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| A large bonfire this evening with shimmering leaves. |
I was mostly responsible for this large bonfire this evening. I hauled a huge pile of debris from our ongoing renovation projects over to the fire pit. I like this shot because you can clearly see Orion in the top right of the image and Sirius (the bright star) at the top left. Also due to the long exposure of the image the Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) at left appears to shimmer in the evening breezes.
Click on any image to enlarge.
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| Bonfire |
It was a breezy and hot evening after a very hot April day in Florida. The high temperature hovered around 95° F (35° C) all afternoon. The sea breeze kicked in late in the afternoon and it is that breeze that was pushing the fire smoke away from us.
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| Fire and Jet with Sirius |
Above I accidentally captured a jetliner (the streaks across the center of the image) in this 30 second exposure. Sirius is also clearly visible at the top left of the image. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius appears bright because of both its luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 8.6 light years the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors. For northern-hemisphere observers between 30° and 73° N latitude (including most of Europe and North America), it is the closest star (after the Sun) that can be seen with the naked eye.
Sirius is also known as the "Dog Star," because of its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (Greater Dog). The heliacal rising of Sirius (the time when it was first visible above the eastern horizon before sunrise) marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days of summer" for the ancient Greeks. For the Polynesians it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean.
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| Bonfire with Palm Fronds |
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| A colorized sky and the fire bring out Orion's Belt (top right of image). |
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| Bonfire Night |
As it got darker the stars became much brighter, as did the fire. This fire burned long and intense as it was nearly all wood. Included in the fire were our old Lyonia Christmas Tree and solid oak stand, all the 4x4 posts that I've used in the past for Halloween and Christmas decorations, and all of the lumber that we've accumulated from various renovation projects.
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| Bonfire with Palm Trees |
Here I shot the fire through my trio of now-mature Queen Palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana). The Queen Palms are about 30-40 feet high (9-12 m). The tree that covers the fire pit is a Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) about 60 feet tall (18 m).
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| Fire Front Porch |
The mosquitoes and biting flies were eating me alive. . . so I decided to call it a day and gave up on any more fire shots. This is the last image I made, looking across the front porch toward the fire pit. Look closely between the last two posts of the front porch and you see the fire. The front porch is very crowded at the moment with potted plants due to the ongoing drought. Whenever it starts raining again I will move them out onto the pathways.
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