HEIDELBERG SHADOWS

Our days have become shorter quite noticeably and the evening shadows begin to lengthen a lot earlier. The weather is perfect for late afternoon walks in the park where one may capture the lovely golden ambience of early Autumn.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

WARRANDYTE REFLECTIONS

Warrandyte is an outer suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Manningham. At the 2011 census, Warrandyte had a population of 5,520. Warrandyte is bounded in the west by the Mullum Mullum Creek and Target Road, in the north by the Yarra River, in the east by Jumping Creek and Anzac Road, and in the south by an irregular line from Reynolds Road, north of Donvale, Park Orchards and Warrandyte South.

Warrandyte was founded as a Victorian town, located in the once gold-rich rolling hills east of Melbourne, and is now on the north-eastern boundary of suburban Melbourne. Gold was first discovered in the town in 1851 and together, with towns like Bendigo and Ballarat, led the way in gold discoveries during the Victorian gold rush. Today Warrandyte retains much of its past in its surviving buildings of the Colonial period and remains a twin community with North Warrandyte, which borders the Yarra River to its north.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

SUNRISE

Sunrise in the suburbs, from my window...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

OLD FENCE

An old post-and-rail fence using rails fitted into mortises in (split) posts with the ends of adjacent rails overlapping in the mortises. Although post-and-rail fences are the most iconic of Australian rural fences, they were expensive and required some skill to build successfully. This one is found in Warrandyte, an outer Melbourne suburb.

This post is part of the Good Fences meme.

SUBURBAN GARDEN

Gardens are commonplace in Melbourne homes and most householders have a green thumb or two, myself included. I am featuring some photos from our own back garden today, which gives us great joy and gladness. Gardening may be hard work, but the soul is gratified once one strolls in the lush, green garden...

This post is part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Chinese New Year's Day was on Thursday, February 19, 2015. This is the year of the Goat (sometimes called the year of the Ram/Sheep). Chinese New Year has a long tradition in Melbourne, and includes fifteen days of cultural festivities, starting with New Year's Eve and culminating two weeks later with a Lantern Festival. Feasting, firecrackers and the awakening of the dragon are just some of the traditional festivities in Melbourne's Chinatown and at Southbank.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

CORNER, ELIZABETH & LONSDALE STS

Standing at the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Sts in the City and watching the world go by until I see stars... :-)

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footstep Digital Art Meme.

GLASSHOUSE, BOTANIC GARDENS

The Tropical Glasshouse in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens showcases plants from tropical regions around the globe, and displays some of the most important and spectacular tropical rainforest plants known to man.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme,

and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

DAREBIN PARKLANDS POND

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

JUPITER ON DISPLAY

Sky watchers in Melbourne will have noticed a very bright star in the Northern sky at night. That 'star' is in fact the planet Jupiter and it is only days from reaching opposition on Saturday 7 March 2015. Even if you are not familiar with the night sky, Jupiter’s brightness means that it is very easy to find. Jupiter will be the brightest star (-2.6 magnitude) you can see.

The term 'opposition' means that the planet Jupiter will rise as the Sun sets and then set as the Sun rises the following morning. For Jupiter, it coincides with the planets closest approach to the Earth, and means that the next few months are prime time for Jupiter watching. In fact, Jupiter is so large (approximately 1,200 Earth’s by volume) that even a reasonable pair of binoculars will resolve Jupiter as a disc plus show four of its largest ('Galilean') moons.

The Galilean moons are the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo Galilei around January 1610. They are by far the largest of the moons of Jupiter. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and derive their names from the lovers of Zeus. However, in total there are 67 confirmed moons of Jupiter!

I took these photos from my bedroom window tonight. The first photo shows Jupiter in the upper centre of the image. For the close up of Jupiter I used a 30X optical zoom as well as an additional 30X digital zoom. A little brightness/contrast enhancement in Photoshop and voilà! The labelled image of the sky is from the free astronomy application 'Stellarium'. I have added labels for the Galilean moons in the last image.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.