Last night the clouds were moving in as we had our last look at the Snow Moon of February 2012. The temperature was a balmy 70° F (21° C) at midnight.
The thickening clouds gave the moon a blue hue.
A break in the clouds revealed the moon in much greater detail (and with a longer lens on the camera).
More thick clouds and contrails (to the left of image).
By 1:00 am the moon was looking really blue. . . and disappearing into the thick deck of cirrus clouds moving in from the southwest. Even the fence lights appear brighter in the bottom of this image.
As the clouds thickened the sky turned orange, with the clouds reflecting the lights of Orlando. This was a 30 second exposure.
The complicated weather system bringing the clouds last night and this morning is a double cold front with trailing low pressure system. This weekend this system will likely bring blizzard conditions to parts of New England. . . and a bit cooler weather to Florida. . . if only for a couple days.
The current forecast calls for numerous showers and isolated thunderstorms to develop across east Central Florida this afternoon as the storm develops in the Gulf of Mexico. We're hoping that the forecast storms will finally bring an end to the months of nothing but a hint of rain.
Some of the other sights in the night sky you might have missed recently. This (above) is Aldebaran, a red giant star located about 65 light years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. With an average apparent magnitude of 0.87 it is the brightest star in Taurus and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. This image was made with a 10 minute exposure using an 820 mm lens.
Above: Alnitak (brightest) is a triple star about 800 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion. It makes up part of Orion's Belt along with Mintaka and Alnilam. The pink cloud behind the stars is an emission nebula named the Flame Nebula. It is about 900 to 1,500 light-years from Earth.
Above: Pleiades or Seven Sisters in a 20 minute exposure with an 820 mm lens. The Seven Sisters are also located in Taurus. It is the star cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the nighttime sky. The Pleiades are prominent in the Northern Hemisphere winter sky.
Above: Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. What the naked eye perceives as a single star is a binary star system consisting of a white main star and a faint white dwarf companion. Sirius appears bright because of both its luminosity and its proximity to Earth. It is about 8.6 light years from Earth. Sirius' white main star is about twice as massive as our Sun. Sirius is also known as the Dog Star because of its prominence in the constellation Canis Major (Greater Dog).
Above: Bellatrix, also known as Gamma Orionis. Bellatrix is the third brightest star in Orion and the 27th brightest star in the nigh sky. This is a massive star with about 8.4 times the Sun's mass. The star is about 250 light years from Earth.
Note: Light years are a unit of length equal to just under 10 trillion kilometers, or the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days).
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