Night Sky Photography -- 07-19-2022 -- The Last Quarter Moon, Mars, Jupiter & Moons

Good morning fellow stargazers!

Very early this morning -- or late last night depending on your perspective -- at about 3:30 AM EST, we were blessed with mercifully clear skies between the summer thunderstorms we've been getting here in South Carolina all July.

Granted these off-and-on rain showers are good for the plants, and certainly are a welcome relief from the hot summer we've been having this year (at least until the sun comes out after and it turns very muggy!), but they do make stargazing and planet watching a major pain.

Thankfully, the early morning sky was very clear and I was about to capture some really great shots of two of our planetary neighbors: Mars and Jupiter with our lovely Luna in her Last Quarter phase.

In one of the photos I was about to capture both planets and our moon along with the four brightest Galilean Moons just barely visible with Jupiter. Both the moon and Mars are visible between the gap in the trees.

As you can see in the close-up of Jupiter, the four Galilean Moon: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, appear as small bright dots, or smudges.

Jupiter actually has a whopping 80 known moons and satellites in its orbit, though the four Galilean moons are by far the largest and most visible with a good camera lens, telescope, or pair of binoculars.

Io, the third largest of the four moons discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610, is the closest moon to Jupiter, while Europa -- which is just barely visible and almost blocked from view in transition to Jupiter --  is both the smallest of these four moons and the sixth-closest to the gas giant planet.

Ganymede, the seventh-closest moon to Jupiter, is the largest and most massive of our Solar System's moons -- the ninth-largest object in the Solar System including our Sun. Callisto, the farthest of the four large moons, is the second-largest moon of Jupiter and the third-largest moon in the Solar System.

My final two shots show our own lovely moon at the end of her Last Quarter phase -- the Last Quarter Moon for July 2022 was actually at its peak in the afternoon of the previous day, and Luna is actually beginning to wane as it moves closer to the meet the sunrise in the eastern sky.

You can see the moon and Mars through the branches of the trees. The Red Planet lives up to its nickname as the rust-covered planet appears to be a bright orange-red in the early morning sky. Beautiful sight to behold if you know where to look.

Well I hope that y'all enjoyed my planetary photographs and presentation. Let me know what you think in the comments below and, as always, have a lovely Dixie Day from South Carolina and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- Closest Supermoon Of The Year!

On Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the closest Full Supermoon to appear in our night sky this year was approximately 222,089 miles (or 357,418 km) from the Earth.

The July full moon is also know as the Full Buck Moon in North America because of this is about the time that male deer's antlers are in full growth according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.

Tonight's supermoon -- also known as the Full Buck Supermoon -- was the third of four that will appear in the night sky throughout the summer months this year.

The following are the photos I took of the Full Buck Supermoon.

The first one is the close up of the Full Supermoon with all the features of the Man On The Moon clearly visible to the naked eye. In the second photo you can see that the moon does not appear closer on visual inspection.

The moonlight in the somewhat cloudy sky -- it had been raining earlier and I was worried I wouldn't be able to take a proper photo -- does reflect the light beautifully in almost a rainbow colored pattern. Nearby is the bright star, Altair, the brightest star in the Constellation Aquila the Eagle and the twelfth-brightest star in our night sky.

Funny Squirrel Memes.....Just Because

My Southern Hometown's Resident Union Soldier -- Private Charles F. Emerson, 15th Maine Infantry USA

The recently cleaned headstone of
Private Charles F. Emerson,
Co. G, 15th Maine Infantry Regiment, USA.
The only Union veteran buried among Confederate
soldiers in Evergreen Cemetery in
Chester, South Carolina.

Every year on the morning of the Fourth of July, I preform a solemn and important duty that I've continued for half my life. I travel into my hometown of Chester, South Carolina and visit the city's Elmwood Cemetery and arrive at the Confederate soldiers' section near the back of the cemetery.

Four rows of small, white granite markers stand as quiet testament of the town's role in the last year of the War Between the States (1861-1865) as an important railroad depot. The bodies of dead Confederate soldiers were unloaded from hospital trains and buried here in the final months of the War.

