Estate Find III

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Now, this… this one makes me pleased. Actually, psyched.

male wood duck Aix sponsa in backyard pond
Remember last week when I said that cedar waxwings had some of the best coloration of the North American birds? Well, wood ducks (Aix sponsa) have them beat, or at least the males do; the females are considerably less flamboyant, which we’ll see in a moment.

More importantly, however, was that this one, and three more, were all spotted in the main pond, the one that sits right off the backyard, and this was taken just fifty meters from my office door. In fact, I saw the movement from my office window – that’s how convenient this is. The only issue is my desk faces away from that window; tragedy.

The saga so far. Several weeks back I heard a call that was not immediately familiar, but nagged at me, and eventually I determined that it was from a wood duck, soon after confirming that they were visiting the lower pond. This is visible from certain perspectives from the main pond, but only just, and it is not easy to get to the edge of, less so if you want to remain, you know, quiet and inconspicuous. Worse, once the grasses and reeds start coming in, they’ll obscure virtually all view of the lower pond unless I’m right at the edge of it, and knowing how spooky wood ducks are, I wasn’t expecting them to use the main, close pond at all. Still, I had plans to place the nest box right at the edge of the main pond, by the small channel and marshy area that led to the lower pond, in the hopes that this would coax them within sight during nesting season.

male wood duck Aix sponsa moving from bright sunlight on backyard pond
Attempts to get photos yielded just one that provided proof of their presence, though I saw them a couple of times, each defeating my attempts to even lock focus. And then they seemed to vanish. I’m not educated on their habits, and didn’t know if I’d simply caught them on their migratory pass south, but then saw them again just this week. Even better, this angle is shooting mostly north, so the light will always be beneficial – if they continue to visit this area.

There were four: two females, two males, but establishing this actually took a little while, because of their habits.

two female and one male wood ducks Aix sponsa hiding under branches overhanging main pond
This is full-frame at 600mm, and you probably found the other male, but can you see the females? I’ll give you time to look.

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Okay, that’s long enough – we at least had the advantage that we’d see occasional movement. But it does give a good idea of what we were seeing, and why the binoculars were needed, and that the debate on exactly how many there were went on for several minutes. Here’s the tighter crop:

image cropped down to showing the two females and one male wood ducks Aix sponsa, under branches overhanging pond
The two females are to the left, facing left, distinguished most readily by the white marking around their eyes. What this also shows is that, outside of bright sunlight, the iridescence of the males vanishes entirely, and the contrasty white markings on the head now serve to break up their profile and make them blend in with the scattered branches and reeds. They seem to know this well, because in observing them for a couple of hours, they rarely left the camouflage of the thicket of overhanging branches, and were wholly disinclined to swim out in open water like the mallards do. The one male in the sunlight, seen in the first two images, only traversed an open space between two heavily shaded areas, and that’s when I was timing my shots. Moreover, I was well back from the edge of the pond, right alongside the house, and he was clearly aware of my presence; getting closer is liable to be a real challenge.

I have a nest box constructed and finally chose a spot for it; now I’m debating on whether to put it there or place it a lot closer to the area where these pics were taken. It will likely be both, as I construct another within the next couple of weeks, the sooner the better to get the ducks used to their presence. Both will be tricky, because the pond bottom is boggy as hell and the boxes should be a meter-and-a-half or better off of the water surface; this would mean driving in a pole near three meters in length, and I have no easy way of doing that on dry land, much less something akin to quicksand. One, at least, will be strapped to a tree, but I don’t think there are any good candidates by this particular spot. I’ve considered doing a floating stand that’s simply anchored to one spot at the edge of the pond, but that’s much more elaborate construction work, and I’m only adequate at woodworking.

One last view:

male wood duck Aix sponsa regaining the cover of overhanging branches on backyard pond
The adventurous male is regaining the cover of the branches near the others here, but this was the only perspective that showed the speckling of the chestnut breast feathers, and more of that fabulous iridescence. Better pics will be forthcoming, as I achieve them.

Note: This post was already completed and scheduled to appear when I discovered that today would be/is World Waterfowl Day – that worked out nicely. Will there be more? We’ll just have to see…

How do I get in the loop?

