Unbelievable series of photos by Dan Danbom. Dan, I can’t thank you enough for sharing this with me and my readers! This is an amazing series! What a gift to those of us who couldn’t see it or stay up long enough!

Dan lives in Monterey, CA, for those of you not familiar with his work. He has also taken incredible shots of condors, as well as the Big Sur Coast. Check out his website: Danigraph

This is what Dan had to say about his shots: “We were dodging haze, or mist, and super sharp clear, so I tried in the clear spots. It is tricky, and I came up with this, so I put together three images, that sort of show the progression, and then the clouds came in at the last, and the covered moon did not show much, so I quit, as it is marginal shooting the reddish moon that is really dark, at night, but if you want to post my efforts, that is fine. It is tricky getting the image to look right as it is small in the frame. With the limits of your blog image space, size wise, I cropped in so it would show small size on the blog, I will also attach the image that was not cropped so you can see what my telephoto did, ok, but no super long, like my short pockets afford. Dan”

If this is what you can do in difficult conditions and with a limited telephoto, wow! I can’t imagine it getting any better than this!

Today’s Storm Watch post is immediately below.

Before I continue on with storm reporting for the foreseeable future, here are a couple more trees to enjoy:

As we approach winter conditions, I would like to post a winter photograph from 2008 that Trey Kropp sent in. I love when it snows! I am pretty sure that is because it doesn’t happen often enough or hard enough for me to get snowed in more than once or twice a season.

From NASA: For the first time in almost 20 years, northern autumn began on the night of a full Moon. The coincidence sets the stage for a “Super Harvest Moon” and a must-see sky show to mark the change of seasons.

The action began at sunset on Sept 22nd, the last day of northern summer. As the sun sank in the west, bringing the season to a close, the full Harvest Moon rose in the east, heralding the start of fall. The two sources of light mixed together to create a kind of 360-degree, summer-autumn twilight glow that is only seen on rare occasions.

The Harvest Moon gets its name from agriculture. In the days before electric lights, farmers depended on bright moonlight to extend the workday beyond sunset. It was the only way they could gather their ripening crops in time for market. The full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox became “the Harvest Moon,” and it was always a welcome sight.

This one would be extra welcome because it is extra “Harvesty.”
Usually, the Harvest Moon arrives a few days to weeks before or after the beginning of fall. It’s close, but not a perfect match. The Harvest Moon of 2010, however, reaches maximum illumination a mere six hours after the equinox. This has led some astronomers to call it the “Harvestest Moon” or a “Super Harvest Moon.” There hasn’t been a comparable coincidence since Sept 23, 1991, when the difference was about 10 hours, and it won’t happen again until the year 2029.

A Super Harvest Moon, a rare twilight glow, a midnight conjunction—rarely does autumn begin with such celestial fanfare.

And by the way, I am interested in publishing a few fall photos from my readers. They must be taken in Big Sur. Send them to me as an attachment to an email only, please, to: kwnovoa@mac.com