My view of the aurora last night. (Those are clouds. I saw no aurora last night.)

As soon as the snow stopped, it began melting on the trails and trees, bringing out the bright orange autumn colors... 🧡 #November #firstsnow #nature #photography

4K timelapse of the aurora from my Bortle 8 neighborhood. Sadly, I didn't get the second burst but the first burst was magnificent. Video is too large to upload directly to Bsky. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmUf... #aurora #astronomy #timelapse

if you're wondering if you totally missed out last night, know that there's a possibility of another night of decent aurora chances *tonight* (night of Nov 12) if you can find clear skies

Last aurora photo for this evening.

Perhaps one of the best things about aurora photos is everyone has a different view of it, and so all the images are unique and, to me, that makes them all amazing. It also feels like aurora sort of flattens the otherwise steep astrophotography curve.

I did not expect this now that I'm in the suburbs, but...here's the aurora from my house! #aurora #northernlights #astrophotography

Boss: "Make notes for all our machines so when the new guy starts he can run them / write SOP's for them." Me in my head: "So, I was never given this, I just had to "figure it out" (also boss's directive previously) but now I'm going to write SOP's so the new guy can... write SOP's for us. Got it."

Got a new TV and 5.1 surround system. Here's the first movie we watched (and keep in mind it had to be appropriate for a 7 year old granddaughter). You know what to do now BlueSky...Quote away!!

Thankful for circuit breakers. I'm usually a pretty good amateur electrician, but today I made a boo boo and things went sparky for a moment. I'm good. Everything else is good. House is fine....thanks to circuit breakers.

The Midwest idea of "We normally eat lunch around noon and dinner at 5 or 6 or even 7 but Thanksgiving IS AT 2 PM" will never make sense to me. I grew up on the east coast and my mom was from the Midwest and we ate Thanksgiving dinner at 6 pm like normal people. Yes, I'm complaining.

The USA is the wealthiest country in world history. If we have hungry people, it is because VERY SPECIFIC PEOPLE WANT THEM TO BE HUNGRY. And it's not the sane, empathetic, humane ones. Which reminds me: Billionaires could feed hungry people RIGHT NOW. Instead, they are funding the "new East Wing."

I really hate moving. But....we have moved a lot of things ourselves & some of our bigger/heavier items are being picked up and moved today (not by me, fortunately). So I can see there is a dim, but distinct, light somewhere in the distance where the end of the tunnel just may be, hopefully.

Standard Time forever, please.

These two pictures are the same thing, just arranged differently~ Yellow Local Star (≈8 minutes past) Blue Distant Star Cluster (≈20 light years past) A nebulosity of leaves transfigure photons to nutrients. A nebulosity of cosmic dust swirls in the interstellar medium. my eyes to your heart

This is going to be an absolutely catastrophic humanitarian disaster. I was just in Jamaica this spring. Even US building codes aren't meant to withstand these kinds of winds - 185 mph SUSTAINED! That's EF4 tornado level. And the interior regions may get up to 30 INCHES of rain.

Back on the Spooky Season path… The Witches Broom Nebula last night for you this morning. Absolutely magical. 🔭 #Astrophotography

I've been working hard to get things painted in the new-to-us living room the past couple of days. Why, you ask? Good question! It's all so this used-but-new-to-us Kawai upright piano could set right where it is when delivered about 30 minutes ago.

Happy Friday my loves!🥳 Today is the day! Ahh.🤭 Store will open to email subs at 3pm UK time, public access 24hrs later. Products aren't limited, but I won't be doing this cushion design again for a while, if ever. Baubles will only sell out if I'm unable to get more stock.💜 VHSpaceArt.com 🧪🔭🐡🖌🎨📷

It is a grey, windy, chilly day. Autumn has arrived - late - but well and truly here to stay.

Good morning. The planet Venus (below) and the Moon (above) greeted me this morning as I left for work. Hope you have a great Friday!

