The Skies
#201
Posted 16 December 2020 - 08:27 PM
#202
Posted 16 December 2020 - 08:42 PM
Southwestern sky, I believe. My daughter and I drove home from Southlake tonight down 26 and watched them set.
Good catch, thanks. I've updated it in the post.
#203
Posted 16 December 2020 - 08:48 PM
#204
Posted 16 December 2020 - 09:55 PM
Neptune is not visible to the naked eye. You can easily find it with a telescope or with a little more difficulty a pair of binoculars. To do this, you should be away from the city lights.
#205
Posted 17 December 2020 - 08:50 AM
Whisker-thin waxing crescent moon near Jupiter and Saturn on Wednesday at 5:45pm December 16, 2020 (southwestern sky from Fort Worth, TX) [Let me know if this sounds right]
Interesting article about this event. Hopefully the skies are clear Dec 21...I'll try to remember to get another shot.
https://www.scientif...-how-to-see-it/
#206
Posted 17 December 2020 - 09:31 AM
That is a fantastic shot. You are correct in that the two planets in the upper portion are Saturn and Jupiter. It's great that you also caught the moon in the photograph.
#207
Posted 21 December 2020 - 06:45 PM
Here's the original image untouched:
Here it is zoomed but untouched:
#208
Posted 21 December 2020 - 07:06 PM
After I ran it through Lightroom:
#209
Posted 22 December 2020 - 12:54 PM
Nice. They definitely appear farther apart than they did with the naked eye last night. I saw an amazing photo from Sunday night where you could make out 4 of Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings. It was taken through the lense of a telescope with an iPhone. I could not believe the clarity.
- panthercity likes this
#210
Posted 22 December 2020 - 01:25 PM
JBB, I saw the same amazing photograph and I was surprised. I tried to take some last night, but mine did not come out well.
#211
Posted 21 August 2021 - 05:19 AM
https://www.preventi...blue-moon-2021/
#212
Posted 23 September 2021 - 08:48 PM
#213
Posted 23 September 2021 - 09:32 PM
I didn't catch it tonight, but I did see it rise from my bedroom window on Monday, just about the exact time it was officially full. I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't turn out from inside the house.
#215
Posted 23 March 2023 - 09:56 PM
#218
Posted 14 June 2023 - 09:36 PM
I was running some errands this evening and caught a glimpse of a giant beautiful orange sunset around 8:29pm. By the time I was able to find a better vantage point a few minutes later, it was a bit less spectacular. I'll try again tomorrow maybe with a better camera. What's amazing is how far north of due west the sun is setting this time of year. I seem to recall March and September being the months when the sunset and sunrise hits around due west and east, which makes driving on I-30 fun at times.
#219
Posted 14 June 2023 - 10:00 PM
I was running some errands this evening and caught a glimpse of a giant beautiful orange sunset around 8:29pm. By the time I was able to find a better vantage point a few minutes later, it was a bit less spectacular. I'll try again tomorrow maybe with a better camera. What's amazing is how far north of due west the sun is setting this time of year. I seem to recall March and September being the months when the sunset and sunrise hits around due west and east, which makes driving on I-30 fun at times.
At the time I was traveling west, and if I were to rotate almost 45-degrees to the right (toward the north) I could see that the sun was setting nearly towards Lake Worth or Saginaw. The compass bearing at which the sun crosses the horizon at sunrise and sunset is referred to as the solar azimuth. (More info: https://diamondgeeze...r-azimuth.html)
#220
Posted 15 June 2023 - 07:48 AM
Around June 21st is when the sun rises and sets the furthest to the northeast and northwest. This corresponds to the first day of Summer and the longest daylight hours in the year. December 21st is the approximate first day of Winter and the day with the shortest amount of daylight hours.
#221
Posted 15 June 2023 - 08:07 AM
The individual timing of the sunrise and sunset are a little different than the shortest and longest days, which happen when the sunrise and sunset are closest together or furthest apart.
For where I am located:
The latest sunrise around January 8 and the earliest sunset is around December 4.
The earliest sunrise is around June 12 and the latest sunset is around June 29-30.
- McHand likes this
#222
Posted 15 June 2023 - 08:47 AM
I was also aware that sunrise and sunset times vary from each location on the earth and those times do not necessarily correspond to the longest and shortest daylight hours in the year. Personally, I like the greater amount of daylight hours after work, and I don't care as much for the winter months when the sun goes down early. One of my favorite days of the year is about December 4th, when I know from that point on, the sun will be going down later every day.
#223
Posted 15 June 2023 - 08:54 AM
#224
Posted 15 June 2023 - 01:53 PM
"DFW ties record for highest dewpoint Thursday" (81-degrees I think is the figure with humidity at 70%+)
https://www.fox4news...wpoint-thursday
"Just so you know how big of an impact the dewpoint has: At 2 p.m. the feels-like temperature at DFW was 108 degrees, but the actual temperature was just 90 degrees."
#225
Posted 15 June 2023 - 02:28 PM
The heavy haze made for a nice sunset. When I'm driving home, I can usually see the buildings downtown pretty clear from the 820 to Davis Blvd. ramp. I could barely see the outlines last night. That dew point has been a killer the last 2 days. My weather station is reading 71% humidity. It's in a low shaded spot near water, so it's skewing higher than Meacham and DFW.
