The Sunset of September 21, 2025 was a fitting curtain call to Summer. This Sunset benefited from the remaining presence of clouds overhead with a gap along the Western horizon. The remaining shreds of rain and broad cloud layers all caught the reddened sunlight shining through that distant gap.

During the sunrise this morning, September 21 2025, the undersides of the clouds were briefly lit by the early Sun rays reddened from passing through perhaps hundreds of miles of storm cleaned air. Hints of dynamic forces distorting and rending the delicate cloud patches overhead could be seen.

This morning the Moon, Venus and the bright star Regulus rose as a tight grouping before dawn. It was a striking sight in the clear pre dawn skies, with the air having been cleaned by a thunderstorm that had passed through the area last night.

A view of the recent lightning, not with any bolts but nicely showing the inner glow of lightning illuminating regions within the thunderhead. The lightning was nearly continuous for a time, with every 2.5 second exposure having some. If there's lightning in the area I'm out there with my camera.

A nice thunderstorm passed by to my Northeast as twilight deepened, just close enough to hear the sustained faint rumble from the nearly continuous lightning within it.

Early in the morning of Tuesday September 2 rain and lightning swept across the High Desert. By afternoon the weather had moved on and the roads in Joshua Tree National Park were cleared. The dampness and clear air gave a clean 'fresh' look, and the afternoon Sun was beginning to light the scenery.

A mural I painted, in oils on canvas, on the walls and ceiling of the entry way of a 3 story mansion I lived and painted in for 9 years starting 1973. when one stood at the second floor the ocean horizon was at eye level and the real columns merged with the painted ones.

A bit of rain this afternoon dampened the High Desert and brought a nice show as the last rays of the Sun passed through a gap in the clouds and caused a nice partial rainbow.

More cool weather passing over the Joshua Tree region, bringing rain here and there. To my North I saw this interesting cloud/rain formation, which reminded me of something John Martin might have painted.

I'm working on an animation of a Lunar crater forming. First I did the crater, finding a suitable small example from a Lunar Recon Orbiter photo. Next step is making a digital elevation map by hand drawing it in Photoshop. Here is a render showing the results, with the photo used as a luminous map.

On Saturday some different weather finally occurred in Joshua Tree, a brief spotty monsoon with a nice active region appearing in the neighborhood, along with even a few drops of rain. Here is the view overhead as a weather cell passed by, suggesting the complex dynamics taking place above.

This morning the Moon and planets rose above the dawn. There were three planets lined up, with the thin crescent Moon having moved past prominent Jupiter and brilliant Venus in previous days to this time rise next to the elusive planet Mercury, which always close to the horizon at dawn or twilight.

The planets are growing farther apart but are still rewarding in wider angle views. Venus and Jupiter loom above the Eastern horizon as the first light of dawn appears. The waning Gibbous Moon still contributes much light and it is illuminating the thin smoke drifting overhead from distant fires.

The Great Conjunction of August 2025 had brilliant Venus and bright Jupiter above it aligned nearly vertically in the early morning sky of August 13. It was a striking sight that must have caught the attention of millions of early risers. I wonder if there were UFO reports over this. :-)

An acrylic painting done in 1982 for an Earth history related 'Cosmic Calendar' that was supposed to be published by a Carl Sagan affiliated business, but the project fell apart leaving a dozen unused paintings. I have mine, including one that is yet unfinished. Here we see a Paleozoic tide pool.

The lovely Planetary conjunction of brilliant Venus and bright Jupiter rising in the early morning skies of the high Desert. They are near their minimum separation and will draw apart in the coming days.

Over the next couple mornings at the break of dawn go out and have a look at the Eastern sky as the two brightest planets as seen from Earth, Venus and Jupiter, pass close to each other as seen from our perspective. This morning they appeared less than a degree apart, a bit wider than the Moon.

