dark skies over Runnymede (Toronto)

There was some astronomy content at Hil & Cam's 25th anniversary party. ;-)

The thick clouds moved off later in the evening. I spotted Mars over the neighbour's house, to the south, toward Colbeck (the old stomping grounds). Orange. Bright. Intense. And beautiful. I pointed it out to many. No, that was Antares, twinkling—up and right was the planet.

A lovely temperature. Dark trees and Space Cadet blue.

The nearly full Moon was, fortunately, blocked by the tall trees. At least in the early evening. One thing the Bloor West Village has going for it is that there are fantastically old and tall and healthy trees lining the streets and towering up from people's yards.

Had to wait for it. As people imbibed and reminisced and wallowed. It was probably around 11:00 PM or midnight that Saturn revealed itself, down and right, about the 4 o'clock position from stunningly brilliant Luna. She'll make you a little crazy. I watched the Moon slowly move eastward.

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One of the boys asked me if Saturn would be visible tomorrow. Yes. I pointed out the Moon however, if looking for a reference, wouldn't be there. "What?" he asked. It would be further east, about 15 degrees. "What?" That seemed to throw him. I said, "Simply put, same time, tomorrow, sit in that chair, Saturn will be in the exact same spot." It's be there for a month. That worked.

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Reconnected with Laurie and Stu. So good. Too long. So overdue. They seemed very interested in my exploits on the Blue Mountain. I promised to invite them up. Sounds like Jamie is still keen about astronomy.

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One of the boys asked me if I had heard about Laniakea, the super-super cluster of galaxies. What? A structure larger than the super clusters of galaxies like the Local Group or the Virgo Super Cluster. Wow. No, I admitted, I hadn't. Later he pulled the issue of Scientific American. Wow: big!

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I looked up the Laniakea article. The video was quite illuminating.