Starship Asterisk*

Pink clouds. From the east, to the west.

Well, probably your night but definitely my day ...

A pretty ordinary DSLR snapshot, through a 300mm lens and black polymer filter, of the Sun about half an hour before Earth's perihelion for 2015 (just showing Active Region 2253):

A widdle cloud looking so all alone in the cold clear sky, as it was passing by. Then Behold, it split in two. Now it's got company.

A follow up on my comment about possums on Nov 24 ...

A few days after the possum and I scared each other, I noticed a large bird's nest of coarse sticks at the top of the gum tree in my backyard. This tree -- a small-fruited grey gum -- is about 20 metres tall, the tallest thing around for a few hundred metres and is much favoured by a wide variety of native birds. I figured it must be a crow's nest as there had recently been a lot of crows around making lots of noise. I was a bit annoyed, as of all the native birds, noisy bloody crows are not my favourites. And I feared they had scared away the wonderful family of warbling magpies that have become friends with me and my family.

Then, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve eve, I was awoken by a terrible screech and then a loud barrage of crow noises that just wouldn't stop. After about twenty minutes of this, I got up, grabbed a torch (i.e. flashlight) and went outside, shining the torch at the top of the tree. I didn't see anything, but I heard a flurry of wings as the crows all fled immediately. Problem solved, I went back to bed in the quiet night. Next morning, at the base of the tree, I saw a fallen bird's nest of tightly woven, fine twigs and black feathers, and a few broken fragments of browny-black speckled eggshell, which I later identified as crow eggs. Looking up, I saw the coarse nest of sticks was still there. Maybe it wasn't a bird's nest ... that screech in the night had sounded like a possum. Sure enough, the internet informed me that (rounded-eared, white-tip-tailed) ringtail possums do not invade our houses like (pointed-eared, dark-tailed, arguably cuter) brushtail possums do. Instead, ringtail possums build robust nests (called dreys) of sticks and leaves in gum trees and sleep there during the day, sometimes as a family. Possums are very territorial and ringtails will build a few different dreys spread across their territory, in case any are hijacked by birds, or otherwise destroyed. (One needs a reliable place to sleep after a hard night of raiding suburban vegetable gardens.) It appears now that the crows had built a nest in the possum's drey, and the possum had decided it was time to evict the crows. I've not seen the crows since, but all the other natives are back now. I still haven't seen any possums coming or going from the drey, but I see possums in my yard all the time at night, and I am most pleased they nest in my tree and not my house (and that my vege garden is netted). Hooray for the slightly-less-attractive ringtail possums! Here is a photo of the drey, taken with a 300 mm lens after the night of high drama:

Amusing story, Nitpicker. I know you said you had crows but I was curious if you had the same problem telling the difference between various corvids over there. I somehow ended up on the Wikipedia article for the Australian raven where I read about the birds attacking baby lambs to eat their nutritious, treacle-like poo. I feel...enlightened.

I think they were Torresian Crows (but I'm not an expert). I've just been reading about how they sound quite different from the Australian Raven (which is more closely related to a crow than a raven, apparently). But then I listened to some audio clips and they didn't sound different enough for me to be certain.

On second thought, it is unusually high for a possum drey, and some images I've just seen of Torresian Crows' nests, look quite similar from below, to the thing in my tree. I've also just read a few accounts of possums (mainly brushtails it seems) raiding nests and stealing eggs. Maybe this is what actually happened and the possum tossed the nest out in the struggle. The nest I found on the ground looks quite similar to the innermost part of the Corvus orru nest shown here: http://tierdoku.com/images/Salvadori-Kr ... t-1007.jpg

Like Geck said, that's an amusing story, Nit. As a Swede, I can't help marveling at the kind of wildlife fauna that people far from where I live have in their gardens. You have ringtail possums in Australia. A man from Vancouver, Canada, whose postings I follow on Youtube, showed a video of a friendly neighbourhood cat who was subsequently eaten by a coyote. Imagine.

