Jupiter and her Moons tonight ~ So beautiful!

Tonight, I am thankful for the ability to see

things so very far away. 

I present Jupiter and her Galilean moons

 10:00 p.m.

11:00 p.m. and now you can see all four visible moons, aka the Galilean Moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. At midnight, the one closest to Jupiter will be even more visible.

Look up! Jupiter is just to the left of the moon!

Javamom

I cannot keep up with God!

No kidding, right?


There is just not enough time in the day to keep up with everything. Even when one makes a concerted effort to "stop and smell the roses," to praise the Creator for beauty and life and to enjoy His simple things. There still is not enough time to accomplish not only what needs to be done, but also those things that our human minds come up with to do. BUT perhaps in enjoying these simple things, we quickly reflect on those things that are not important.

I am simply and utterly speechless at his creation. Almost all of the time. The beauty you see (when to you take the time to see it) could not happen without one incredible power source to fuel the order and natural laws of the universe; a creator with such attention to details that neither man nor substance could ever come up with on its own. Man ruined Eden, and we need a Savior because of it.

I have believed in God since my first memories of understanding this very simple fact.





I *am* inspired by God's order, and by His creativity and beauty. I stop what I'm doing and run out the door on a regular basis to record some of the incredibly spectacular moments on digital images.


Doesn't this one look a little like a volcano? This is slightly later in the sunset than the above two shots. The sun has gone behind and is glowing like fire or molten lava.


His order and creation are not sterile. Dust abounds in His creation, you know. The earth does not always "get a good washing" by rain every day or even every week. I take comfort in this. There are times and seasons of color and of cleanliness in God's outdoor world. Helps me consider and order the necessary people and things in my indoor world.

Javamom
Wishing you a Happy Labor Day off from serious labors

Did you wake your family to see the show?

An example of not being able to hold it still...pretty cool shots, just not perfect and crisp.

Now that I've had a little more time to resize them and check an extra folder that I'd forgotten. THESE are actually from the 4:45 shift. I tried a couple of different exposures.

While these load, open a new browser window to my friend up the road for her children's narrations of the eclipse. Yes, yet another homeschool mom who woke up her famil...NO...I think her family got her up to enjoy this moment together ;-). I love her post and the children's narrations! The bunny is cute, too.

J

This morning's eclipse!

Around 4:55 a.m.














No, I didn't get enough sleep last night, but what fun it was to capture different phases of the eclipse! First I was up just before 5:00, then got up again at 6:45 to take more photos. I have a cheap tripod, so getting the right angle and height and then HOLDING VERY STILL b/c I'm using settings to allow in the most light and not to blur the shot was not very easy! I can't just set the timer, b/c the tripod wasn't tall enough to focus on the correct area of the sky. There were also the veritable mosquitoes buzzing around :-). God's creation put on quite a show in the last 18 hours. Makes me wonder what the sunset will be like tonight!

It's just like a homeschool mom to do something like this...as another hs mom and I discovered we had both "encouraged" our families to join us in watching this rare event. They weren't as excited about it as we were, for some reason.

I hope the booksnkaffeehaus readers are enjoying their week. Shoot me an e-mail sometime! Especially those friends and family who check up on us here, but do NOT leave comments! You know who you are...!

p.s. tonight sunset was downright scary...reminded me of something from Dante's inferno. It was ever-so-brief, and I did NOT have my camera along in the van, once again. Note to self: I must carry my camera everywhere I go. I will make sure that my battery packs are charged and memory cards have plenty of room on them...

Javamom

Amazing Scenery

The sun did not wish to be outdone by the show put on by the moon much of the early hours this morning. I WISH I had photos of the first effort the sunshine put forth around 7:20, but dd and I were in the van, on the way to the coffee shop. I just kept saying "I wish I had my camera!" It was a truly amazing composition and color combination, as it peeped up out of one large cloud, and glowed onto one large clump above it. Above that were six cotton ball clouds, arranged like a crown over the previous mentioned scenery. Above that were the lovely and incredible sun streaks shooting out like the crown on the Statue of Liberty.

This second effort by the sun is about half as beautiful, but still quite exciting!







Sun finally comes out from behind those clouds.

(different settings caused the slightly differing effects.)

Javamom

Lunar Eclipse

My oh my, the moon rise was beautiful this evening. I had to drop off a teen and pick up a Hubby, then head back into our town to go to the first hs meeting of the year. There were some gorgeous color gradations going on in the sky! Too bad we were on the road sans camera. I am planning to be up to capture some of the lunar eclipse on my digital camera in several more hours. I've got to get up anyway, to give my teens a ride to work. One car is getting some maintenance, and I need my van today to meet our youngest son's ride returning home from Minnesota. (It's been sooooo quiet in the house while he was off having a wonderful time with a good buddy.

Hopefully photos of the eclipse in our area will be forthcoming! For now, just enjoy this:



*Some things really do seem to be simply black and white. At least from a distance...*

KWIM?

Javamom