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Thanks to all of you who participated in this week’s chocolate fest. Major gratitude to my lovely cohosts Laura Eno, Brinda Berry, and Ciara Knight, who helped in making the bloghop such a success. It was a blast to put together and read through all of the posts. It made me very hungry though. I’ll definitely come up with another bloghop in the future.
Last Weekend at PMO
Last Friday night at the observatory was absolutely perfect – warm, clear skies, fairly steady skies, and no moon until almost midnight. There was a small crowd, less than a dozen people, and they all left pretty early. That meant getting all the toys to ourselves early.
I went through the entire sky looking at every object I know, scanning through starry patches just because I could. It was just fantastic. The dark skies made it easy to locate objects.
When Gary and I had viewed every millimeter of the sky, we went inside the dome and viewed more objects through the 24″ telescope with Eric, objects we can’t see with the smaller scopes. It was just a spectacular night.
I had hoped for a repeat on Saturday … not. It was cloudy and crappy. Boo! Major boo. This coming weekend is our last of the season with dark skies, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.
Here are some photos from last weekend:
This is fall color in the high desert. We have no deciduous trees. It’s the brush that turns yellow and gold.
Sunset Friday night.
The telescope room. My telescope’s summer home.
Sunset Saturday night.
There were so many different kinds of clouds.
Clouds make for sucky astronomizing, but spectacular sunsets.
Have a great weekend everybody!
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Just amazing photos, Mary!
Glad you had at least one night of great viewing. And all to yourself. Hope this weekend is more of the same.
Beautiful pics. Makes me wish I could just be in that same location, just watching the skies.
Oh my gosh, that last sunset pic is amazing! I love the fall colors in the desert too, gorgeous. I hope you have great weather for this weekend, Mary. Have fun! :)
Beautiful pics. And here’s hoping for specifically NOT crappy weather this weekend. :)
At least you got one night! The skies are gorgeous there.
The blog hop was so much fun and a big success! :D
Lovely pics! Good luck with this weekend!
Both nights are supposed to be clear this weekend. Tonight is warmer. I’m hoping it’s not real busy.
It’s great having the skies to ourselves, Alex. I enjoy the visitors, but I also enjoy alone time under the stars.
It’s one of my favorite things to to, Stuart.
The color in that last sunset is something, Julie. It reminds me of the bands on Jupiter, which I should get to see tonight for the first time this season.
Dear Crap, Please stay away from Pine Mountain. :D Thanks for the wish, LG.
This morning the sky is looking fine. But that can change on a wish, Laura. The hop was uber fun.
Thanks, Libby. I need to clean a filter before I go tonight. And the camera lens.
Wow! Such beautiful pictures! Most of them would look so great on a book cover.
Those are spectactular clouds. Have you ever wanted to astronomize from the top of Mauna Kea? I think that would be really fun.
Gorgeous pictures. I love sunset because that means my favorite part , night, is coming. I hope you have dark, clear viewing time. :)
And the chocolate fest was awesome!
It’s too bright where we are now (near a large city). We have telescopes, but it’s the bigger observatory telescope that we’d love to see through.
Liked your photos, I study cloud formations, too. There are usually several layers of color in storm clouds. This is one of the things the Impressionist painters were good at.
The last cloud pic is amazing. They’re great MPax. I almost like them as much as your astronomy pics!
‘. . . seeing.’ Forgot that last word.
So beautiful!
I have to agree with everyone else, these photos are wonderful. I especially loved the golden light you captured in the first two. So gorgeous! I hope this next time will give you good viewing nights.
You always have the most stunning pictures!
Hope you have some clear nights.
I love all your photos. The colors are so serene.
Thanks for including me in the blog hop. It was a blast! Amazing pictures!
Last night it rained. :(
Thanks, Angelina.
I would love to, Michael.
It was awesome. So far, not, Melissa. Cloudy and rainy last night.
Clouds can be interesting, DG. On a mountaintop, we often see several different kinds on a very cloudy night.
Thanks, Holly.
Now that the sun sets so much earlier, I can get some great shots before I scoot up the mountain, Loretta.
Thanks, Eagle and Brinda.
Thanks for being part of it, Ciara.
I love the sweeping clouds against the bright blue sky. I’ve really go to get out more. Thanks for the inspiring pics!
You have the best toys!
How lucky that you got to have one fantastic veiwing night and that you had the toys to yourself for so long. It just sounds like so much fun! I wish I was there to join in the fun. Beautiful pictures! I love the one with the blue sky and the different clouds. :)
Fantastic photos! I’m a big fan of fall colors and clouds. :)
Absolutely Spectacular!
Now where’s my chocolate bar ?
The sky was very interesting that night, Stephen.
They are great toys, Lee.
I like that photo, too, Jess. It was a fun night.
I like fall colors, too, Christine. Not the clouds so much on star tour nights.
It was yummy, Madeleine. :)
Those are gorgeous pictures!
Thanks for hosting the chocolate blogfest. I loved reading everybody’s posts!
Oh, man. Green with envy. Again.
I want a poster of the clouds in the blue sky. Drop dead gorgeous.
I loved reading them, too, Sherry. Thanks for joining in.
Hope you had a great weekend, Greta.
Sure, Leslie. I thought it was an interesting merging of clouds.
Great photos. We saw rows of long, finger-like clouds in Ohio this weekend – just like in one of your pictures.
Well, I guess one night is better than no nights at all!.
Your photos are fantastic! You are most certainly multi-talented! After seeing those telescopes, I’m giving mine to Goodwill… Telescope envy for sure!