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Man, I hate finding things out too late, but at least this time I’m not, though it’s certainly cutting it close. I just happened to check out the calendar for Sylvan Heights Bird Park and discovered that tomorrow, January 17th, is a whole new holiday (for realsies): World Waterfowl Day. It’s too late for us to make explicit plans, and while the park is now just over an hour away, it’s been cold as hell and not the kind of weather to do outings of this nature.

That said, we have a decent-sized pond out back, so the opportunity to find something is right there, and there’s also a state park not quite 20 kilometers away too – we’ll see what happens. I apologize for posting this so late, but I literally just found out about this before I started typing. I did, however, already have an image in the blog folder that would work.

male and female mallards Anas platyrynchos pausing during feeding in the backyard pond
It was a few days back when some mallards (Anas platyrynchos) were cruising around feeding in the close portion of the pond, and while they were spending a lot of time with their heads under water, I crept closer. This is just after they realized someone was standing in the middle of the yard watching them; the male has noticeably stood higher and more alert, before they began swimming to a safer distance.

I’m still wondering how I never heard anything about the new holiday until now, and trying to determine how I can subscribe to news of this nature – without, of course, resorting to the utterly worthless bullshit that is social media. But it’s now in my personal calendar at least, so you’ll get far more warning next year.

Chill hawks

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pair of red-shouldered hawks Buteo lineatus perched together on cold morning
Early this morning before the temperature had risen above freezing, the local pair of red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) had perched together for a few minutes in the backyard, immediately after the female had taken unsuccessful shots at two possible meals, one of them an unidentified bird. We rarely see them together, and so far never as close as this, though we know they’re remaining together – again, not 100% sure they’re a mated pair and not simply siblings, but it seems pretty likely at this point, and we’ll be watching for a nest within the next two months. Due to the size disparity, it is likely the female on the left, and she’s the one that usually hunts in the yard, but as you can see, differentiating them by markings is next to impossible.

As you can also see, once spring comes and the trees leaf out, their visibility is going to become much worse – we’re certainly not going to have this view right out the back door, so I’m happy to take advantage of it now. At the same time, they’re so used to our presence now that they won’t spook unless we get within 10-15 meters, which is a help. Meanwhile, the great blue heron that visits the pond takes off at first sight of us, regardless of the distance, and the mallards are only slightly more tolerant. I’ve seen both species being way more accepting of human presence than this, so perhaps it’s just a matter of conditioning. We’ll see what we can do…

Sorting finds n+10

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It’s funny – I finally sat down yesterday to clear out the burgeoning Sort folder of new images, slotting them into their respectful spots (which includes the trash bin,) and less than 24 hours later, that folder is already up to 71 images. Some of those you’ve already seen, since the occultation photos came in there, but some will show up on Friday.

For now, we have a handful that I rediscovered while sorting and set aside to feature as curiosities. Like this one of the cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) that had gathered a few days back:

cedar waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum showing deceptive shadow
As I remarked then, cedar waxwings have some of the best coloration, but this view of the chin showed something unexpected: a sharp black point, kind of an underside widow’s peak, right under the chin. I thought, What a cool marking!, but other images showed that it isn’t actually present – it’s only the shadow of the bird’s own beak. Oh well.

But while here, we see another frame of the same bird feeding.

cedar waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum looking into camera with indigo berry in its beak
Grasping one of the little indigo berries that the small flock was feeding upon, this one looked right into the camera, or at least appears to, perhaps showing off its meal smugly (or not.) I could have had a few like this, were it not for all the intervening branches that also tended to grab autofocus, but at least here there’s the faintest hint of the deep brown color of the eyes. And it gives an idea of how many images got tossed because of those branches.

After sorting, I also did a tally of the images obtained for 2024, which is below.

Aquatic: 34
Arthropods: 652
Beach: 0 (I think I lamented this earlier)
Birds: 2,458
Invertebrates: 2
Lakes/Streams/Waterfalls: 1,127
Leaves/Plants/Trees: 459
Mammals: 107
Mountain: 35 (I thought this would be lower, but I forgot I went to Tennessee to pick up my brother)
Reptiles/Amphibians: 768
Scenic/Abstract: 332
Science/Miscellaneous: 586
Space: 270 (well, if we count those taken in space, that number is 0)
Sunrise/Sunset: 156

That totals 6,986 – mind you, those are the keepers, so not an accurate tally of how many I actually took, but it’s still lower than other years. Some of them got into multiple categories as well, so reduce by 5-10% if you’re interested in the actual number of distinct images. Oh, you’re not?

