C/2007 N3 Lulin

The second image was auto-contrasted to make the comet more visible (click to embiggen and see annotations).

This is a 13 second video made from the two images.

There are lots of images ans video out there. This is the most astounding I've come across. You can briefly see the dust filaments coming off Lulin. The original is courtesy Space Weather dot com and Filipe Alves of Portugal.

Siriusly

Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) is the brightest star in the sky after the sun, with a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46. It is actually a two star system made up of Sirius A and Sirius B (or the "pup"). Although Sirius A is 10,000 times more luminous than it's companion, Sirius B was once the brighter of the two.

Part of the reason for it's brightness is the Sirius system's proximity to the Solar system. At only 8.6 light years Sirius A and B are two of the eight closest stars to us. However they are also 25 times more luminous than the Sun.

According to wikipedia, Sirius has over 50 other designations and names (emphasis mine):

In Arabic it is known as الشعرى (transliteration: 'al-ši‘rā' or 'al-shira'; English: the leader), from which the alternate name 'Aschere' derives. In Sanskrit, it is known as 'Mrgavyadha,' "deer hunter," or 'Lubdhaka,' "hunter." As Mrgavyadha, the star represents Rudra (Shiva). In Scandinavia, the star has been known as Lokabrenna ("burning done by Loki," or "Loki's torch"), while the Japanese vernacular name of the star is 青星 (Aoboshi, "blue star"). In the astrology of the Middle Ages, Sirius was a Behenian fixed star, associated with beryl and juniper. Its kabbalistic symbol was listed by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.

I think I might start referring to it as "Lokabrenna" :)

Google Maps street view of Rocky Fork

If you click the magnifying glass to zoom in, you can see white house cliff just above the forward ridge of Flint mountain.

You can also click and drag on the view to move it around or click on the arrows to move on down I-26.

Here are a few other views of my own taking :)

dream

Snow!

I took this in the parking lot after work while it was still coming down.

forecast from the weather underground:

Tonight

Snow showers. Brisk. Snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches. Lows 13 to 16. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent. Wind chill readings 5 below to 10 above zero.

Brrr! I took tomorrow off though. Hopefully I will get some good snow pictures:

Wednesday

Snow showers. Snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches. Total snow accumulation 2 to 5 inches. Highs 19 to 22. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 80 percent. Wind chill readings 5 below to 10 above zero.

Snow Moon On The Way

To the native Americans the full moon of February was known as the snow moon. According to English tradition it later became known as the wolf moon. So far this year it seems snow moon would be more appropriate!

I took this shot Saturday night from my friend Kevin's back yard in Erwin. It worked out great. Using my uncle's 55-200 lens allows me to zoom in for much more detail.

It may seem sideways, but this is the way it appeared in the sky as it was headed down toward the horizon. This gives it the appearance of having "horns" pointing up. I read that the 31st was a bad day for planting and I wonder if this has something to do with it. However, Thursday and Friday were ok planting days and the moon would have been horns up on those days as well.