The Moon, Jupiter, and Its Moons (Photos)

Today’s early morning sky was crystal clear and the setting moon was full. Just to the left of the moon was a bright object that was likely a planet. I got out my camera to take a few photographs before I researched which planet I was seeing.

Imagine my surprise when I viewed the photos on my computer to find that the planet- Jupiter – was also surrounded by a few of its moons. Granted, the shot shows a slight “trail” from the movement cause by the earth’s rotation and my long camera exposure, but it is still amazing to see the moons so clearly despite the brightness of the full moon.

I got another surprise when I looked at a photo of a random grouping of stars to the west and saw a faint streak in the image of the sky. I think I captured a meteor!

The Moon, with Jupiter at upper left

Jupiter and its Moons

Faint meteor at bottom left

All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

Clouds and Crepuscular Rays

The humidity – which we haven’t had much of this summer – returned yesterday, and along with it some scattered thunderstorms. As the clouds bubbled up in the late afternoon, it made for some great cloud pictures. The sun peeked through some darkening clouds, and I caught a few interesting shots of crepuscular rays. Here are a few pictures of the high points.

All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

Colonial Williamsburg

Governor's Palace (entry from garden)
© Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com

We made a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia at the end of June, and spent a lot of time taking in the sights in Colonial Williamsburg. One of my favorite places to see is the Governor’s Palace and its beautiful gardens. Also very enjoyable are the homes of Peyton Randolph and George Wythe. Randolph House is reported to be haunted, and when our tour of the house was over, we asked one of the guides about the ghost in the house. He seemed annoyed at first that we asked the question and then said he didn’t believe in that stuff, but later admitted that one of the bedrooms upstairs was a little creepy. (We didn't see anything.)

Here is a video slide show of some of the high points of Colonial Williamsburg, of which there are many. We happened to be in Wythe House for a gentleman's impromptu performance on an old spinet (included at the end of the video below). We were also lucky that the British “Redcoats” were in town for some interesting re-enactments; they had tents set up for their army and they conducted some drills. We missed the American Revolutionary Army by a week. Of course, every American knows how the Revolutionary Army's meeting with those pesky Redcoats ultimately ended.







All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

The Allegheny Mountain Tunnel (Video)

On our way back from Williamsburg, Virginia, we passed through the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I had my camera ready in order to film our passage, and the video is below. I find going though tunnels a little hypnotic and somewhat annoying because of the patterns created by the lights. But, it makes for an interesting video, especially when I sped up the footage by 800% (that clip is at the very end of the video below.)

By the way, over the next few weeks I will be sharing some of the photos and videos taken in Colonial Williamsburg.




All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information,
chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

Birds, Birds, Birds + Squirrels

It’s been an interesting few days as far as bird watching here in the yard. A very sociable white-breasted nuthatch stopped by and happily posed for pictures. We also had “bird wars” over the weekend when two red shouldered hawks decided to battle it out in our front yard, flying in an out of our oak tree as we worked in the yard directly below. One of them stopped to rest on the fence in the back yard to look around. It was little lighter in color and somewhat larger than the red shouldered hawk I photographed last week that sat on that same fence, almost the same spot.

This morning, I spotted a huge turkey vulture – also known as a buzzard – in my neighbor’s yard, feasting on some poor, unfortunate squirrel that may have run out of luck when it tried to cross the street. I was able to get off one good photo before a small truck barreled down the street making an awful racket, scaring the bird off. Since we seem to have a bumper crop of squirrels running around lately (I encountered 7 of them running around my driveway all at one time on Saturday – I got 5 of them in one picture), I am sure that the vulture will have plenty more chances for some squirrel for breakfast. By the way, that is one unattractive bird.

The White Breasted Nuthatch

The Red Shouldered Hawk

The Five Squirrels

The Turkey Vulture, having a late breakfast

All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

Not a Rainbow, But A Circumhorizontal Arc?

I was clearing out some photo files from this past April, and I noticed a picture that I took while at Mentor Headlands State Park on a sunny day. There were patches of high cirrus clouds, and the sun was at an angle where it created what some would call a rainbow, but since there was no rain it’s really an arc. It may have been a circumhorizontal arc (rather that a circumzenithal arc) because it was a little after noon and the sun was very high in the sky. If anyone out that can confirm which one it might be from the photo below, I would appreciate hearing from you. Unfortunately, the wide view photo of the full sky that I took of this optical phenomenon was a little too washed out from the bright sun and the glaring cirrus clouds, making the expanse of the colors in the cloud very hard to see. The colors are very obvious in the "zoomed" photo below.





All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

A Rose, Bumblebee, Hawk and Buzzard

Sometimes I can go several days without anything good to photograph, and then suddenly a few opportunities will present themselves all at the same time. This was one of those good days.

We have one small lone rose bush in our yard, which has been there since probably the 1960s when my husband’s mother planted it. It is just a shadow of its former self, only getting a few blooms on it in the late spring and sometimes later in the summer. This year we were lucky to get 7-8 roses on it all at the same time, which is unheard of for that poor plant. It did give me one nice photo of a very bright pink rose. Maybe I should take better care of that rosebush in the future.

The Rose

While photographing my purple rhododendron before all its flowers dropped off, I was lucky when a bumblebee decided to jump into the photograph. It apparently didn't like to have its picture taken, because it later buzzed me until I left.

The Bumblebee

My husband noticed a red-shouldered hawk sitting on my neighbor’s fence at the back of our yard. It stayed out there long enough for me to get the camera and it posed for me. But it was skittish and flew high up into a tree 150+ feet away and screamed its head off. While I took pictures of it from afar, I noticed it looking up several times. There were a few turkey vultures (AKA “buzzards") flying overhead, much to the irritation of the hawk. The hawk eventually flew off, but not before I could snap a few more pictures of it, and the buzzards in flight.

The Red Shouldered Hawk

The Turkey Vulture/Buzzard

All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.