But doing this, I found that the first bird images of 2024 were an unexpected subject, a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) visiting the neighborhood pond.

long shot of mature bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus hanging out at neighborhood pond
That’s the first, the ‘insurance frame’ taken as it came into sight, in case the bird spooked before I got close enough for better ones, which happens from time to time. It’s full-frame as well, but crops down halfway decently:

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus perched overlooking neighborhood pond
The tangle of branches gives entirely the wrong impression, since the eagle was at the edge of the pond with a clear view and a clear flight path. I just liked the idea that the first bird was not only an eagle, but one I wouldn’t have expected to find until going down to Jordan Lake, some kilometers south. This was taken January 24th, and I’ve got that beat this year, since my first bird pics were on the 2nd, but admittedly those are only mallards. The eagle, meanwhile, visited several times over the following couple of weeks, but seems to have vanished at the same time that the red-shouldered hawks began their pre-mating territorial displays, so there’s a distinct possibility that they chased it off.

And finally,

small flock of Canada geese Branta canadensis taking off in heavy fog over Pamlico River, with solitary one swimming underneath
I realized during sorting that this one had a little snide commentary, as a small flock of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) took flight in the thick fog a few weeks back, while another sits complacently alongside a sign indicating its cowardice. Or something. That whole flock ran straight into the masts of the sailboats moored about fifty meters away*, so the joke’s on them, eh?

But that’s it for sorting finds, until the next, which typically comes over a thousand images off, since that’s how I parcel out my time: put on some podcasts and just plod through the folder. I could do it daily, but then how would I catch up on podcasts, huh? Okay, then.

* No they didn’t

Mostly good

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So I did indeed get out to view the occultation of Mars by the mean ol’ moon (ours, I mean, not any of the other planets’,) and even snagged a couple of video clips. The nice thing was, Mars was bright enough to be seen near the moon with only a slight overexposure of the moon itself, so that worked out acceptably well.

Mars nearing occultation by full moon
You can see it easily down there at the bottom, and also that the moon isn’t quite full, but close enough for our purposes (well, any phase would be fine for our purposes, and even a crescent might have looked cool.) This was with the Tamron 150-600 at 600mm of course, which we can zoom in on to see at full resolution.

Mars nearing occultation by moon, full resolution at 600mm
Video resolution would be different, though, so I switched over to using the 2X teleconverter with the lens – this reduces light by two stops, but this was easily compensated with aperture and ISO.

full resolution image of Mars just before occultation, through 600mm lens and 2X teleconverter
You can actually make out some striations on Mars now, though I’m not 100% sure this isn’t atmospherics and lens aberrations – one of my frames appears to show the polar cap, while others don’t, and there was evidence of increasing high-altitude humidity.

Now, I did get the telescope out, and temperature-stabilized and collimated and everything, but it was close to a waste of time: the camera mount that I had for it wouldn’t work with the objective standoff, and I couldn’t achieve focus – the sensor was too far away from the focal point. During the occultation, I amused myself with looking at some details on the moon and even a bit of the nebulae around Orion’s dagger, but that was about it, and couldn’t do a thing about getting images. I have a webcam adaptation that I need to get working, so there’s that project.

But, I did shoot video with the long lens and teleconverter, at least:

As mentioned within, Stellarium’s plotting of the times seems to be slightly off; I’ve noticed this before, so naturally on the reappearance I started early to capture the right moment, but this meant that the moon was moving out of the frame during the reemergence, leading to my little screwup. Not that big a deal, since the resolution was still too low for a nice look anyway, not to mention those cirrus clouds reducing the visibility.

[A note about the motion: what you’re seeing is mostly the rotation of the Earth, causing both the moon and Mars to slide across the sky. But the moon itself is revolving around the Earth in the opposite direction, quite slowly in comparison since it takes 28 days to do a full orbit. This means that everything appears to be moving to the upper right (for this time of night and perspective, anyway,) but the moon still blots out Mars in the opposite direction, or Mars slides behind the moon as it overtakes it, whatever you like. It’s the same with eclipses. Seems odd, but most of the apparent motion is just the Earth turning.]

The same full-resolution view of Mars after it reappeared looks much worse now due to atmospheric distortion:

Mars near the moon after reappearing following occultation, partially obscured by cirrus clouds
I did several frames, tweaking focus in between, but this was the clearest that I achieved. It did not help that the moon was significantly higher now and required an awkward position to see through the viewfinder, and I was viewing through glasses that weren’t flat to the eyepiece. I should have dug out the right-angle viewfinder attachment.

