sam" from the base of its monument. 

Silent Sam was built and unveiled on June 2, 1913 in memory of nearly a thousand student volunteers from the historic college who fought in defense of North Carolina and the independence of the Confederate States during the War Between The States (1861-1865). This historic monument depicts a single young soldier, perhaps in his late teens, standing vigil with a rifle in his hand in uniform. 

The destruction of the statue itself is sad, but far from unexpected given the climate of hate and Confederaphobic bigotry that has been created in the wake of the tragic events just over a year ago in Charlottesville, Virginia. Events triggered not by statues or by historical figures as some would wrongly claim -- monuments that have stood in some cases for over a century without creating anger, but by less-than-honorable people who seek to tear this country apart into mobs driven by identity politics and base unchecked emotion, without the benefit of God-given common sense or reason.

The actions of these radicals and regressive haters posing as "anti-racists" is no less hateful than the very people carrying tiki-torches through Charlottesville the year before. Thankfully the only thing knocked over was a statue that can be repaired and not a living person....this time around. 

The destruction of the historic monument is a tragedy for Southern culture, for American identity itself. Even more tragic that it was committed by people who feel that America was never a nation worth honoring. People who believe, or were taught to think, that the heroes of our past do not deserve the respect their elders showed the people who came before them. 

Today we live in a nation where disrespect to the heroes who fought our country's wars, both past and present, is the new normal. It does not matter if those acts include: tearing up statues and grave markers, removing flags, kneeling at football games, censoring the free speech guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, or denying service to people in stores, restaurants, and public places. 

All of the above are not only accepted by people in America today, but such acts are even encouraged by people who feel that those who oppose their dissatisfaction with this country, its history, and its identity as it still exists today do not even deserve to have a voice. 

People who see the denial of the very human dignity of their fellow Americans itself as a virtue.

Tonight I do not weep for Silent Sam, he can be repaired -- and God willing (not to mention the NC Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy) he will be! -- but I do weep for this country that has fallen so far from a generation that once fought fascism, to a nation where some of this generation choose to embrace it in one form or another. 

Pray for this country of ours. God Bless Y'all. 

Born and raised in Caldwell County, John Thomas Jones was a student at the University of North Carolina when he enlisted in the Orange Light Infantry in April 1861. This company became part of the 1st Regiment North Carolina Volunteers a six-month regiment, and fought in the first significant land battle of the war at Big Bethel, Virginia on June 10, 1861. Following the dismissal of the regiment in November 1861, Jones returned home to help raise the "Caldwell Guards" which became Company I, 26th Regiment N. C. Troops. He would rise through the ranks to Captain of the company, and by the time Gettysburg came around he was Major. He in fact commanded the 26th NC during the third days charge. He was promoted to Lt. Col. following Gettysburg and was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May of 1864. When told that his wound was mortal he said that "it can't be as I was meant to accomplish more." He was one of the 287 former students of UNC that the memorial was dedicated to in 1913. He was a hero.

Night Sky Photography -- 08-04-2018 -- Venus In The Evening

Good evening, y'all!

This evening I managed to get a really beautiful shot of bright Venus in the western sky not long after sunset. The power-lines across the road made for a nice foreground.

Have a wonderful evening and keep looking to the night skies, y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 07-27-2018 -- Full Moon & Mars...With Summer Lightning Storms!

This evening while waiting to get a photo of the full moon with Mars -- now currently in its closest opposition to Earth -- I was watching the eastern sky hoping that the storm clouds would pass and allow a good photo of Luna and the Red Planet from over the treetops. 

 

I was a bit concerned that the clouds would obstruct the view, and unfortunately I didn't quite catch either the planet and the moon rising, I did manage to catch several beautiful shots of lightning in the summer storm clouds. 

Eventually both the full moon and Mars did emerge from the eastern sky and this blogger was able to catch a good shot, along with an excellent close-up of the full moon. The July full moon is also known as the Buck Moon -- to signify the new antlers that emerge on deer buck's foreheads around this time -- and the Thunder Moon appropriate given the storms that preceded it this evening.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed these photos. As always it is my pleasure to post them here for your enjoyment. Have a wonderful Dixie evening and always remember to keep looking to the night skies, y'all!