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Tag Archives: astronomy

The Moon, Saturn, Mars and Spika

Monday, August 4, 2014

Taking the garbage out to the can, I looked up. The sun has just gone down. The western horizon was still bathed in daylight. The sky overhead was a darker blue. I walked out into the middle of the street. From there I could see the crescent moon. The moon, making its backwards way along […]

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PanSTARRS

Friday, March 15, 2013

1. Look In The West There was something beeping in my pocket — a faint, hard-to-hear sound, like a vague reminder of something I’ve forgotten to do. I snapped out of my fajita-taco-consuming euphoria and pulled out my phone. “Look in the west,” Susan said, “the comet it’s…” And the connection dropped. I walked around the […]

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The Girl In Pink

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

I talked to the fourth graders yesterday–something I’ve done from time to time over the years. “This is Mr. Hasan,” Eric said to his students. “His son was in my class. In fact I am responsible for him breaking his arm when he fell on the soccer field.” Eric illuminated Ben’s life years ago. He […]

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Welder’s Glass

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

It had been a long afternoon. Dog #2 and I were … tired. She was snoozing by the front door inside the house. I was snoozing outside in a chair with a calculus book falling into my lap. The sun was getting low in the west, shining in my eyes, but they were drooping, and […]

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Remarkable Sky

Monday, December 19, 2011

Thousands of feet below the Southwest Airlines 737, there’s an endless blanket of billowing cloud tops. And there’s a thin sliver of pink in the eastern sky. The sun is rising. Day is coming soon. To the west, the full moon is setting, just now coming out of eclipse. I dash from one side of the […]

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Full Moon and Someday Rain

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The full moon rides across a cloudless sky, closer and bigger and brighter than it has been for 20 years, casting shadows of budding branches on the ground. The wind blows thru the branches, shaking the shadows, making the wind chimes chime. Maybe someday it will rain.

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Missed Conjunction

Sunday, October 31, 2010

I missed the moon passing in front of Jupiter about a week or so ago. I had been watching for weeks as the new moon’s crescent waxed, and it approached brightly shining Jupiter along the ecliptic from the west. I had been watching night by night as the distance narrowed. And I was looking forward […]

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