Overall, though, it was successful, just not as close or resolved as I would have liked. Still working on it.

Edging out the little guy

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Tomorrow night, a little after 9 PM EST (so 2 AM Jan 14 UTC – adjust as necessary,) the moon will occult Mars, pretty directly for most of the US. This will last for a little over an hour before Mars reappears again out the other side, so this is an easy thing to spot by naked eye, and a good target for telephoto lenses, small and large telescopes.

plot of Mars occultation by moon 1/13/25
Plot of Mars occultation by moon from Stellarium for this location – other regions will vary somewhat

I keep making noises to this effect, and keep not doing it, but I really should get the telescope set up for this – it’s a good, easy target and we even have conditions tonight for a test run. It’s cold out there, and the scope is always a bitch to set up, align, collimate, and all that – I understand why people build backyard observatories. And ideally, I should have the tracking motor working, but last year’s attempts to get this together for the solar eclipse produced almost nothing – it seemed to be working, but not properly, and I had no way of determining why not. In this case however, the target area will be broad enough that tracking may be unnecessary.

The big caveat: the moon is a hell of a lot brighter than Mars, and so an exposure to get good detail from both isn’t happening, but if you’re into astrophotography, you’re probably used to Photoshopping (I think they call it “image stacking,” but potato/potato) to get an image that shows both, so have at it. I may do some experiments tonight to see what relative exposures are necessary. The moon is easy, but we can bleach that out a bit to capture Mars as it hides.

If you haven’t done it yet, download Stellarium, and get it set for your location. It’s really damn handy. And good luck!

Something tagged this way comes

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It’s January, it’s cold, everyone (in the northern hemisphere) is cooped up inside, and to top it all off, we’re back with the tag roundup – death and tags, you can’t escape them. And while you think you know what tags are and what they’re for, here on the ol’ Walkabout blogaroonie, they’re also irreverent and uncouth comments on the content, and since both the content and the snark are all ours, this says something that a therapist could probably have a field day with.

Now, there are 7,890 tags on the blog now, and a whopping 5,125 of them have been used only once, which is disturbing even to us – we’re gonna have to spay them or something. But before that happens, we’ll examine a few of the more… um… we’ll examine a few of them.

ha ha ha urk! – We’re attracted to bright colors – there’s something hinky going on

are nature photography groupies a thing? – One can hope, but I think accountants stand a better chance. A shameless method of linking to some photos, though, one of which immediately became the backs to the Gnomon Deck, which wasn’t ultimately my decision – I’d forwarded something like 26 options for that…

voted Most Likely To Pee On The Carpet – The Profiles posts remain mines of questionable humor, and no, they’re probably not over yet

potato-nosed ghost of Shouerst Hall – As well as, “but what’s that behind him?” and “MetamucAl.” One of several holidays that will appear, but this one had me befuddled for a short while, because I knew that Shouerst Hall was probably a pun though I couldn’t immediately place it. Just had to sound it out properly

I’d vote for the monkey – I mean, we have done worse, despite the similarities…

later found to be stuffed with jewels from a failed heist – That would explain it

spider beer goggles – You know you want to click

schmuck in action – Sitting on his ass of course

Paranoia cannot die – As well as, “Chaos was attending.” An oldie but a… an oldie, anyway

oh he’s just yakkin’ on a bone – Points if you can name the movie. That the tag’s from, I mean – I don’t think they’ve made a movie about the post, though the income probably wouldn’t change…

boys will be boys – Followed by, “toys will be destroyed.” Even older. I spoke with my brother not too long ago, who had similar memories

it’s wide-angle distortion yeah – That certainly explains it

good for whacking dogs when you try to pet them too – Versatile in their worthlessness!

kaboom! – No, not the cereal or the video game, but just as misleading

“hero” is too strong a word – but not by much – Well, okay, if you insist

goddamn spiderwebs – It actually took a while before the tags started getting snarky, and this is one of the first, even though it’s also pretty appropriate.

