Awesome Morning Sky...

I took the dogs out for their morning walk about about 3:30 am.  The sky was very dark and clear, and moonless.  Even before my eyes accommodated to the darkness I could see bright stars on black sky, so I knew it was going to be good.

We walked slowly down the driveway, the dogs all behaving normally.  Got down to the gate and I looked up for the first time – what an eyeful!  The Milky Way was spectacular, a nearly due-north to due-south band across the celestial “bowl” – bright and full of texture.  There were even a few places where I thought I saw some color.  The stars were so numerous and so steady that some of the constellations I know well were difficult to pick out of the “clutter”.  The relative humidity is sitting at around 40%, so it's not dryness that's making the sky so clear – I'm assuming its the absence of pollution, probably because the wind is from the east (where our desert is) this morning.

The dogs, as usual, couldn't care less about this morning's awesome skies.  Race gamboled after his precious pine cones (lots of green ones on the trees for later this year!), and the three brown dogs were fully engaged in slurping up every trace of smell that might lie on the ground.  All four looked very happy; tails wagging, energetic bounding from one adventure to the next.  They love their morning walks...

Milky Way...

Out with the dogs a little later than usual this morning.  In the eastern sky, the Milky Way shone bright and clear, stretching from the north to the southeast.  I was staring at this celestial beauty, lost in awe, until the arresting aroma of dog poop brought me back to earth.  Oh, well...

Our Galaxy...

Reader Paul H. sends this along, I suspect thinking that I might have missed APOD because of our user conference.  This time APOD has more than just a pretty picture – it links to this interactive sky survey, which is sort of like having an excellent pair of binoculars and a perfectly clear sky, from the comfort of your chair...