What an amazing world we live in! Natural wonders abound, appear briefly & when least expected! Here is a view of this October’s fullmoon-rise (about 7 hours before 99.7%) over a few lofty peaks of the Clearwater Mountains! The pinkish sky-edge is called the “Belt of Venus”. This is where the remaining sunlight scatters through our atmosphere & the shadow of Earth (below the pink) extends through into space. This is best viewed in panorama (below) later than the initial moo

From another angle, a few hours later, the windless night allowed for glassy waters on Portage Lake as Orion-The Hunter rises in the east. The twin stars of Gemini are at left with the star-filled swath of our Milky Way bisecting Pleiades, Hyades & Orion. We are truly such little people when the stars come out!

While in much of the world light pollution diminishes a sky-view, moonless nights over Alaska are quite stunning, allowing for a crisp glimpse into the Heavens! Two mornings ago a weak auroral glow backlights the central Chugach Mountains ridgeline & a forest of mostly leafless Cottonwoods. The Big Dipper rises at left, the twin stars of Gemini hang in the aurora at low center & the tilted ‘V’ of Hyades sits below the cluster Pleiades (Seven Sisters) at upper right. Three pac