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There was a treat in the skies above Massachusetts Tuesday night September 17, 2024. It was the September full moon, a supermoon known as the "Harvest Moon". It's also called the "Corn Moon."

During this full moon there was also a partially lunar eclipse.

What's a supermoon?

A supermoon is simply a full moon that occurs when the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit (also known as perigee). This tends to happen about three-to-four times each year, and we'll get another one next month. Supermoons look a bit larger and brighter than a typical full moon.

Lunar eclipse

As lunar eclipses go, this one was pretty minor.

At its peak, the Earth's shadow covered only 9% of the moon's diameter over Massachusetts. This means about 4% of the moon's surface entered the umbra, the darkest portion of the Earth's shadow.

Here are photos I took just before the partial eclipse started and then when about 9% of the lunar eclipse was occurring.

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(Image credit: NASA)

On Sept. 7, 1995, the space shuttle Endeavour launched on mission STS-69. This was the 100th successful crew spaceflight mission for NASA.

Endeavour lifted off from NASA's historic launch site at Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A. During the 11-day mission, five crewmembers did science experiments.

David M. Walker, Commander

Kenneth D. Cockrell, Pilot

James S. Voss, Payload Commander

Michael L. Gernhardt, Mission Specialist

James H. Newman, Mission Specialist

They deployed and retrieved a satellite called Spartan 201, and conducted a nearly seven-hour-long spacewalk to practice methods future astronauts would use to build the International Space Station.

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Worker Bees in my Backyard.

Worker bees are female bees in a honey bee colony, and they are responsible for performing most of the tasks required to maintain the hive and support the survival of the colony. Worker bees collect nectar and pollen, build and maintain the hive, care for the young, and defend the colony against predators.

Worker bees are produced by the queen bee laying fertilised eggs, and they are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes. The worker bees are sterile and do not mate with the queen.

Worker bees have specialised physical characteristics, such as pollen baskets on their hind legs for carrying pollen, wax glands on their abdomens for building comb, and a specialised gland for producing royal jelly, which is fed to the young larvae.

The worker bees communicate with each other through a variety of methods, including pheromones and “dances” that indicate the location of food sources. Worker bees are crucial to the survival of a honey bee colony, and their tireless efforts help ensure that the hive is healthy and thrivin

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FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. His son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, confirmed the death to The Associated Press.

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I did a video of the USS Constitution turnaround from Castle Island South Boston, Massachusetts on 5.17.24. The is the 21 gun salute to Fort Independence and the fort returns the the gun salute.

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I went to Castle Island South Boston, Massachusetts on Friday May 17, 2024 for the annual turnaround of the USS Constitution.The weather was very nice and there was a good turn out for the event. The ship stops at the fish pier and turns to face Fort Independence and does a 21 gun salute. Then the fort returns the 21 gun salute to the ship. There was three sailors from USS Consitution that were dressed in 1812 era uniforms on the pier. They provided info about the ship as the event got under way. The USS Constitution next turnaround will be on July 4th.

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Known as Sunspot AR3664, this is one of the largest sunspots we have seen in decades. In fact, many experts are comparing it to a famous sunspot way back in 1859, known as "Carrington's sunspot". AR3664 is nearly 200,000 km wide, the size of about 15 Earths! How to see the northern lights Hunting for aurorae is one of the most accessible forms of visual astronomy. To see the northern lights, all you have to do is find a good dark-sky site, a clear horizon, and look north — in the Northern Hemisphere, of course. (In the Southern Hemisphere, a G4-level storm could generate aurorae visible at dark-sky sites as far north as Sydney and Perth.) The best time to observe the northern lights is around midnight, when the auroral oval is typically farthest south and the sky is darkest.

Keep in mind that if your dark-adapted eyes can’t see anything, a camera — even the one on your phone, in night mode — may well be able to capture aurorae that you cannot.

Here are photos I took today of the massive sunspot.