With the exception of three of the graves, all of them are marked simply with the words: Unknown Soldier CSA.

As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a resident Guardian, my volunteer duty is to check on and help maintain the graves of these men. These duties include cleaning the headstones at least once a year and ensuring that the graves are honored properly on certain occasions.

As always, on the Fourth of July, I arrive to place a new Confederate battle flag, or South Carolina State Flag, at the base of the grave monument in front of the section, usually replacing an old, faded one.

I walk among the grave stones, taking the time to check them over and determine the next time to clean them, or brush off bird droppings -- and then I come to the last row and one grave in particular.

Unlike the other men and boys buried at the site, the young man buried in this plot did not wear the hallowed gray and butternut of the Confederate citizen soldier, but rather the dark blue of the Union army that fought against these men during that terrible conflict.

Like all the others, I check the large and beautifully carved old granite headstone over, then I kneel down and replace an old, faded U.S. Flag with a newer one -- the only grave in the section that flies the Stars and Stripes.

Private Charles F. Emerson of the 15th Maine Infantry Regiment USA is not the only former Union soldier buried in the cemetery, but he is the only one buried in a section reserved for his former enemies, far from the State of his birth.

The story of how he came to be here is very interesting and it begins in the first year of the American Civil War.

The Confederate graves section of Evergreen Cemetery in Chester, South Carolina.
Private Emerson's gravestone is the only one decorated with a 35-Star U.S. Flag every year on
Confederate Memorial Day (May 10th) by members of the local United Daughters of the Confederacy
(UDC). His grave is located third from the left in the back row and the tallest and oldest headstone.

The 15th Maine Infantry Regiment was organized in Augusta, Maine in December of 1861 and its members mustered into Union service on Thursday, January 23, 1862, originally for a three-year enlistment. Nearly all of the regiment's members came from Kennebec County in the southern part of the state. Its commander throughout the war was Colonel Issac Dyer.

Charles Emerson of Pittstone, Maine, then only just turned 15 years old, joined Company G of the regiment alongside his twin brother, George F. Emerson. Both brothers served in the regiment throughout its various campaigns during the War Between The States.

The regiment was attached to Union Major General Benjamin F. Butler's New Orleans Expeditionary Corps from January to March 1862. Then later served in the  Department of the Gulf and District of West Florida in 1862 and during the Red River Campaign in the Trans-Mississippi theater and fought at the Battle of Sabine Crossroads (Mansfield) on Friday, April 8, 1864. Three months later the regiment served in the Eastern theater during the Battle of Fort Stevens on July 11-12, 1864, and then in the Army of the Shenandoah in April 1865. The 15th Maine served on provost duty during the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C. on May 23 - 24, 1865.

By the end of the war, the 15th Maine lost 348 men (including 3 officers) in the course of the War -- only 5 actually killed by combat-related deaths with the rest lost due to disease and illness.

Following the war's end, the 15th Maine was assigned to occupation duty in South Carolina and assigned to duty in the areas of Chester, Union, Lancaster, York, Cherokee, and Spartanburg Counties in the upstate area. The 15th Maine would serve here for a year before the regiment was formally discharged and mustered out of service on Thursday, July 5, 1866.

It was during this year of Southern occupation duty that Company G would have one final death.

Private Charles F. Emerson, who served four years in the War, died in Chester County on Wednesday, March 14, 1866. He was only 19 years old. The cause of death is listed in local historical records simply as "lung fever" (possibly pneumonia).

He was buried in a plot in Chester's Evergreen Cemetery where dozens of Confederate soldiers were buried by his brother, George, and comrades of the 15th Maine. The only Federal soldier buried on site and, at the time, the only Civil War soldier buried with a proper granite headstone.

The reason for this was that the Confederate soldiers, most of them having been wounded and died in transit on train and unloaded at the local train depot a mile from the cemetery at the time, were hastily buried in the plot and given wooden headboards. These wooden headboards were later maliciously used by occupying Union soldiers for firewood, or simply left to rot.

Because of a fire at the Chester City Hall around the turn of the century, the records identifying these men and boys in gray were lost to history. Later small stone markers listen simply with "C.S.A." were set to identify the locations of the graves.

