Sky Objects, Mostly Moon Shots

The pix in my YouTube collection are from having used mostly two point-and-shoot cameras. Incidentally, smart-phone cameras also have capabilities for taking similar sky pix.

For people who haven't considered photographing sky objects, look, up in the sky. It could be Supermoon! Build your own pic collection for day or night moons! Also, pick other sky objects that catch your fancy.

I recently perused my cloud account for pix I've uploaded there within maybe 10 years. One folder that caught my eye—"NearSkyObjects-Canon PowerShot ELPH 190 IS". It consisted of eight images from 2020 and six in 2021. I poked through my computer listings, seeing additional sky images I could include in my slide show.

Most images are of the moon—day, night, various phases. Several are in plant views. The final item is my time-lapse slide show of May 16 2022 lunar eclipse. Final tally of my sky objects for this blog topic is 23. (The count does not include YT videos from 2023 and 2024.)

Want additional astronomy-themed articles? Click for "astro topic" search results in my blog. Related: Sky/Astronomy Items YouTube playlist

Related: 4-sky-objects video—
Sky Objects, Mostly Moon Shots (Minute Teaser)"

June and July 2021 Full Moons, Strawberry and Buck

Did you wonder about recent hoopla about names for full moons? My topic emphasis is on Strawberry (June) and Buck (July) for this year.

"[Moonname] Moon: What is it and why does the Moon have different names?" initially explains the current or upcoming full moon. It also provides names and explanations for the rest of a year's full moons, including "blue moon":

Native American tribes named it this [Strawberry Moon] because they would harvest strawberries during this time. ... But this month it will also be a supermoon - that's when the full moon looks bigger and brighter in the sky than normal because it's closest to the Earth in its orbit than most other times.

Note the July full moon (Buck) shows a Getty pic of a nice pair of bucks in front of the moon. More on the buck moon farther down.

Moon Shots

I took images for the full moons for June and July this year. June 22 was a dry run for multiple-pic taking, not many good ones showing features. June 24 was a better yield, despite threatening clouds playing hide-and-seek. July 23 was a total bust because I neglected to review my camera settings and wound up with overexposed moon shots that I couldn't post-process to obtain features. July 24 yielded good results, but unexpectedly boring--nearly all identical shots!

Strawberry Tie-ins for Strawberry Moon Shots

Strawberries, yum! I had seldom bought any for over a year. But they've re-appealed for the last couple of months. I cut the tops, rinse them off, cut the bottoms into one bowl, and cut the rest into rings and semi-rings into another bowl. I sprinkle sugar into the first bowl, cover it, and let the berries juice up overnight for cereal the next day. The other bowl (covered) of berries keep in the fridge for well over a week because of lack of fluid and sugar.

Strawberry is one of the main flavors of neapolitan ice cream, the others being vanilla and chocolate. Neapolitan helps an ice cream eater avoid having to commit to only one or two flavors when buying a carton.

Neapolitany Cakes

The strawberry full moon, which occurred June 24, was fresh on my mind when I decided to make a cake June 25. Maybe subconsciousness for neapolitan-theme cake nudged me toward ensuring strawberry on the brain. Sometime during consumption of the three-flavor cake, I decided to try a different flavor-arrangement version.

Cake #1—yellow and strawberry cake (nowhere as zebra-stripey as originally intended), chocolate frosting

The strawberry batter includes 1 package of strawberry Flavor-Aid, which might have thickened the batter that I made with 1/2 of the yellow cake batter.

Cake #2—yellow and chocolate cake (nowhere as marbly looking as originally intended), strawberry frosting

From looking at some YouTube videos, it looks like marbling is better for alternating batter splotches in a couple of passes, then dragging a knife or spatula in wide swaths. I had poured yellow batter onto two pans, then splotched chocolate batter, then dragged the spatula. Result wasn't much marbling.

Neapolitan Ice Cream

What's special about neapolitan ice cream? When did they first make it? How do the layers come together?

"Learn About the Origin of Neapolitan Ice Cream" describes the confection and its origin:

Neapolitan ice cream – also called Harlequin ice cream – is composed of three flavors. They are chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry that are arranged side by side without packaging in between them. ... It derives its flavor colors from the Italian flag. Green (almond or pistachio), Red (cherry or pink), and White (vanilla).

"How do they get the three flavours of Neapolitan ice cream into the box" provides further explanation of the factory process:

Three ice cream flavour tanks, holding about 10,000 litres, are filled with chocolate, strawberry or vanilla ice cream. ... Pipes from each tank meet in a large rectangular nozzle, which is the same shape and size as the short side of the old-fashioned, two-litre, cardboard ice cream container.

The nozzle has two dividers, thus separating the three flavours of ice cream. ... It drops down to the bottom of the box and fills it with the three bands, before moving on to the next box . ... The boxes then go into a freezer where the ice cream hardens for about eight hours

Buck Moon Shots

As mentioned previously, my slide show for the buck moon was boring—all 39 frames looked nearly identical. Sooo, a nice image with enlargement is in my video.

Buck Tie-ins for Buck Moon Shots

I was fortunate enough to record several snippets of deer with a buck in the herds on adjacent days around the buck full moon. I also included some additional buck cameo images. How can that be? View and find out!

Want additional astronomy-themed articles? Click for "astro topic" search results in my blog. Related: Sky/Astronomy Items YouTube playlist