New Year's Clouds over Uvalde

Happy New Year!

I was at the Oasis Outback in Uvalde this evening buying Wes some broadhead blade replacements. There's only four more days left in the season for him to shoot a buck, wish him luck! Oasis' parking lot seemed as good a place as any to take one of my last photos for 2008.

No, there's no real point in enlarging this image, but you can do it with a click.


In the sky tonight, this last night of 2008, there was a conjunction with Jupiter and Mercury as well as a conjunction with Venus and the Moon. Clouds prevented my being able to see Jupiter and Mercury but the Moon and Venus were intermittently visible through the clouds. You can read about the conjunctions at EarthSky.Org.

My plan was to drive out to Tularosa Road again to shoot the conjunctions but I had to go into Uvalde this evening (42 miles east of Brackettville) because one can't buy thre gallons of peanut oil in Brackettville. We need the oil because we're frying a turkey on New Year's Day, woot, fried turkey! I can hardly wait!

Because I knew I'd be in Uvalde during tonight's conjunctions I took my camera and tripod. But I forgot the head plate! NO! That means I couldn't actually attach the camera to the tripod. Oh, well. The tripod was still useful as it at least gave me something to sort of rest the camera on while I held it as still as I could. Not having the head plate prevented me from shooting the remarkable Christmas lights on The Square in Uvalde though. Dang. Maybe next year.

As you can see, I didn't get the best shot ever of the Venus/Luna conjunction. And, as I said, Jupiter/Mercury were impossible to see due to clouds. Still, it gave me an excuse to publish one last blog entry for the year.

Goodbye 2008! Hello 2009! Speaking of which, I have to go get tarted up a bit so I can go kiss Wes at midnight. His band is playing on the Fort tonight. I don't usually go to gigs, not my thing, but he's only minutes away. Best to start the New Year right. With a kiss!

I wish us all a fantastic 2009.