Conjunction of Planets

Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Mars.

There was a clear patch of sky this morning and I was able to catch the four planets again. Venus and Jupiter have swapped places since Sunday. Mars is barely visible, down near the bottom of the frame. It was partly obscured by a wisp of cloud. Tomorrow Mercury will be a lot closer to Venus and Jupiter, but the likelihood of clear skies again is pretty remote. This could be my best shot in this position. I've tweaked the levels to increase the contrast.

You may need to look at it in large to see Mercury and Mars. The dark blur is flax flailing in a nor'west gale.

Edit: Jupiter's moons could not be seen in the original large version of this image. I did not sharpen the shot because it introduced distracting speckles. I think the image was sharpened after upload. In my photo Mars is barely visible.

Lullaby

I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. Last night I was just drifting off when I realised that the small herd of bulls over the fence were camped out not ten metres from my open bedroom window, and they were beginning to make a noise. "Oh, no," I thought. "That's all I need."

As I tried to relax I began to listen. The rich bass and baritone voices were humming in harmony, a lilting ebb and flow of beautiful sound. Now and then one would break out into a counter tenor solo, and for some reason this made me laugh. I let go. The gentle vibrations lulled me to sleep, and I slept for hours.