Yesterday's trip to Culver's resulted in an early wake up call this morning. Unable to fall back to sleep, I hopped on the computer and found that I was up before the Astronomical Twilight. Which in English, means that all the illumination in the sky is from the stars and planets! No sunlight just yet.
With a little time before having to get ready for work, this was the perfect opportunity for Dawn Patrol. I bundled up, grabbed the binoculars and headed out into the cold. Although it is now offically spring, with a clear sky and snow on the ground, temps are still pretty chilly here in the great white north. The temp from a local weather station that reports on Wunderground.com was a balmy 16 degrees.
There's a couple of pro's and a con to dawn patrol. The con is that you are in a race against the rising sun. Dawdle to long, and sunlight will quickly lower the curtains on the starry sky. On the plus side, you get a sneak peak of the evening sky several months from know. Also, the sky tends to be a little darker in the morning, as some outdoor lights are turned off after business close for the evening.
With this, I had a nice view of what would normally be a late July evening sky. The summer triangle was nicely positioned in the east, with Scorpio holding court in the southern sky. It was kind of odd to see that famous summer constellation with snow under foot. Rounding out the show was a waning crescent moon low in the southeast sky.
All in all, a nice change of pace for a Monday morning.
