Conjunctions and Occultations - It's been a busy month!

    It has!

2026-06-09 

The Close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, plus Mercury.

    Starting on the third of June, I began taking snapshots of Venus and Jupiter with my mobile phone as they drew closer in the evening skies. For the most part the weather was warm and the western heavens relatively free of clouds, but then on the sixth, it started to cool, and with the increase threat of cloud cover building or fog coming inland. By the eighth, it looked pretty dire for the ninth being clear. The blanket of fog had all but blotted out the skies as far as the eye could see.

    Thankfully, the warmer and cloudless weather returned for the night of the main event, and stayed that way til the fourteenth. Below is the photo from the ninth when the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was at its closest. The planet Mercury is also visible. Low in the WSW, you can spot it just above the rooftop and left of the tree to the right of the frame. It lies in an almost vertical line directly below the star Castor.

 

Wednesday, June 9, 2026 9:28:45 PM PDT Fairfield, California

      However, it took up to the twenty first of the month (the Summer Solstice) to compile and reposition the photos into the following video.

2026-06-16 

The Conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, and Mercury

    A week later, the waxing crescent moon decided to join the line of three planets, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury appearing somewhat equidistant from each other along the ecliptic.

Wednesday, June 16, 2026 9:28:45 PM PDT Fairfield, California

2026-06-17 

The Occultation of Venus

    Earlier today, the occultation of the planet Venus as the Moon passed in front of it.

    Here in Fairfield, Venus disappeared from view shortly after 11:33:36 AM PDT and didn't emerge from behind the Moon until an hour and twelve minutes later, at 12:45:22 PM PDT.

    My apologizes for the "hair in the gate", in the first half of the video, which due to the brightness of the day as compared to the brightness of the viewfinder display, made the lint nigh impossible to spot. I got rid of it for the second shot, but now had no pin point on which to focus, the moon being too indistinct, which is why Venus is slightly out of focus coming out from behind the lunar limb.

    I'm just happy I was able to capture the daylight event.

 

 2026-06-19 

Venus and the Praesepe

    Tonight, the planet paid a call on the Praesepe, also known as the Beehive Cluster, or designated as M44, NGC 2632, Cr 189.

Friday, June 19, 2026 9:45 PM PDT, Fairfield, California

    -FIN-

    ;-) 

 

Full Disclosure [This post is under construction.]

I plumb forgot!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The popcorn I forgot to eat watching 'Disclosure Day' (2026) at the movies. My lapse was not on account of the film. I just plumb forgot. (I normally don't consume anything at the theater.) So I brought the stuff home and had it there.

 

 

 

 

My 2026-06-16 comment to PZ Myers' 2026-06-13 Pharyngula Freethought Blog post entitled 'I told you I might go see Disclosure Day'.

I just saw it today, with someone dear to me who is into alien visitations and stuff, otherwise I would have heeded your advice. Thanks for the heads up nonetheless.
I usually dislike Spielberg for dramatic excesses that constantly seem to happen in total isolation. Two train operators who won’t stop for anything and somehow lack radio communications between them. Then there are other absurdities like the crack security forces that never cover all the exits before they move in on the target and can’t see or hear open movement within feet of them. Plus vehicles that would be knocked out of commission with their first fender bender. Later, a home copied down to every last single knickknack? Come on! When all this business of disclosure could have been completely and utterly avoided had the technically superior extraterrestrials, buzzing our skies for decades, just said “hello” to all the Earth at one time. Why dump the responsibility onto someone else to prove your existence? That feels more like God’s department.
Sorry for the hodgepodge, this movie is like a bad taste in my mouth. I’m still spitting it out!
You warned me.
:-)
One last thing, as a person of color, I am so tired of the white gaze; the white chosen, the white mediator, the white savior. This film and all the coming attractions preceding it, it was the same damn thing or variant thereof.

