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cmbennett01.bsky.social
CMBennett
@cmbennett01.bsky.social
200 followers 290 following 120 posts
Unless otherwise noted, images I post are in the public domain.
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cmbennett01.bsky.social
It's cloudy tonight but the Super Moon is bright enough to shine through. We won't see anything else in the central Maryland sky tonight though.
Full Moon on a black sky. Several maria (dark flat areas) and large craters are visible. Tycho is quite prominent in the lower right. It's a large crater with bright rays extending out from it.
December 5, 2025 at 12:14 AM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
Last full Moon of the year.
Full Moon seen through silhouette of trees. The moon is obscured by clouds and has a reddish halo.
December 4, 2025 at 11:22 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The #Sun this morning. The large #sunspot groups are working their way across the face. Just some C-class and B-class flares and no earth-directed CMEs so the chances of a light show on Earth are pretty low.
Image of the Sun on a black background. A large group of irregularly shaped sun spots in the lower left. Actually, three groups 4298, 4294, and 4296. A couple of smaller groups above an on the right.
December 3, 2025 at 3:41 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
There's a new big group of Sun spots coming around, producing some X-class flares. At least one this morning anyway. Doesn't look like we'll get any auroras from it yet though.
Image of the Sun with a large group of irregularly shaped sun spots on the lower left. A few smaller spots on the left and right sides and a pair of very small ones near the center. They are dark brown with lighter areas surrounding. The Sun's surface is granulated deep orange with a few lighter areas throughout.
December 1, 2025 at 4:58 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
What's up? Moon's up.
Waxing gibbous Moon on a dark sky. Several maria are visible; Serenitatis, Tranquilitatis, Crisium, Fecunditatis, Nectaris. Several large craters, including Copernicus, Plato, Archimedes, Aristoteles. Tycho isn't quite visible yet.
November 29, 2025 at 10:39 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
A new sunspot group on the lower left limb of the Sun today. It might torn out to be a big one. There's been some solar flare activity there.
Orange red Sun on a black background. There's a couple irregularly shaped dark spots on the upper right and a larger one on the lower left limb.
November 29, 2025 at 3:14 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
A few spots on the Sun this morning.
Image of the Sun, orange on a black background. The surface has a granular texture from convective cells of hot gas rising and falling. Several sunspots are visible on the left side and a small one near the center. They are dark irregular patches surrounded by a lighter area. There is a largish one in the upper left and a cluster of three large and a few small ones in the lower left.
November 24, 2025 at 7:02 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The Pleiades is up a little later. Easily visible to the naked eye but is a very nice object in binoculars.
A cluster of several very bright blue-white stars and many smaller stars in a dark sky. There are blue and white wispy clouds of dust illuminated by the brighter stars.
November 24, 2025 at 6:53 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The Andromeda Galaxy is up, high in the east after sunset now. It's pretty easy to find with a pair of binoculars.
A spiral galaxy (M31) in a dense field of stars. It is an elongated spiral spanning from the lower left to the upper right. The core is bright and dense and the outer part lanes of dust and bright patches. Two dwarf elliptical galaxies, one above and one below are visible as well.
November 24, 2025 at 6:53 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The Moon.
A crescent Moon in the sky. It's bright white against the black sky. The large flat bottom crater Mare Crisium is visible in the center and many smaller craters along the shadow of the terminator.
November 24, 2025 at 6:53 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The skies were clear last night so I went out to look at the stars. There was a nice crescent Moon up.
A crescent Moon in the evening above a horizon of trees, a few larger leafless trees in the foreground stick above the rest. The sky is pale dark blue turnig to orange in the west.
November 24, 2025 at 6:53 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The Sun this morning.
Image of the Sun. It's orange (from the solar filter) on a black background. The surface has a mottled texture from the Sun's granulation—the tops of convective cells of hot gas rising and falling. Several sunspots are visible in the upper right and a small one near the center: these are small, irregular dark patches where magnetic activity makes the surface cooler. They are surrounded by lighter, filament-like structures.
November 14, 2025 at 4:48 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
NGC 869 & NGC 884 (The Double Cluster) in Perseus.
Two star clusters, NGC 869 & NGC 884 in the constellation Perseus. The clusters contain many bright blue and orange stars in a fairly dense field of dimmer stars.
October 31, 2025 at 3:36 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
The Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant in Taurus.
The Crab Nebula (Messier 1) — a supernova remnant centered in a moderately dense field of stars. The image is about 30 arcmin across and the nebula is about 4.5x7 arcmin. It is a roughly oval, irregularly shaped, filamentary cloud of gas and dust with a bright, wispy texture. It exhibits pale hues of gray-white with reddish tones from ionized gases (mostly hydrogen, helium, sulfur, and oxygen). The oxygen emission has a bluish color but is not really visible in this image. There is a pulsar at it's center, a fast rotating neutron star, that is the collapsed remnant of the star. It is not visible in the visible spectrum but is very bright in x-rays. It is the remnant of a supernova in the constellation Taurus recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 CE. It is about 1 degree NW of the magnitude 3 star Zeta Tauri.
October 25, 2025 at 4:44 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
Thank you to everyone that came out to defend democracy.
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:19 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:15 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:13 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:12 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:11 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:09 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
Hmmm.
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:08 PM
cmbennett01.bsky.social
#NoKings #DC
No Kings Rally on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC
October 19, 2025 at 9:07 PM