Hello, again. I thought I might share a quick, happy surprise I had the other night. But first a quick hello to my newest subscribers! It’s good to have you! I hope you enjoy these posts about my novels, travels, and astronomical adventures.

After weeks of cloudy weather, I finally got a break and took out my Meade 90 ETX to have a look. (Due to the crummy skies, I haven’t even assembled my 10″ Dob from when we took it out to Flamingo in the Everglades over July 4th weekend. The mosquitoes were epic, but the skies were clear and dark and we stayed out for 3 hours basking in the wonder of the class 1 sky! No photos, but lots of memories and entries in my journal!) This night the sky was hazy and I did a little browsing around Sagittarius and Boötes. But then the nearly-full Moon rose and obliterated every faint thing in the sky. “When in Rome…” came to mind, so I turned the scope (90 mm Maksutov-Cassegrain) to the Moon and began to study it with various filters. (Full is not the best time to study the Moon as everything interesting thing is washed out by the excessive light. Thus the filters.) Then I noticed an object just off the limb of the Moon and there was Saturn! I’ve been getting out in the pre-dawn sky to view the planets, but Saturn is leading the pack in the race to the evening sky. I took this photo with my cellphone held up to the eyepiece. (Not the best method, but still.)

As you can see, the rings are very thin right now. In the coming months they will disappear altogether as they will be edge on. But then they will come back and we will have the next 7 years to watch them grow to their fullest extent! We are so lucky to have such a beautiful solar system to view and admire.

That’s all for now. Until next time, happy reading (and looking up at the stars)!

P.S. – I just got accepted to the UltraCon in West Palm Beach, FL in September, and the Miami Book Fair in Miami, FL in November! More details later, but these should be HUGE events for me. (12,000 at the UltraCon last year.) Wish me luck as I order more books and stickers and get ready! Whoo-hoo!

Novels by James Crawford –

Mariner Valley – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0141N9UXO

Seed of Aldebaran – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SHXTRMP

AlCent Sagas Book One: Formation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ5C3TQT

AlCent Sagas Book Two: Revelation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2FRH6Q8

AlCent Sagas Book Three: Investigation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5SBFYMW

AlCent Sagas Book Four: Desperation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8767LHL

AlCent Sagas Book Five: Confrontation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9PPTX6G

A Noble Paradise – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QG6LZ10

Cover artist Wojtek Kapusta – https://www.artstation.com/kapucha76

Audible narrator Lyle Blaker – https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=AXZPXFQRN07M3