Don Moore

They have an entire ocean, but for some reason this was a place 5 turtles decided to congregate on Maui. There were more turtles I could see in the distance.

You're looking at light that was generated last week to 1000s of years ago. This is 2 hours of the night sky looking west from Maui, starting about 820pm last week. Green airglow emerges as the sun sinks farther below the horizon. The light streaks are planes arriving/departing from Honolulu.

Happy garbage day to all that celebrate. Derby is reporting 2.5” of heavy (not fluffy) Joy.

Something seems different.

I watched the female turtle on the right battle with 2 female turtles over a 6 min period in Maui. It lost the first interaction but won this time. It seemed like the turtles went out of their way to battle. Earlier, the turtle on the left swam right past a male turtle without altercation.

Clouds in Anchorage can be super annoying this time of year. So, I visit Maui when I can to capture the night sky (and more) there. This is looking west to Lanai last week with city lights on Oahu on the far right side. The lower part of the Milky Way in this photo can't be seen where I live.

I went swimming last week in Hawaii and all the fish wanted their picture taken.

I was away on vacation and came home to this moose waiting for me. It’s nice the moose was watching over the place while I was away.

Clouds being clouds today.

It looks like a rare clear sky tonight in Anchorage. Will we see the aurora?! Probably not like this night.

Sunset this evening in Anchorage with fresh snow on the flat mountain.

I couldn't resist this shot. The International Fountain and Space Needle were built for the 1962 World’s Fair, showcasing a futuristic vision of the future. A layout and design artist for cartoon, The Jetsons, told The New York Times the Space Needle inspired the skypad apartment buildings.

Seattle waterfront sunset and moonrise.

The transition from blue hour to light pollution hours in Seattle. I wasn't expecting the plane coming towards me at the end to take a hard right turn. Note, you can see the Loupe near the top of the Space Needle rotating. It's not hard to look at.

Saturday evening in Seattle from Kerry Park. There was a larger crowd than I'm used to for sunset. The Mariners were playing in the park behind the Ferris Wheel with no hope of making the playoffs.

Fall auroras also offer a rare time that I can see the aurora without much snow on the ground. This results in some of the darkest skies all year when the moon isn't present.

Fall equinox is this week. During the equinoxes, Earth's magnetic orientation favors energy transfer from the solar wind into the magnetosphere, increasing the chance of auroras. For me, clouds are normally problematic this time of year. Spring is better. (This photo is overlooking Anchorage)

Forget dating apps. Singles, come over and mingle while doing my yard work.

I took the US Capital's portrait on Monday 9/14 this week, about an hour after the Senate designated Sept 11-17, 2026 as Patriot Week. The ducks in the pond were laughing rather loudly while I was there.

North facing window seat flying across the WA Cascades from east to west today. AK was overcast, so no timelapse heading from Seattle to Anchorage. Sad trombone sound.

I’ve seen Belugas along Turnagain Arm 3 times this season. I have a 100% success rate seeing them near this mile marker just past Windy. I have a 0% success rate at Beluga Point. Why is the mile marker horizontal? Are the belugas responsible?? Why is Beluga Point deceptive this season???

Foresty.

Obscure fact. Japan's geostationary view of Hurricane Lowell (at its current location) is very similar to NOAA's geostationary view of Anchorage. I'm guessing NHC isn't looking Japan's satellite. Hoping Lowell's upcoming right turn is a little less than 90 degrees.

A most successful excursion down Turnagain Arm includes seeing white sheep, white swans and white belugas while the wind isn't blowing 30+mph. I was 2/3 on my viewing yesterday. The swans were posing wonderfully for their golden hour portrait session. 10/10

Can someone send belugas? I’ve only seen them once this season.

It’s a beachy day today.

I made a timelapse to capture the clouds and cloud shadows over the freshened mountains above Anchorage on Mon afternoon. I didn't realize I was also capturing the wind gusts bending the vegetation (right side) until I processed the images. BTW, most of this snow is now gone.

I took this photo of the bore tide on Aug 20, 2024. There's not a single surfer in the photo. It was so wild to see everyone on Aug 29, 2026.

It was an early termination dust day today for the higher terrain around Anchorage. The vegetation, even at elevation, was barely changing color yet. Take that you all you encroaching willows!

Seems terminaty.

Surfers on the bore tide in Turnagain arm on Sat. There was a paddle out tribute/celebration of life for Guy Erickson. The full 3 min video can be found at youtu.be/HJCjUQ9HJBA Thanks to tallbill.bsky.social for alerting me to the paddle-out. Today's bore tide is predicted to be around 6:45pm.

What if it was all green?! A 75 minute star trail from Sat night under a bright moon.

Last night was the first aurora of the season for me! It came with the moon 94% lit. This substorm hit around 1:20am AK time.

Bore tide in Turnagain Arm was packed with surfers today. I don't think I've seen that many surfers for a bore tide before.

Checking on the dandelion control specialist's coat. Some white showing up!

For the record, I’m not subscribed.

Inspired by @climatologist49.bsky.social moose graphs, here is my yellow jacket observation graph. alaskapublic.org/news/anchora...

I saw a partial rainbow today. It’s like Hawaii over here.

Did the moose sneeze? (Sound up)

Zero dandelion control going on. I rate this dandelion control specialist a 1/10.

Laziness x3!

Anchorage air show.