 

[-POST UNDER  CONSTRUCTION-] [-PUC-] [+TAGS] 

'More on My Name'

    Today, I happened on Bébé Mélange's (née Great American Satan) 'Life's a Gas' 2026-06-15 Freethought Blog entry coincidentally entitled "Your True Name".

Bébé Mélange's (née Great American Satan)

     (Here is my reply further detailing some of the troubles I have had with respect to my namesake.)  

 

   My name, which was handed down to me after the death of my brother, who died before I was born, has caused me no end of bureaucratic grief. This was even before I added an extra middle name in 1997.

 

    Early in life, the school records had my name in the wrong order (thinking my middle name was my first). Later on, when I joined the work force, the IRS and SSA got me and someone else with my same namesake, employer, and birthday (not year) entangled. 

 

    That only took forty seven years of back ‘n’ forth to undo. 

 

    I was even denied benefits on account of my currently being in a federal penitentiary. 

 

    I was never incarcerated.
 

    Then the military came after me for evading registration although I had been registered and classified 1-O with them for decades. All of it because they too, had my name incorrect. 

 

    More back ‘n’ forth.
 

    So I changed my full title to a play on words. What the heck.
 

    😉

 

  -FIN-

 

MARS

From my 2026-06-07 I Facebook post and subsequent reply to John Heiden’s comment:

I was curious to see what ChatGPT would make of my name "Manuel Antares Richard Sanchez" which is a play-on-words I officially chose for myself in 1997. Antares is a star name which roughly translates "the rival of Ares" the Greek of war, known to the Romans as Mars - my very initials.

A collaboration between myself and ChatGPT

ChatGPT came up with the image and slogan you see, but I had to later darken the initials ChatGPT was instructed to do, but failed to execute.

Be assure however, I am most definitely anti-Ares!

And now that I've made an "arse" of my myself, my "ears" are burning!

;-)

Later that day, here is the question John Heiden (my friend and very first roommate) quite understandably put to me:

    “I’m sorry I haven’t asked sooner but which name do you prefer to go by now?”

And my reply:

The name by which you’ve always known me: “Richard”.

  I was handed three names at birth, which until I reached 18, were in the wrong order, then in 1993 I found they weren’t even my own, “Manuel Richard Sanchez” was the name of my late brother, who died before my twin sister and I were born. (I learned the truth stumbling upon his death certificate.)

 Instantly, I had no name of my own.

So I decided to add a fourth name to the three as to have one that was mine and no one else’s. My initials already spelled MRS, so why not make it MARS, as I love astronomy and 50’s sci-fi anyway.

Then I realized “Antares” and the word play would be perfect.

 In 1997 I made it official before a judge, amending all my government documents right down to my birth records.

“Richard” however remains my mom’s favorite spelling of the name I’m called.

I realize this is more than you ask, John, but “in for a penny…”

    ;-)

    In a related bit, my full name before the change has caused me nothing but bureaucratic nightmares. For forty seven years the IRS and SSA had me and another Richard Sanchez (same birth day but not year) entangled. The military was also on the lookout for me even though I was registered 1-O with them for decades. So on and so forth.

 [UPDATE: 2026-06-09

I think I could add to the slogan making it read thusly: One name. One star. One planet. One person. Maybe it's overdoing it with one phrase too many, instead of remaining succinct, tight, pithy with brevity the aesthetic goal. Then again, Mars is the fourth planet, and my name has four initials, and more importantly, there are four primary picture elements: the slogan, the star, my name, and the planet surface below! So the aesthetic concept of the number four most definitely comes into play. Maybe I can try to see if I can recreate the graphic on my own, with the necessary changes being made to it. We shall see.  

2026-06-11 12:08:00 AM PDT:

Voila! Dood! Here it is! Actually, it’s not that bad. All I had to do was have Google’s search A.I. roughly identify the font, Goudy Old Style, then cut the original slogan and replace it with the updated text.

The finalized image.

 

  -FIN-