Aside from Private Emerson, only one 86 year-old Confederate Veteran -- Private William Greene Parker, Co. G, Cobb's Legion Georgia Volunteers, who died in 1911 and asked to be buried with his former comrades -- had a proper headstone for a long time.

Private Charles F. Emerson and his twin brother, George F. Emerson, are listed on the roll of volunteers
who served in Co. G, 15th Maine Infantry Regiment USA. Emerson's death in 1866 is listed as "Died In
Service" the last member of the company to die before the unit was disbanded.
Images courtesy of the Maine State Archives

In 1994, after a couple of years of work, members of the Walker-Gaston Camp #86 Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) along with the local Boy Scouts Troop, installed proper U.S. government issued headstones for the Confederate veterans buried at the cemetery, replacing the former small stone markers. These new granite stones all bear the words: Unknown Soldier CSA.

Organizations like the Sons of Confederate Veterans continue to search for information in State archives to identify the rest of the soldiers in the Confederate section of Evergreen Cemetery to this day. To date only one of these veterans has been positively identified and a proper stone laid by the SCV in 2003.

Private Charles F. Emerson is buried in the upper left row of gravestones, his century-and-a-half marker is the tallest of the 56 graves in the section, and the only one marked with a U.S. Flag on Federal holidays and Confederate Memorial Day (May 10th in South Carolina).

His headstone reads:

In Memory Of
CHARLES F. EMERSON
of Pittstone, Maine.
A member of Co. G. 15th Maine
Vet. Vols. Who after service of
more than four years in
the United States Army Died at
Chester, SC. March 14th, 1866.
Aged 19 years 7 months
----
Comrade sleep thy work is done
Hope we lay thee down to rest
All thy days of toil are gone
And they art now forever blest.

A small U.S. government issued marker was also added by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to the grave of Private Emerson in front of his headstone in 1994. This marker has a Christian cross and is inscribed:

Charles F. Emerson
Pvt. Co. G 15 Maine Inf.
Civil War
Nov. 23, 1846    Mar. 14, 1866

A more modern granite marker honoring Private Emerson was
placed on site by the Walker-Gaston Camp #86 Sons of
Confederate Veterans (SCV) in 1994.
Note the 36-Star U.S. Flag -- the Union flag in 1866 at the time
of Private Emerson's death.

In doing research for this article, I wanted to discover if I could find the grave of Private Emerson's twin brother, George, who survived the war and returned to their home state of Maine.

What I found was quite interesting.

Private George F. Emerson is buried under a monument in Whitefield Cemetery in the town of Whitefield, Lincoln County, Maine. He died in 1897, aged 51 years.

On his monument is also included the name of his twin, which reads:

CHAS. F. EMERSON
Born A.D. 1846
Died at Chester
S.C. A.D. 1865

The grave of Private George F. Emerson,
twin brother of Charles F. Emerson, in
Whitefield Cemetery, Whitefield, Maine.
Photo courtesy of Find-A-Grave.com.

A family connection between hundreds of miles and two men buried in two different American States, but still remembered together in stone.

Every year on U.S. Memorial Day and the Fourth of July Chester County's resident Yankee soldier, Private Charles Emerson, receives a new U.S. flag.

Though he was a member of an invading Federal army that fought against my own Confederate ancestors, he is also a young man buried far from the place he was born and barely had time to grow up in. Anyone who had a family member who went away to war and never came home cannot help but feel for that.

More so, he was an American veteran in my eyes and deserves to be honored no less than the other Southern veterans he was buried with. Respecting his grave yearly with the flag of the country he fought for is no chore for me.

Lest We Forget.


A special thanks to the following for the information contained in this article:
The Chester County (SC) Historical Society, the Maine State Archives online, and Find-A-Grave.com.
Other sources include: The Story of the Maine Fifteenth by Henry H. Shorey (1890) Pages 217-218.
All photographs in the article were taken by the author, except where noted.

Earth Farthest Away From The Sun On July 4th!

Today is Independence Day here in the United States, also known as the Fourth of July; the day that we celebrate the ratification of the Declaration of Independence on Thursday, July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the Second Continental Congress.

