I finally got a decent picture of Orion. An almost half moon is lighting up the foreground, but it should be looking even better on Monday or Tuesday when the moon is getting fuller. If only we get clear skies, that is – it was supposed to be sunny today but the clouds didn’t go…

Venus is by far the brightest ”star” in the sky these days (nights). Its magnitude is a whopping -4.5, compare that to the -1.5 of Sirius which is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere. In February they can both be seen in the evening sky for comparison, but for now I was just stunned…

The weather has been very much overcast lately so I haven’t had a chance to try out my star 15 theory until tonight. Full moon is on Friday but there’s plenty enough light to go around already, I hardly needed my flashlight in the snow covered forest. It made composition easier as well because it…

I just learned that the constellation of Cygnus, or Swan, is sometimes also called the Northern Cross. Fair enough. Light on the trees was provided courtesy of an almost full moon.

As a child, the first star constellation I learned was the Big Dipper – I think if people know just one constellation here up north, then it’s the Big Dipper. After that, I learned Cassiopeia and then I was proud to find the Polar Star. I added more and more constellations to my casual astronomy…