Tonight the Full Moon rose over the High Desert, tinted a light orange from the smoke still passing over the region from fires far to the West. Tonight's Moon rise is a special sight because of the passing of another person who has been there, Jim Lovell.

The sunset of August 5, 2025, yesterday, had a character to it given by the presence of smoke in the region that had been drifting over us from the distant coastal area fires. The well mixed smoke filtered the sunlight into a red-brown color optimally dimmed to see and photograph well.

Among the coolest landscapes on the Moon yet seen with human eyes. Apollo 15 landed in an area of pronounced positive and negative relief with mountains and a deep volcanic furrow, Hadley Rille. This colorized photo mosaic shows both, with the rocks lining the rille walls providing a sense of depth.

54 years ago the Apollo 15 mission was exploring the Hadley Rille area of the rim of the Moon's vast ancient Imbrium Basin. After landing, the 'top' hatch was opened and David Scott obtained panoramas of the surroundings from an elevated view, something done only once. Here is a part of that view.

Last night's Sunset had portions of the sky adorned with beautifully lit clouds. Here a magic moment is captured when the undersides of a wide relatively flat cloud is briefly illuminated by the setting Sun. Textures across the bottom are brought out in such relatively rare lighting situations.

The launch was delayed a half hour, enough to lose any solar illumination and become just another comparatively dim night time event. Only during the first stage burn was it prominently luminous although distant. Most of this launch passed behind clouds from my vantage point in the high Desert.

Here is where tonight's Vandenberg launch will be visible. A minute or two after its 8:55 PM launch tonight, July 26, the second stage plume enters the sunlight as it flies SSW and widens into the 'jellyfish' formation. It will appear lower in the sky than the last twilight launch but have a look!

The first hand held photos of the Lunar surface from the windows of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module a little over an hour after landing, mosaiced into a panorama. The level plains of Mare Tranquillitatis stretch into the distance with crater pits and rocks randomly scattered across the terrain.

The first landing of people on the Moon marks a historic beacon of greatness shining across the ages. Some day it will happen again with new machines and from nations using other languages. But there is only one first time. Here is a panorama made from the historic TV broadcast 56 years ago today.

Friday night's launch from Vandenberg was quite a sight. It rose within Earths shadow, then became lit as it climbed by the very reddened Sun clearing the distant horizon. Orange, gold, white and finally a silvery blue white lighting occurred as the leading hollow plume mass dramatically expanded.

This morning about 2:25 AM Pacific Time I had a good view of the Axiom-4 Crew Capsule re-entry from Joshua Tree, CA. It emerged from the smoky murky horizon and traveled like a slow golden meteor above the Western horizon. Another crew has returned from a shift at the International Space Station.

Ten years ago today humanity completed its initial survey of the Solar System as the New Horizons spacecraft made its long awaited flyby of the Pluto system. This digital painting shows the view at closest approach at 12,500 kilometers from the surface. Pluto and its large moon Charon are shown.

Last night's Sunset from Joshua Tree, Calif. Nice lenticular clouds formed and were worn away by the winds all day, leaving these remnants to catch the last reddened rays of the Sun. The bright golden patch at lower left is the hidden Sun reflecting/refracting itself in the ice crystal clouds.

Tonight, June 29th 2025, the Moon and Mars were close together in the early evening skies. Here's how they looked about 9:08 PM Pacific time, 4:08 UT. Two worlds in space, one we have been to repeatedly and the other still but a dream. They are competing goals for future space flight plans.

On the night of May 10-11 2024 the most widely seen and photographed aurora in many years occurred. This digital painting incorporates a satellite image of that aurora with color artistically added. City lights and gas flare fields are shown, with the Sun, stars and planets as they appeared then.

Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas was a fantastic comet to see and photograph. On October 12, 2024 I photographed the comet at twilight, and the faint anti tail in the dawn sky. The comet was over 60 degrees in length, this digital portrayal combines hand painted details and my rendering of Earth that day.

