Nearing Halloween

My evening walks are getting deliciously Halloween-flavored.

What better phase of the moon for an eerie picture than a waxing crescent?

crescent moon

(I found out quite late that if the moon is ‘D’ shaped, it’s waxing, and if it’s ‘C’-shaped, it’s waning. The mnemonic is ‘Dogs advance, Cats retreat.’ But it only works in the Northern hemisphere; Down Under, it’s the other way.)

Here’s the moon and Venus, taken a night or two later. [Edited to Add: Looking closely at this picture again, I can just see the Old Moon in the New Moon’s arms – the earthshine on the non-illuminated part of the moon. The Wikipedia says it’s light reflected from earth onto the moon.]

moon and venus

I was on Tank Hill recently, where I always take photographs even though very few actually come out. This time, though, with a little brightening of the image and upping the contrast, I got these Halloween trees.

halloween trees on tank hillLast night, I didn’t encounter a single dog-walker – but, appropriately, there were two cats. Here’s one:

cat 1And here’s the other – don’t miss the Halloween eyes. (Okay, it’s normal eyeshine, but it looked cool!)

cat 2

And some neighbors have started putting up their Halloween decorations, like this happy family of jack o’ lanterns. Looking forward to seeing more decorations as we get closer to the date!

halloween pumpkins 1

Tank Hill Night with Orange City Hall

We went up to Tank Hill the other night. (Isn’t that one of the perks of this neighborhood? A 15-minute walk takes you to a great vista point – especially at night?)

It was a perfect night, clear and warm. The lights of the city shone below us, and in the sky, laser lights made a dancing pattern of dots on the clouds. I took some photographs… I’ve been mucking with the settings on my camera, so they weren’t really sharp – but somehow they had a painterly look I quite liked.  Here they are… and if anyone has better ones they’d like to share, send them on over!