And naturally, we need to look at the holidays we celebrated enthusiastically and religiously this year:

Bumfester Chugtrollop, the inventor of the photographer’s vest, January 19
MacArthur Muzik Day, February 24
‘Fess Up Day, March 2
Encounter Extraordinary/Rotten Luck Day, April 8
National Where The Hell Did This Come From? Day, May 24
Prove That You’re Not Dead Day, June 24
Nature Boi Detective Day, July 28
Don’t Make The Big Change You Were Planning To Make Because Of A Pond Day, August 29
New Walkabout Estates, September 24
Patois Ferndiddler’s birthday, October 29
Do The Same Stupid Fucking Thing Again Day, November 26
Get Around To Planting Those Damn Things Again And See If it Works This Time, December 21

And the previous tag roundups – man, we’ve been doing this for a while:

2015: Tagged
2016: Tagged again
2017: Papa’s got a brand new tag
2018: So what did 2017 hold?
2019: Do not read tag under penalty of law
2020: Tagginses! We hates it forever!
2021: Tag ’em and bag ’em
2022: I don’t mean to tag, but…
2023: Tag me with a spoon
2024: You’re a Grand Ol’ Tag

site statistics for 2024The statistics for the site for 2024 aren’t impressive at all, indicating a slow decline over several years. While the oppressive heat and being involved with the move had more than a little to do with it this year, it doesn’t explain the trend over several years (well, the heat may be a small contributing factor.) There’s also the ugly truth that we haven’t done anything more than a couple of weekend trips since 2021, and this year isn’t looking too promising either – we’ll see I guess. There was the eclipse trip last April, but let’s be real: the photo opportunities primarily lasted three minutes.

Mostly though, we kind of expect to see a peak right around where it is, because time and subjects and so on limit how many posts are actually going to appear, so there’s no expectation that these will continue to go up at least, but hovering in the same general region would be preferable.

The numbers, just for the sake of it. Post count was 221, down from 252 last year. Word count was 143,160, down from 157,163 last year, totaling 2.4 million over the life of the blog. And there were 737 images uploaded, which hasn’t been that low since 2018 – slackass. The new location may help this a lot – several new species have been spotted already, and we’re expecting spring to put on quite a show.

We’ll close with an image that’s been sitting in the blog folder for over a year now, from a trip that helped boost the numbers for 2023 right at the end of the year – redundant then, so it’s being put to use now. The sun’s coming out; maybe we’ll try for some more subjects…

Banker horse Equus ferus caballus seen through sparse winter grasses on Shackleford Banks, NC

Neither rain, nor sleet…

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The big winter storm rolled in last night, though for our region (mid NC and towards the coast) it wasn’t very impressive. A dusting of snow where we used to live (and where The Girlfriend’s Sprog presently lives,) while out our way, it was merely sleet which has changed to rain – not even photogenic enough to make for decent pics, either way. But the red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) that has been missing for a few days showed back up this morning on the spinner.

cold-looking red-shouldered hawk Buteo lineatus perched on yard decoration
The location of the spinner, about a meter-and-a-half off the ground, is too prominent in the yard; I have to shoot through the dining room window because her perch is in plain sight of the front door, and I can’t slip out without her noticing and flying off. But at least you can see a hint of the ice on the spinner, and the hunched and fluffed pose indicating that it’s right around freezing out there. What she was hoping to find – what she’s ever been hoping to find once the temperature dips below 10°c – we’re never quite sure, but we suspect it might be the moles in the yard. She’s certainly dropped to the ground and pawed around gently several times, making us think she’s been seeing the movement of the ground or leaves, but the moles remain stubbornly under the surface. Still, she keeps returning.

cold-looking red-shouldered hawk Buteo lineatus waiting for something to happen
She will peer around as if bored, and I know she can see me through the window so I keep my movements to a minimum, generally when she’s turned away, but occasionally her attention will be drawn by something and she’ll peer intently at the ground for a few moments. Makes me want to throw some food out for her, but their diet of reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals would necessitate a trip to the pet store, which isn’t going to happen.

As usual, I had left the white-balance on ‘Full Sunlight,’ which also means ‘As Is,’ no alteration or compensation, but I tweaked one of the frames in post to bring it more to what it appears to us (we tend to have our own internal white-balance):

same image with tweak to compensate colder colors
Overcast skies let mostly blue light through, with a significant reduction in the others, so this required a decrease in Blue (which in RGB color space means in increase in Yellow,) and an increase in Red – still not warm-looking, especially with the low-contrast light, but not quite as frigid.

