Friday the Thirteenth

 

                Early in the morning my alarm woke me up, it seemed as if I had just gone to bed. In reality, I had been sleeping a whopping three hours. It was the beginning of another Friday the thirteenth.

                Coming home from work, the stars were visible outside my car windows. I was hoping that they would remain there until morning, I had some plans in mind.

                There was going to be a grouping consisting of the thin crescent moon and two planets rising above the horizon about an hour before sunrise. I was hoping to get a picture of them or if not that, at least get to see them. I had my list prepared, most of the items I would be taking were all ready in the car; my camera, tripod and the binoculars. I needed to make some coffee and I could leave.

                With my steaming cup in hand, I opened the door and saw…clouds. There were a couple stars visible in-between the bands but most of the sky was hidden.  My big decision was, should I go back to bed or should I continue on and hope that the clouds would clear up?

                I decided to continue on, why waste a perfectly good cup of coffee? My destination was the cemetery about a mile away from my house. Situated high on a hill above a wide valley it gives a perfect view to the east. Many a sunrise have I experienced there, sadly, I’ve missed quite a lot of astronomical events here also! Curse those clouds!

                Things off to the east were pretty well fogged in, bands of various thicknesses slowly worked their way across my shooting field. Every so often I’d see a glimmer of a star, Venus I imagined since it is the brightest object in that portion of the sky. I set up the tripod and put the camera on it just in case, there was still another hour until the sun came up. I got out my binoculars and started scanning back and forth. I didn’t see a thing…

                There was a period where Venus broke free of the clouds and shone like a spotlight through the clouds. Then it disappeared again. Behind me, in the west, Orion was dropping down behind some trees. The sky to my back was pretty much clear. I debated moving the camera but decided to take a short walk instead. Then a glow appeared!

                I pulled the binoculars up and saw a thin crescent moon. It was very thin, only 4-5% illuminated, but still bright enough to make it through the haze. I snapped a couple pictures before it disappeared again. Looking overhead, I saw that the clearing was slowly working its way towards the east, there was still hope!

             

               To make a long story short, the moon and Venus rose up above the clouds into the clearing sky and I did get a chance to see the planet Mercury situated below the moon. I didn’t get to see the trio together but I did see them separately. The sky was getting brighter and the stars in the west were fading so I packed up my gear and headed home. I watched the moon and Venus out my side window as I drove. At home, the pair was easily seen high in the sky, Mercury was still hidden in the trees.

                I brought the camera and my coffee cup inside, wrote some quick notes and then crawled back into bed. This Friday the thirteenth was off to a good start!

                A quick note about Friday the thirteenth, I have yet to have a bad one and truthfully, most of them have been really good. It does give me a chance to use one of my favorite words; triskaidekaphobia!   It means “fear of the number 13” Once you figure out how to pronounce it, it will become a word that sticks in your memory, that’s what happened to me!  Happy 13^th!