Juuuuust a little bit of flooring going in tomorrow. Will be glad when it's done and we can start moving our things here.

Why is it so hard to get HVAC folks to respond to a queries about needing service? I have sent messages to 7 places now (I think). One called me at a time I said "Don't call before X:00", one has a neat online system but hasn't responded in over a week, and one online form said my message was spam.

Me, driving home last night along the rural roadways (very dark) and seeing two glowing eyes near the side of the road: "Oh hello Mr. Possum...." Realizing I have no way of knowing if it was a male or not: "....or Mrs. Possum...."

A sky like this can be difficult to capture the way I see it. But in this case, this is almost exactly how it looked.

I was driving from the new house to the soon to be old house yesterday when there appeared to be clouds on the horizon. But....not really clouds. It was smoke, from fires in cornfields. 😕😕😕

Good morning.

This praying mantis was tearing at me HARD. Smaller though, so perhaps a male...? Also very green, so I don't think this one is really native, but I may be wrong on that.

Me, in my head: "I just put that new furnace filter in a couple weeks ago, right? Because I change it every 3 weeks (3 cats + 3 dogs = lots in the filter). I'll check what date I wrote on it then." Date I wrote on it: 8/15 Me: "Oops! Better change that...."

Your Friday morning Zen.

I love that I started the mortgage process literally the day after I made an offer on a house, and yet here I am 3.5 WEEKS LATER and they STILL are asking me for more details. Like, you couldn't have asked for those things, oh, I don't know - NOT 3 hours before the last possible day to approve???

On the cusp of dawn, Orion still shines. Yesterday morning from The Denton Observatory 🔭 #Astrophotography

C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) Coming to naked eye visibility in mid-October. (little hick-up in the Seestar tracking stretched the coma/nucleus) 🔭 #Astrophotography

Good news! raleighnc.gov/climate-acti...

The autumnal colors will continue 💚💜💛🌱 #nativeplants

Yesterday evening on our little prairie. It was warm, the dogs loved running around and the granddaughter was enjoying walking along the paths with us. And to see all the life there - birds, insects, flowers, grasses .... It's encouraging to see it starting to really BE a prairie again.

Please help me find a #LivingKidneyDonor so we can schedule the surgery instead of the cortisol hit I am taking from this www.kidneyforthad.info

Just when you think all the crumbs are out of the toaster....no, take the bottom completely off and there's waaaaaaaaay more still in there. A LOT. (But it's clean now!)

A Circumhorizontal arc, also known as a fire rainbow for this week’s #angles theme See in comments how these form!🔥🌈 #BlueSkyArtShow #Angles #EastCoastKin #Canon #photography #cloudscape #skyscape #WxSky

Grazing on a wild sunflower European paper wasp (Polistes dominula)

My clearest view of Jupiter yet in Fall 2025! Really great views of the cloud bands! Plus... two moons! 🔭🤓 #jupiter #astronomy #nature #astrophography #photography #smartphoneastronomy

The actual sunrise was prettier than this early this morning, but here is the best I could capture from my phone. Just imagine it being prettier.

Argiope trifasciata (Banded Garden Spider). Surprisingly difficult to get one's phone to focus on these because it keeps trying to focus on the grass behind it. But in this image I managed to capture it in focus.

A brief moment of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). Unfortunately, obligatory satellite streaks.

I'm far enough south that I didn't see anything when the aurora occurred this evening, but my phone captured a little bit of it.

The red-planet Mars is currently close to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Closest approach occurs at 17h UT on 13 September when Mars will pass 2.2° NNE of Spica (33° from Sun, evening sky). Mags. 1.6 and 1.0. 🔭 #stargazing

Timeline cleanse. I was about 10 inches from this bee. It's always awe-inspiring to me to be able to witness nature this closely.

Epic inchworm / insect battle! Somehow managed to capture the altercation on our #prairie after trying to follow the insect flying, and then THIS HAPPENED:

Mortgage applications feel a bit like a financial colonoscopy... without the twilight anesthesia.