The evening star

05/11/12, 9 pm looking west

Friday, May 11th was a perfect day of cool, clear cerulean sky, gentle breezes and bright sunshine. So, nothing much to paint during the day, right? I waited until evening to catch Venus in the west with the beginnings of an overcast sky. The clouds moved through the sky framing the brilliant planet and reflecting ambient light from the city below.


Early observers thought that Venus was two stars, one that appeared in the morning and one that shown in the evening. Here's a nice summary from a Wikipedia article:

Venus was known to ancient civilizations both as the "morning star" and as the "evening star", names that reflect the early understanding that these were two separate objects. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, dated 1581 BC, shows that the Babylonians understood that the two were a single object, referred to in the tablet as the "bright queen of the sky," and could support this view with detailed observations. The Greeks thought of the two as separate stars, Phosphorus and Hesperus, until the time of Pythagoras in the sixth century BC. The Romans designated the morning aspect of Venus as Lucifer, literally "Light-Bringer", and the evening aspect as Vesper.

 I like the name the Babylonians gave the planet--Venus, bright queen of the sky.

Three moons

12/9/11 7:45 pm, looking up, Armour House

Yes, I know it is the same moon, just three visions of it in these paintings. In the first image from December 9th at 7:45 pm, there is something I'm calling a moonbow. Since there is a Wikipedia entry for it, it must exist, right? Apparently Aristotle thought so for he wrote about the rare moon rainbow in his Meteorology.


There was a lot of moisture in the air, a very dewy dew point, and maybe it reflected a ring of moonlight around the moon as I looked up at it. A full moon halo. So a true moonbow is white since it emanates from moonlight. Any bow containing prismatic colors is caused by sunlight.

12/10/11. 5:45 am, facing west

The second moon painting is the setting moon on the following morning at 5:45 am. This moon wears an altostratus cloud cap. This portrait was taken just before the lunar eclipse which we were unable to see on the East coast of the US. The moon set here before the eclipse began.

12/11/11, 7:30 pm, facing east

The third moon still looks full but is a waning gibbous moon at 92 percent illumination. The moon shine is particularly bright and strong. The moon face is seems somewhat quizzical and amused in its personality. Altogether, this is a charming, waxing gibbous moon.

Full moon with thin clouds

The November full moon has several names. According to the Farmer's Almanac it is the Beaver Moon, the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze. The Old Farmer's Almanac agrees with Beaver moon. StarDate calls the November full moon the Frosty moon with no explanation except the obvious one.


Many more names are listed in the Wikipedia entry for the November full moon: Hunter's moon, Beaver moon, Frost moon, and Snow Moon. Calling the moon by its name makes one think more about the natural rhythm of the seasons.


This full moon was covered by thin clouds passing north at 11 pm on November 10th. The clouds around the moon reflected its light through the diffuse layers. It was a magical sight!