"Not-So-Foggy Opposition" (second night)

Sunday, May 22, 2016

With only one teeny tiny cloud to threaten visibility, here is a photograph from the following night. The moon has slipped into position to form a rhombus or parallelogram with the planet Mars, the star Antares, and the next largest gas giant in our solar system: Saturn.

"Foggy Opposition"

The Moon and Mars in opposition earlier tonight, with Antares and Saturn in close pursuit!

"In the Afterglow of El Chichón"

Remembering mom this Mothers' Day with a little twist.

This is a picture of my mom looking out her back window. Nothing extraordinary there.

However, it is April 1982 and the strong, porphyry afterglow illuminating the Bay Area, so late into the dusk, is being produced by the voluminous amounts of sulfur dioxide temporarily suspended high in the atmosphere.

El Chichón in Mexico is the cause, having spewed out approximately seven times the sulfur dioxide in its ash plumes than Mount Saint Helens two years prior.

I had my mother oblige me with a peek at the western skies.

;-)

"Mettle"

"Mettle" Friday, August 8, 1986

 

       I just now thought of a name for this Kodak Ecktachrome still-life I photographed back in 1986:

     "Mettle":

 

     I found the paint-splattered, metallic composition rusting underneath the backyard staircase at my parents' home.

"Sutro"

"Sutro"

I chanced upon a Playboy image* and early one Tuesday morning, on March 16, 1993, decided to re-contextualize it. When I saw the projection upon the wall, I immediately liked the pearlescent quality of the wall paint, but doubted the use of my reflection at the window. I wasn't trying for an obvious metaphor. That read among others is there nonetheless. Still, the disparate elements all seemed coalesce.

*Photo accreditation pending.

"Usurpation"

Circa 1982

    It's mid-afternoon and I am north-bound to San Francisco aboard the CalTrain. Somewhere along the SF peninsula, between San Jose and the destination city, an audibly exhausted, CalTrain employee slumps into the seat before me. His hands, thrown almost in my face, prove an irresistible, wide-angle study and I only hope the sound of my camera shutter doesn't give away my appropriation of his "expansion" into my personal space. Who is the more entitled I wonder? The toddler below nor the young person across the way asked to be included in our contest.

"Telling Time"

    Here's a selfie I took of myself some decades ago. I never bothered to date it. However, the slide itself provides many clues. The camera is pointed due south and is trained on the ecliptic. The waning moon was just out of view to the left, appearing almost equally spaced with the planetary conjunction being photographed (albeit out of focus). The bluish star Spica in the constellation of Virgo is left of my left elbow.

    With the aid of http://www.stellarium.org/ (see graphic below) I was able to go back in time to find the date and nearest hour of the San Franciscan night.

    Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars span the image. The date is April 11th, 1982; a little after one in the morning.

    I took two more slides that morning as I noticed the clothesline and decided to hang the planets and star on them!

Sunday, April 11, 1982