Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Fall in Upper SC

Fall is late this year in our neck of the woods. I took this picture on Nov. 10, 2010.


When I get a chance to get out and look around, I usually like to pause and listen to the rustle of the leaves as the squirrels forage in the daytime, listen for the deer and owls in the night, and breath in the fresher, drier, haze free air. Fall comes with so many memories of the past, both happy and sad, yet a sense of inner peace always seems to come as well. I am brought to a state of balance with that which is living in the here and now and that which has gone before me into the larger life.


I also love to look up and see the clear blue Carolina skies by day,



 and the appearance of the winter constellations, whose stars seem to stand out much more vividly, by night.  

Sorry, no pictures of the night sky, but I did get a chance to stretch out and do some stargazing from my dark sky cavesite this weekend. I was treated to naked eye and binocular views of the Andromeda galaxy (which, when zoomed in, looks a bit like this sketch by Messier),





The mouth of my cave is perfectly situated to view the star clusters in Auriga as it rises in the eastern sky,




I am trying to fatten up on these days and nights and prepare my cave for the winter months.

Thank You Lord for this time of year.

7 comments:

  1. Amen, brother. Drove through your part of the world yesterday and was delighted to see the color. Not much in my part of the world. Refreshing to this midwestern heart.

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  2. Steve,

    Glad you could take the time to watch the tapestry God has made before us.

    Best of luck for your endeavors.

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  3. Anonymous11:29 AM

    Late fall tends to be the best for stargazing. Some years back, I invested in a really good pair of binoculars which I find are more useful than setting up a telescope.

    Cheers.

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  4. Randall,

    I love my Nikon Zoom 10-22x50's.

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  5. Enjoyed this post from a fellow-stargazer. The pre-dawn sky has been filled with spectacular meteors of late. One I saw recently was so large and moving so slowly I wondered if it might have been an old man-made satellite.

    As for fall, one of these days I would like to get by Lake Jocassee that time of year.

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  6. Good to find another star-gazer.

    You appear to have beeter conditions than us

    :(

    Pax

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  7. Should have said - my passion is the M42 (Orion Nebula)


    V

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