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I did a time-lapse video of my photos from the April 8th solar eclipse. I combined about 30 photos in Adobe Premiere and added a music track.

Clear Skies!

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Here are my photos of The April 8th Solar Eclipse. Where I live in Massachusetts the max totality was 93%. As an avid astronomer and photographer this was an exciting event. It would have been great to have been in the path of full totality but I was not able do that. I am so glad that over 31 million people got to see full totality and I hope this sparks peoples interest in the celestial wonders of the night sky.

Clear skies!

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Tonight's pairing of Jupiter and the Moon. They may be close in the sky but not in our solar system. The Moon is 238 thousand miles from Earth and Jupiter is 484 million miles away.

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Possibly the most terrifying space photograph ever taken on February 7, 1984 . NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless floats untethered 320ft from his spacecraft using only his nitrogen-propelled, hand controlled backpack called a Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU) to keep him alive. Photo was taken by Robert L. "Hoot"Gibson pilot of the shuttle Challenger using a Hasselblad camera.

In the close up photo Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, one of two STS-41B mission specialists participating in a historic spacewalk is a few meters away from the cabin of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Challenger in this 70mm frame using a Hasselblad Camera. This spacewalk represented the first use of the MMU which provided greater mobility than that afforded previous spacewalkers who had to use restrictive tethers. Robert L. Stewart later tried out the MMU McCandless is using here, and the two of them tested another similar unit two days later. Inside the spacecraft were astronauts Vance D. Brand, commander; Robert L. Gibson, pilot; and Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist.

Image Credit: NASA

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Today (12.24.23) is the 55th anniversary of one of the most famous and influential photographs ever taken. This was the first color photo of the earth titled “Earthrise,” went on to become one of the most iconic images of the 20th century and is often credited for propelling the environmental movement that led to the first Earth Day in 1970.

'Earthrise' was captured on Christmas Eve, 1968 on Apollo 8.

Particularly poignant this year - the first without the whole crew still with us (crew pictured above), after the recent loss of Frank Borman.

Although credited to Bill Anders, the photograph was a real crew effort. It was Frank Borman who turned the spacecraft to inadvertently bring Earth into view, noticed by Bill Anders: "Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!...Hand me that roll of color quick!" Jim Lovell found the color magazine and Anders captured the moment; a photograph that will live forever.

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God Bless all of you, all of you on the Good Earth!"

Frank Borman

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I was able to a get a photo today of the annular solar eclipse before the clouds moved in over Massachusetts. We were only going to see about 10-20 percent of totality. The path of full totality was in the states of Utah, New Mexico and Texas. The definition of annular eclipse is a eclipse of the sun in which the moon does not cover the entire disc of the sun, so that a ring of sunlight surrounds the shadow of the moon, called the ring of fire.

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Sunset on September 15, 2023 @ 7pm. The night before Hurricane Lee passed by the east coast of Massachusetts.

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Fly me to the moon the Super Blue Moon. I was doing a video on the night of August 30th with my telescope and camera and caught a plane crossing the moon.

This is the second full moon in the month, called a blue moon which coincided with the moon being closer too Earth in its orbit making it appear larger, hence a supermoon. The next time this rare phenomenon will occur will be in 2037.

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The sturgeon moon got its name from Native American tribes that found that the giant sturgeons from the Great Lakes were "most readily caught" at this time of the summer, according to Farmer's Almanac. Photo taken on August 1, 2023 with my Canon Rebel T8i attached to my Celestron Omni Telescope.

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Thought I would share some photos from my collection. My partner and I went to Tanglewood Lenox, MA. in 2021 for the Boston Pops 4th of July concert. That year the concert was not held on the Esplanade because of covid. They did have the fireworks in Boston but no concert. The Pops preformed their traditional medley of patriotic favorites, with guest appearances by five time Grammy Award Winner Jon Batiste, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame R&B singer Mavis Staples. The weather was perfect and a beautiful location nestled nicely between Lenox and Stockbridge Mass. to celebrate the 4th