There is a moment in twilight launches like the one tonight that makes me think of incredibly close encounters between Earth and comets that must have occurred over time. Here we see a launch from Vandenberg briefly appearing to fly parallel with the Southern horizon as seen from Joshua Tree, Calif.

A revised idea for signs for Saturday. The earlier version was misleading, although many references for 'crown, King' etc symbology included little balls at the ends of the points.

Just over 13 years ago, June 5, 2012, Venus passed in front of the Sun. I observed it through a solar telescope and made sketches, from which I made these digital paintings. By turning the filter I could get a safely filtered visible light view or a H-Alpha view revealing prominences etc. #SciArt

Yesterday was a day of beautifully moody clouds. All day the parched High Desert Soil was sprinkled with thin moving masses of light rain, with isolated flash floods as in 29 Palms East of here. Lightning echoed from that direction. The cloud ceiling broke in the distance letting the sun rays in.

When the Lunar Orbiter 4 spacecraft gave us our first good view of the Orientale basin it was revelatory. Not only was this giant multi ringed impact basin first revealed in its general form, other such basins were recognized across the Lunar near side. Oil paints on canvas panel.

A mysterious and fascinating place is the center of our galaxy. As optical and radio telescopes have improved we see more details of this enigmatic and dynamic region. On the left we see a radio image of the activity surrounding the central black hole, on the right a recent JWST Infrared image.

On the night of May 24th a SpaceX 'Dragon' capsule, after completing its supply mission to the International Space Station, re-entered the atmosphere along the California coast. From Joshua Tree much of the fiery re entry was visible, looking like a white dot with a long yellow to orange trail.

This image of the early dawn on Mars was obtained March 1, 2025 on the 1,433rd Martian day, or Sol, of the Perseverance Rover. Simeon Schmauß did the initial highly involved processing of this dim light image, I then evened out the color response across that image and made overall tonal adjustments.

Today the balloon was still visible. I got a photo through my telescope. According to a flight radar site it rose from the nearby Marine reserve near 29 Palms. People near the Southern US border should watch the skies for such balloons as I have a report of one also in Arizona. More in the Alt text.

A high altitude weather balloon caused people in the area to look up and wonder. It looked visually like a tiny round spot a small fraction of the apparent width of our Moon in the sky. It reminded me of a soap bubble, although it was only round from underneath. It was reddened during it's Sunset.

A nice Apollo 16 image of Earth that includes North America. The Western deserts stand out against the blue oceans. Baja California is prominent near the center, with the Gulf of California separating it from Mexico.

45 Years ago the eruption of Mt. St. Helens took place. Nearly two decades later I worked on an animation of the event for the St. Helens volcano visitor center. The original video panorama might not exist anymore, here it is in a stepped low res version. #SciArt www.facebook.com/don.davis1/v...

During the Apollo 11 mission, photos were made of Earth including this one showing Africa and Europe. This is from the ASU Apollo scans, which are high res and quality. For many years this was the best visual reference for the Sahara/Arabia region when portraying the Earth in paintings and models.

Here is the state of progress on the Orion nebula painting. This is the initial 'undercoat' which will, after a little more detailing, be painted over with UV charged luminous paint in various colors in a dark room. At that point it will start looking awful and with no subtlety in visible light.

The Sunset of May 12 2025 was an epic spectacle. A fortuitously long clear path of very filtered sunlight illuminated the undersides of a dynamically changing broken cloud ceiling with a vivid orange then deepening red light. If it wasn't so windy I would have made a time lapse sequence.

One year ago the Great Aurora of May 10-11 became the widest seen aurora of historic times. From Joshua Tree at 34 degrees North the red aurora extended its vertical rays from beyond the Northern horizon while the outer border could be seen overhead, as this fisheye view shows.

I am working on my luminous pigment Orion nebula painting. Prints were made for reference, and I am airbrushing in the initial details using thinned acrylic white underpainting onto the black painted canvas. Later the luminous paint layers will be added and finally the bright 'Europium' paint stars.