Since the Fourth of July is a national holiday in the U.S., most Americans have the day off work today and enjoy various summer activities and patriotic displays on this day; all under the blazing heat of the early summer sunshine here in the Northern Hemisphere.

From an astronomical point-of-view, the 4th day of July marks another important yearly milestone that affects the planet as a whole.

On Monday, July 4, 2022, at approximately 3:10 AM EST, our Earth reached its farthest point in orbit -- or its aphelion -- from the Sun at approximately 94,509,598 miles (or 152,098,455 km).

Its pretty trippy to realize that, during summer time here in the Northern Hemisphere, the blazing hot sun we see in the daytime sky is actually farther away from the Earth than at any other time during the year!

How is this possible?

Well folks, the answer to that question is that it isn't not so much our distance from the sun that determines how warm the summer months are on Earth, rather its both the orbit of our planet and the tilt of our world’s axis that causes our planet's four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and autumn.

Our amazing planet Earth orbits our Sun in a counterclockwise direction at an average distance of 93 million miles (or 149.6 million kilometers) speeding along in an orbit at about 67,000 miles (or 110,000 kilometers) per hour, or 19 miles (30 km) per second. One complete orbit takes around 365.25 days (or 1 sidereal year), during which time Earth travels about 584 million miles (or 940 million km).

Our Earth moves around the Sun at an average distance of 93 million miles (or 149,668,992 km) in an elliptical orbit that, while circular, is not entirely an even circle. Because of this at a single point six months (or 180 days) apart from one another the Earth reaches a point where it is farther and closer to the Sun in its orbit. The closest point is referred to as perihelion, while the furthest point is referred to as aphelion.

Both the perihelion and the aphelion take place roughly about half a month following the winter and summer solstice every year.

On Tuesday, January 4, 2022, earlier this year, the Earth reached its closest point (perihelion) to the Sun at approximately 1:52 AM EST at about 91,406,842 miles (or 147,105,052.7 km).

Now then, let's talk about the axis of the Earth as it relates to the yearly orbit of the planet.

Earth spins as it revolves around the sun on a polar axis that is tilted approximately 23.4 degrees on its plane of its orbit, which places one hemisphere facing the Sun during the summer months for each hemisphere. In winter, your part of Earth is tilted away from the sun. In summer, your part of Earth is tilted toward the sun. The day of maximum tilt toward, or away from the sun is during the December or June solstice.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer months range from the solstice on June 21/22 till the equinox on September 21/22 every year. By contrast, in the Southern Hemisphere, the situation is reversed with the summer months there serving as the winter months here in the Northern Hemisphere (the solstice on December 21/22 to the equinox on March 21/22).

The elliptical path the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit that we see here on the surface of the Earth is referred to as the Ecliptic plane. From our perspective here on Earth the Sun seems to move during the six months between solstice and equinox, rising and setting in different locations along the lines of latitude.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun's most northerly circle overhead in the sky occurs on the June solstice when it reaches the Tropic of Cancer (Northern Tropic) line of latitude when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun to its maximum northern extent.

By contrast, its Southern Hemisphere counterpart is the Tropic of Capricorn (Southern Tropic) line where the Sun reaches its furthest southern extent during the December solstice.

Graphic depicting the summer and winter solstice in North America and the position of the Earth
tilt in its orbit of the Sun.

The line between the middle of the Sun and Earth models represents the ecliptic plane during the
June and December solstice along the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

So while everyone here in the U.S. is currently enjoying summer and the Fourth of July holiday today, this blog's readers across the Earth in Australia, New Zealand, and other places below the Equator are enjoying their winter months, with autumn and spring respectively waiting just two months, or so, for each.

Meanwhile anyone living above the Arctic Circle will be enjoying close to six months of continuous sunlight, while anyone living below the Antarctic Circle is currently living in nearly six months of dark night skies.

Another example of just how strange and wonderful our planet and its place in the Solar System is, and how it effects our daily (and yearly) lives.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed this presentation and have a wonderful day today wherever you are -- and for all my fellow Americans, Happy 4th of July, Y'all!