Planets & Moonby Stewart Fitzgerald

The most sensitive survey ever undertaken of the region in the Orion Nebula where new stars are

forming has revealed 13 "free-floating planets" as well as more than one hundred very young brown

dwarfs. The discovery was made by Dr Philip Lucas of the University of Hertfordshire and Dr

Patrick Roche of the University of Oxford using a new camera on the United Kingdom Infrared

Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii.

Mercury/Venus and Spica

Lagoon nebula

Jupiter/Venus conjunction

lunar halo

Moon and Venus at dusk over city lights of El Cajon, CA

Moon and Venus in Gemini at dawn, with reflections

Full moon setting at dawn over Lake Murray, San Diego

Waning crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter at dawn over a

mountain lake

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Comets and Meteors

• Leonid fireball (Nov. 17, 1998) blazes over Anza-Borrego Desert, CA

Geminid meteor streaking from radiant in Gemini,

Dec. 14, 1994

Comet Halley rising at dawn over Imperial Valley, Feb. 22, 1986, from Laguna Mountains, CA

Comet Hale-Bopp, Mar. 2, 1997, over Carrizo Badlands, Anza-Borrego Desert, CA

Earth and Sky/Constellations

• Orion and moonlit waterfall, Laguna Mountains, CA

Moon and winter stars rising over pine forest, Laguna Mountains, CA

Summer Triangle and cirrus clouds over pinyon pine, Anza-Borrego Desert, CA

Big Dipper and Little Dipper over Anza-Borrego Desert, California

Great Square of Pegasus and Saturn (left) over Anza-Borrego Desert, CA

Eclipses

• Total solar eclipse, July 11, 1991, from Baja California

Eclipsed moon setting at dawn, April 25, 1986

Totality, lunar eclipse of Sep. 26. 1996

Earth and Sky/Milky Way • Southernmost Milky Way over thatched huts, Morombe, Madagascar

Summer Milky Way over pine tree crowns, Laguna Mountains, CA

Summer Milky Way over the Watchman, Zion National Park, UT

Earth and Sky/Star Trails

• Winter constellations setting over moonlit Death Valley; from Zabriskie PointTo estimate the number of the Milky Way’s stars, astronomers first assume there’s nothing special about our region of space. They determine the number of different types stars in this region – then extend this knowledge to the galaxy as a whole.

All-night exposure of stars rising over Tyee Lakes, Sierra Nevada

Gemini star trails rising over Cedar Creek Falls, San Diego County, CA

Colorful star trails setting toward southwest

Sunsets/Sunrises/Clouds/Atmospheric Optical Effects

• Rising "double sun" seen from Kumeyaay Indian solstice site, San Diego

Sunset over Pacific Ocean from Cowles Mountain, San Diego, CA

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Cumulonimbus building above Palomar Mountain,

San Diego County, CA

22° -ice-crystal halo around sun

Dawn's glow on altostratus clouds, Cuyamaca Lake, San Diego County, CA