Planetary conjunction

Okay this might not look like much here, but it was visually stunning yesterday evening just after sunset. The crescent Moon, lined up near Venus and Jupiter. I got out my camera and tried to capture the majesty, without much success.

Here’s the moon using the 200mm lens on my real estate camera. The conjunction was pretty spectacular in real life, but if you missed it, you’ll just have to use your imagination, perhaps. Using my telescope, you could plainly see several moons of Jupiter lined up in the same plane as the Earth’s Moon. And Luna herself was amazing with the light giving sharp detail to the massive craters. It was a nice evening for stargazing. I bought this 4″ Meade Newtonian reflecting telescope from an unemployed mortgage broker for $50 (no joke). Too bad I can’t hook the camera up to it (yet).


Appropriate to the setting, we have a rare live recording from the Schreder Planetarium of Craig Padilla’s Night Rain, originally from the album Eye of the Storm. This was recorded under the stars, under the dome a few years back. This 7 minute piece features a pyrotechnic guitar solo by Al Mires, now proprietor of Palo Cedro’s Music Max music store (Remember to shop locally folks). And Craig plays acoustic electric guitar here, no less. I think this recording was released only as a cassette prior to this, so I hope you enjoy it.