Tonight is reported to be a good night to view this year's Leonid Meteor showers, a very cool, occasional event for us to see as the earth passes through the trail of dust and rock left behind the Temple-Tuttle comet. A few years ago, my wife and I took the time in the cold of mid winter to view this night adventure, laid out some sleeping bags and blankets, then rose in the middle of the night (it always is best at around 1-2 in the morning) and enjoyed the spectacle in the sky. There were hundreds of 'shooting stars' and we were impressed once again with God's creation around us. Tonight, we will plan to do the same and although the weather will be milder, we are looking forward to seeing it again.
These photos are from a few months ago when I stepped outside and saw these really cool 'sheep clouds'(my mother in law's description) and then went back inside to get my camera for a few photos. I made several shots of the moon and clouds, enjoying the way the clouds and tree's silhouettes framed the moon and the planet Jupiter, which was also present. After wards, I turned my camera around towards our pond, keeping the shutter open long enough so that the moonlight illuminating the landscape almost resembled daylight, but not quite. The results were exposures with an almost luminescent glow that I really enjoyed.
As we live in a rural area that offers excellent clear night viewing, we have always happened to catch some cool thing or another going on by chance, but since then I have kept a keener eye on night sky events and am more attentive to the stars for things we normally would miss in our daytime oriented lives.