And yes, I think her weight is gradually leaning the pole over – she really does like the perch we so thoughtfully provided for her.

Estate Find II

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This week’s entry is one that I’ve been looking for, as a photo subject, for years. They’ve always passed through the areas I’ve lived in, and in fact can be found all over the US, but they tend to prefer specific conditions that I’ve never been in at the right time. But yesterday, success was to be had.

adult cedar waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum posing almost cooperatively
That’s a cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum,) among the coolest plumage of the birds to be found in the US, a great combination of the stark contrast of the mask colors and the airbrushed gradients of the rest of the bird, even getting a bit greenish on the rearmost undersides. Moreover, they have brilliant yellow tailtips and brilliant red tips to a handful of their wing feathers.

adult cedar waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum showing colored feather tips
They’re also quite gregarious, and I first spotted some last week, congregating in a tree near the pond in a small flock of perhaps 8-10 individuals. This time, I had the camera and long lens in hand when I happened on this smaller flock, which was partaking of the dark indigo berries peeking in here. I only regretted not having the tripod along, because I would have obtained video of them feeding. They were not very far away and unconcerned with my presence, even when I dodged around a bit to reduce the number of intervening branches, but at least those were largely bare at this time of year. Full credit to the birds for appearing under clear skies and in an optimal light direction.

Their breeding areas are supposed to sit well north of here, so they will disappear shortly, perhaps even within a few days, and might not appear again until next winter – I have no baseline to work from, so we’re establishing that now I suppose. Meanwhile, I have to determine what tree it is that’s providing their food; I want to say juniper, but I have no confidence in that. Leaves would help with that ID, so it might wait a while.

Even more of the shit I get up to

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The main reasons that I have so few blog posts recently have been the projects, of which there are several – some of which you may see here, but most probably not, because they’re house-related schtuff. And I should be working on some of them right now, except I’m not, because I’m dicking around.

The moon is bright out there right now, and I went out briefly to shoot a few frames, because it’s been a while. It’s in waxing gibbous phase and appears to be directly overhead; it’s not, rather at about 75°, but that’s enough to be craned over uncomfortably backward having difficulty with the long lens raised high above my head. It was adequate to snag one clear frame, however.

waxing gibbous moon 01-09-25
That’s not as sharp as I’ve managed a few times before, but it was also handheld since I didn’t feel like getting the tripod for such a short session, plus the gymnastics required to be shooting, again, close to straight up – tripods aren’t made to view those kinds of angles easily. There’s a detail therein that’s not very visible here, but shows up at full resolution and beyond.

crop of top limb of waxing gibbous moon of 01-09-25
This is not quite twice the resolution of the original image, and shows a single point of light (okay, reflection) right there at the ‘north pole’ of the moon. I was curious as to what I was seeing up there, and so I started poking around, with the help of Topographical Maps of the Moon and the Google Earth Pro program – not the online resource, though I didn’t check to see if this could be found that way, but the program has options to view the moon and Mars and such. The problems with both of these are, they don’t appear like they do in the photos you might obtain, because the first resource is a colorful illustration with more detail than you’re likely to capture, and the latter only uses photos from ‘high noon,’ as it were, which destroys the modeling and shadows of craters and geography that are visible in photos taken at any other time of lunar day.

Then there’s libration, the wobble that the moon undergoes as it revolves around the earth, so at any given moment it might be tilted from the equatorial view that maps and illustrations always provide. This means that what appears to be near the north pole of the moon may not be – it’s just the tilt of the moon. And it was in this case, placing that prominent crater in the center of the second image, which is Plato, higher up on the lunar globe than it is normally illustrated, since the pole is leaning back away from us right now. Still, after a bit of playing, I think I have things plotted reasonably well. The ridge at far left is Montes Jura, forming the edge of the old crater Sinus Iridium. The little squiggle straight up from Plato, near the edge of the darkness, is the southern wall of Goldschmidt Crater, pretty distinctively shaped, so the little point catching the light over the horizon of the moon is likely the southeastern wall of Anaxagoras Crater. This sits about 72.5° north, so still a ways from the north lunar pole (90° of course,) but again, the moon is tilted right now, so closer to ‘visible north’ than that.

Exciting, right? Yeah, but I like the challenge, a little bit of sleuthing and resource comparisons, which I could also do indoors because it’s cold. Still, you’re probably anxiously awaiting the tag roundup, so I’ll get back to that.

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