Good News on the foxes Venus and Jupiter

Venus

 2024-03-08

In mid March, Venus was released back into the wild! She has been completely cured of her mange and has regained use of her hind legs after months of excellent care and hard work by her rehabilitators. Now starts a new chapter in her life as a healthy young fox! 

Here is a short video of her release: 

 

Jupiter

More good news!  Jupiter, Venus' brother, was sighted on April 9th looking in good health and running with ease.  He has survived the winter and although his mange is not 100% cured, he is in good shape considering.

You can see the transformation of these two kits by checking out these previous posts:

Venus and Jupiter

Update on Venus in November

Sky Watching

A recent quest of mine was to find the Big Dipper.  I associate it with my childhood when I could go out any clear night and find it easily.  These days with more lights (including powerful security lights) installed in the neighbourhood, I wasn't very hopeful.  However, with the use of a wonderful app called "Stellarium", I found it directly overhead and also found a nook between two buildings which blocked most incidental light so that I could get a good look at it and photograph it.  

Here is a photo "as is" and then the same image but with the names of the major stars added.  You will need to enlarge the images to get a better look (click on the image).

I also wanted to capture Venus and several accompanying stars and the moon (below).  The moon was a crescent but I wasn't able to reduce the exposure to show that without losing all the other celestial bodies.  You will definitely need to enlarge/expand this photo!

Now here is the crescent moon as I love it!  I find it such a beautiful phase of the moon.

And, lastly, here is the Flower Moon supermoon.  The exposure is not what I was going for but somehow I like the final result.

More astronomical sights

After having managed to photograph Venus and The Pleiades recently, I thought I would post a few more night sky images.

(Please note that you can enlarge a photograph by clicking on it).

In late March the planet Venus could be seen above the beautiful crescent Moon as shown below.

Another exciting event was the conjunction of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.  These planets aligned in mid-April and I took the following photograph on April 16 around 4:50 a.m.  I do not usually get up so early but I figured this was worth it!

And finally, this was the biggest surprise for me! When I directly focused on Jupiter, I was astonished to find that its largest moons were visible and clearly identifiable as distinct bodies around the planet.

Venus and the Pleiades

April 3, 2020

I recently found out that during this first week of April, the planet Venus can be seen in "close proximity" to the star cluster known as The Pleiades (or Seven Sisters). I was lucky enough to get two nights when the clouds parted so that I could photograph them.  You will see how Venus "moves past" the cluster.

I did not use a tripod so the images are not the best but I was very excited to see The Pleiades as I had never seen them before, and in a city environment with lots of light, it was great to have Venus to guide me to them.

You can check out this article to see others' photos and learn more about these celestial bodies.

April 4, 2020