The God of War Looms Close

No, not Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, nor Mr. Rumsfeld.

Mars - the planet - comes very close to us (comparatively speaking) around 11:25 PM EDT Saturday. Only second time in 60,000 years (so they say) it's been this close.

Damned, we're supposed to be snowy up here so we won't see it. But wow, has Venus been beautiful coming up over the studio at the other side of my yard right after dinner. It's actually hurt my naked eyes with its brilliance more than once, although I am not complaining.

Skywatchers, btw, do themselves a disservice if they don't take a cold weather vacation to some place like Vermont. Our cold night skies can almost look more yellow-white than black because you can see so damned much. I kid you not: I've manually counted as many as (roughly) 517 stars, planets, etc. in just one patch of sky. Meteor showers truly ARE out of this world.

While my partner, John, has a big telescope set up so it wheels out of the house and does some through-scope photography (he's gotten some stunning stuff), I like just looking with my eyes. I'm not an avid celestialist, either. The beauty, however, catches me every time and hooks me until my eyes can no longer focus.

We've been known to bundle up in parkas, grab thermal cups of coffee, and camp out on the lawn chairs in the middle of the lawn