Ann

My father once had a chubby grey cat with a stubby tail, named "Chairman Miaow". Chairman was nice enough, if a little demanding, but he was mothered by a stray cat in the neighbourhood; a giant beast of brown tabby, which came to be known as "Mother of Chairman". I once witnessed this beast drag a large, beheaded, brushtail possum to the front door, seeking approval. (I like cats, but won't keep one as a pet anymore.)

First the Moon was interfering, and then we had a couple of winter storms blow through. Last night was finally clear and dark again, though. So I went out to look for Comet Lovejoy with binoculars, but didn't need them- it is an easy naked eye object, no averted vision required. So I set up my Canon 7D on a tracking mount and shot a bunch of 2-minute frames using just a telephoto. Haven't had time to do any serious processing yet, but this is a single frame with nothing done except resizing. 120 seconds, 135 mm FL, f/5.6, ISO 3200.

I heard it's getting brighter! If there are no clouds tonight I will attempt a viewing in these city skies. It's probably not naked eye here, though.

Nitpicker wrote:My father once had a chubby grey cat with a stubby tail, named "Chairman Miaow". Chairman was nice enough, if a little demanding, but he was mothered by a stray cat in the neighbourhood; a giant beast of brown tabby, which came to be known as "Mother of Chairman". I once witnessed this beast drag a large, beheaded, brushtail possum to the front door, seeking approval. (I like cats, but won't keep one as a pet anymore.)

Sounds like the cat wasn't playing possum. Some serious evolution going on in your neighborhood. "Nice Kitty" has to be said "Tse-tung"-in-cheek.

Some serious "Inversion" going on in Boise. Love the color of this comet; hope it keeps the show going until clearer nights arrive.

Oi, definitely can't see that comet naked eye. Not even sure I saw it with the binoculars but I think I might have. Kind of doubt it. Does it look green to eyes? I saw something that I thought might be green.

geckzilla wrote:Oi, definitely can't see that comet naked eye. Not even sure I saw it with the binoculars but I think I might have. Kind of doubt it. Does it look green to eyes? I saw something that I thought might be green.

With my eyes and with the binoculars, all I saw was gray. Of course, if your sky is colored by light pollution, you might see something different.

Yeah, I didn't think it would be green. I saw one comet when I was young and remember it just looking like a fuzzy gray ball and it was much brighter than this one. I see something different here, alright. But it's more about what I don't see.

A couple of nights ago, I saw Mercury and Venus in the western sky. Tonight, I saw Comet Lovejoy, barely, through binoculars.

Two nights ago, on 22 January: the Moon, Venus, and Mars all together in the evening twilight (Mars is just to the left of the Moon).

A pretty moonrise, 98% phase, near Pikes Peak.

Ever since trying to simulate atmospheric scattering I have been paying attention to just how common it is for green to appear in the sky instead of those warm oranges. There it is!

I saw sparkling ice crystals in the sky tonight. Better than most nights. Almost stars.

geckzilla wrote:Ever since trying to simulate atmospheric scattering I have been paying attention to just how common it is for green to appear in the sky instead of those warm oranges. There it is!

Where?

I think the color of the sky in your picture is very slightly greenish near the horizon.

It's a very pretty picture, too!

Ann

Ann wrote:I think the color of the sky in your picture is very slightly greenish near the horizon.

Possibly, although I think this is an illusion of sorts. The Sun was low enough that the western sky was getting yellow. There is just a little bit of moisture in the air towards Pikes Peak, which is scattering some of that yellow light. And the combination of yellow and blue is giving us a sense of green. So it's more of a perceptual effect (based on some underlying physics, of course) than a direct physical one.

Well, you get what I mean, then. I called it green in lieu of "sickly muddled transition between blue and orange" because it sounded nicer.

geckzilla wrote:Well, you get what I mean, then. I called it green in lieu of "sickly muddled transition between blue and orange" because it sounded nicer.

Sure. I just think it's interesting to consider a primary optical effect that produces green (like a green flash) and secondary effects that are dependent on how our vision works.

Yeah. Arguably, green has long overlapped with dark, muddy yellow. Take this painting, Nymphs and Satyr, by William Bouguereau:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... uereau.jpg

Ask anyone at all what color those leaves are. What color are they? They're green, of course. And yet there isn't a lick of green in that painting. Not even the greenest looking leaves are green.