The Jewelry of the Sky

Extravagant jewels

On perpetual exhibit
In God-made heavens

All photos mine.

Top: Manila Ocean Park, November 30, 2011.
Center: Just outside our home in Taguig, March 2012.

Bottom: Estrellas de Mendoza, Laiya, Batangas, March 17, 2012.

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saturn in the night sky

So that planet I spotted somewhere around the hind legs of Leo (I mean the constellation) isn't Mercury after all. After some good clicking in astronomical events sites, it's pretty clear that it's Saturn.

This is an actual photo taken by myself. Sloppy identifying markings photoshopped in.

I've also read that right about now is the best time to view the ringed planet, because it's right now in opposition this month- that means it's directly opposite the sun and therefore at it's most reflective. It's going to be around Leo / Virgo for a few years , but that part of the night sky is only visible in the first half of the year.

Leo is quite easy to spot - it's almost directly overhead from 10pm to midnight at this time of the year (at least in this part of the globe) . The sickle-shaped formation is the lion's head (see right side of photo). A line of stars leads to a right triangle made by three brighter stars (see left) - that "triangle" is the lion's rear end.

Image from here.

Just in case you live in the city (like I do), it would be kinda hard to spot the fainter stars that form the crescent shape. There's another easy way to spot Saturn though:

Three of Leo's brightest stars are very visible --

• Regulus [alpha leonis, or the brightest star in Leo] - that's the lion's heart, found at the "base" of the sickle shape.
• Denebola [beta leonis, the second brightest] - the "rearmost" end of the lion.
• and Zosma [delta leonis] - the lion's tailbone... or the arch of his spine, depending on the artist's interpretation.
  
  

These three bright ones form a cross with Saturn, like so:


Normally, where Saturn is, there should be a fainter star there. The planet's brightness eclipses the star. You can tell it's a planet because the light is steady; stars flicker.

Man, I really wish I own a telescope. I must go to an observatory sometime soon. The hubby was able to view Saturn some years ago, from an observatory in L.A., and he says the view is just spectacular.

I have never been to an observatory - not even in those elementary school field trips. Grade school kids have trips to one every year, but I have always had the misfortune of being in the section that is scheduled to go on a day the observatory is closed (the ceiling is being painted, the projector is broken, whatever). I tried going with my cousins when I was ten years old, but I had the same luck. And then I have no idea why I never took advantage of our university observatory when I was a college student. So now that I am planning a visit to an observatory, I don't know how to go about it, haha.

Hey, I just learned that Jupiter was around the same spot in 2004. :) Hee hee. Geek trivia.

scenic and stellar

This is the time of the year when a lot of the brightest stars make an appearance in the evenings. The dark skies seem fuller and relatively brighter, and more-or-less romantic.

Of course we hardly ever get clear views from the city, still the magnitude 2, 1 and 0 lights are very visible. Luckily there's this whole stretch enclosed by second-magnitude and brighter stars, Sirius, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Procyon, Capella, Pollux, Castor and Aldebaran.

This week I've tried to do some amateur astrophotography again. Given that I use a camera that isn't my own and thus one I don't know how to manipulate, and that I have nothing near a decent tripod, my shots were not quite how I hoped they would turn out.

Nonetheless it's been fun to spot stars. I pulled out my decade-old photocopy of a star-chart and did the roll call.

Those present:

EARLY EVENING
Orion
Lepus
Canis Major
Canis Minor
Cancer
Pollux and Castor of Gemini
Auriga
A portion of Argo
Star clusters Pleiades and Hyades and a few stars in Taurus

AROUND MIDNIGHT
Big Dipper and a few lesser-magnitude stars in Ursa Major
Leo
Virgo
Corvus
Crater
Hydra
Bootes (with alpha star Arcturus)
The head of Scorpius just peering over the horizon, and its heart, Antares

I also spotted two planets:

Mars, with its bright, distinct yellow glow, somewhere in the area of Gemini. It kinda forms a straight line with Procyon and Sirius.

There's another planet which I suppose is Mercury, somewhere between Leo and Corvus. I noticed that there was a bright "star" there that didn't belong, and realized that it didn't pulse like normal stars do. It was definitely a planet.

I'm hoping I could get the Hubby to agree to a trip to a beach or a mountain, where the stars would be more visible ^_^ I'll have a field day. I'll be sure to bring my camera and my worn-out chart.

i love the beach

Ever since the warm month of march rolled out of the calendar, I've been obsessing about going to the beach.

Well honestly, I've been obsessing about going to the beach all year long, whether in warm weather or cool - it's just that the realization of summer heightens my urgency to go beach-ing.

The Hubby and I were fortunate enough to spend an overnight's stay at an acquaintance's private seaside sanctuary. I would have preferred for us to be alone, but this was a staff outing so we spent it with a few other church people. Anyway, it's still a blessing.

Beauty heals, I've been told.

The place was lovely. It had a mostly-white modern-zen thing going on.


The sand was even combed into gentle waves, zen-garden style.


To the infinity pool and beyond.


I love walking barefoot in the sand, right where the sea kisses the shore.


I found me some tiny shells for my own mini-zen-garden.


And I just love pink beach sunsets.


I've been wanting to sleep under the stars again - even if it meant waking up all damp with dew. It's no fun doing it in the city, because there are hardly any stars in the city sky. The sky at this beach wasn't as bright as I had hoped it would be, but it at least didn't have as many absentee stars as the city nights always do.


Orion was present; so were Canis Major, Canis Minor, Ursa Major, Leo, Virgo, Crater, Hydra, Cancer. Gemini's Castor and Pollux.

I was the last person to sleep because I was busy getting reacquainted with my old friends, the stars. I went to bed only because I got spooked that I was possibly the only soul awake at that beach that time.

I lay down and talked to God, and I expected Him to answer - and then I realized that I was right beneath a great big cross formed by the stars of the constellation Leo.


The Hubby woke me up sometime around 3am to tell me we ought to move inside because the sea-breeze was going down to freezing degrees. I opened my eyes to marvelous night-sky jewels -- Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Hercules, Serpens, Corona Borealis, Bootes, Coma Berenices. I even spotted the spectral Milky Way. Gemma, the yellow alpha star of Corona, was right on top of me. I didn't want to budge because it was just all too pretty.

I didn't wake up early enough to catch the sunrise.


But it's still a nice, clear morning by the sea.


Contact with beauty really does make life a bit more worthwhile.