#227
Posted 28 June 2023 - 08:01 PM
#228
Posted 28 June 2023 - 10:19 PM
northwest sky:The sky is really clear tonight at sunset.
#229
Posted 13 October 2023 - 09:39 PM
We were at an outdoor event on W. 4th St. and spotted the SpaceX Skylink rocket (ignore the upper green light, it's a lens flare off that lower green street light). Not knowing, at the time, what was happening, we were all pretty freaked out watching this fuzzy looking light move slowly across the sky. What was strange was there was not a cloud in the sky and over to my left, there was an airplane approaching Meacham from the south and you could see it's lights clear as day, so this light was much more ominous and produced no sound but felt like it was as close to us as a drone.
#232
Posted 14 October 2023 - 01:53 PM
The cool thing with solar snap is it has adjustable zoom, exposure and manual focus sliders.
Check it out, works for regular photos too:
https://apps.apple.c...ap/id1599230728
#233
Posted 11 December 2023 - 11:33 PM
I thought this was odd how many medivacs were in the air tonight. Not something I usually check but just seemed odd for some reason maybe that's par for the course on a Monday night? Two inbound from far out west and far out east and two outbound from Parkland & Clements Hospitals. It appeared also likely DPD helicopter was over Oak Cliff perhaps assisting with a call.
- McHand likes this
#234
Posted 12 December 2023 - 04:33 PM
There were reports on Reddit of DoD/Local police taking part in urban combat training. This seems like an annual occurrence. I have a buddy who was a green beret take part previously in an exercise here that involved helicopters, repelling, and cool action movie stuff.I was outside moving vehicles around, getting everything buttoned up for the night and saw three helicopters flying in formation from west to east. I checked Flightradar and either wasn't quick enough to catch them or was not seeing the three together / maybe military aircraft? They sounded different than the police or news helicopters (maybe not as loud / smoother sounding) and were maintaining speed west to east vs flying in search formation and they were pretty dark (no search lights) but flying quite low.
I thought this was odd how many medivacs were in the air tonight. Not something I usually check but just seemed odd for some reason maybe that's par for the course on a Monday night? Two inbound from far out west and far out east and two outbound from Parkland & Clements Hospitals. It appeared also likely DPD helicopter was over Oak Cliff perhaps assisting with a call.
Edit: 9 year old article sounds like what you saw, https://www.nbcdfw.c.../2099748/?amp=1
#235
Posted 12 December 2023 - 04:50 PM
ADSB (https://globe.adsbexchange.com/) has some flights that are blocked or not shown on FR24. If you click the "U" on the top right it will filter civil aircraft out and only show military.
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#236
Posted 12 December 2023 - 05:15 PM
As someone who spends a lot of time tinkering around with FR24, I wouldn't call that an unusual number of medical helicopters for any given evening, although I've never seen LifeNet or Survival Flight before. I'm guessing those are local to the area where their flights originated or ended. It's not uncommon to see 2-3 CareFlite units and 1-2 PHI units in the air at any given time. AirEvac also flies in this area, but they rarely show up on Flight Radar. They do show up on ADSB Exchange.
I've seen a handful of social media posts about the DOD training. It happens every few years. It usually involved UH-60 Blackhawks and those are already common visitors to this area.
#237
Posted 13 December 2023 - 02:28 AM
Multiple residents in the Dallas, Texas city area have reported seeing mysterious black military helicopters flying at low altitudes throughout the city causing confusion. Officials attributed that this activity was from the Department of Defense, which is conducting military training operations at various sites in North Texas throughout the week. The training involves air and ground mobility across the metroplex
https://twitter.com/...779297078935799
(Video included!!)
Reminds me of the Richard Donner film, Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts; the silent helicopters. https://en.m.wikiped...cy_Theory_(film)
- TLA likes this
#238
Posted 13 December 2023 - 08:28 AM
This site, although they had a hiccup for a while because it changed ownership and there were worries about it destroying its hobbyist origins so it lost many "feeders" it seems to have built back up again pretty well.
The controversy has been that these businesses that aggregate the data from the thousands of receivers / feeders would respond to requests to hide aircraft, and in some cases do that for money.
So far, this site does not block any aircraft with ADS-B on, and so you can see the spook planes, although they are only a hex code -- at least when they are in areas with enough other traffic that that transponder needs to be on.
It doesn't correlate with all of the flight information of some of the other sites, but it provides reliable information when something is flying overhead.
https://globe.adsbexchange.com
It is a web site, but you can run it as a web app on your phone and it is indistinguishable from a native app.
Here are those instructions:
https://www.adsbexch...change/#install
#239
Posted 13 December 2023 - 08:35 AM
#240
Posted 13 December 2023 - 09:03 AM
Someone on Facebook reported that a helicopter landed on the roof of the Post Office on Lancaster. Curious if the forums T&P residents saw anything.
I guess DoD would have to choose between landing on the Post Office or the Federal Courthouse.
Found this reasonable explanation on Reddit similar to what you guys are saying above. I've seen the Chinooks flying back and forth in the afternoons but you'll certain know when they are overhead and typically a lot higher altitude. I'm going to agree with JBB from what I saw in-person and what the video from Dallas, those had to have been UH-60's, still pretty cool to see three of those cruising by at low altitude at night. https://www.reddit.c...web2x&context=3
#241
Posted 13 December 2023 - 11:22 AM
So far, this site does not block any aircraft with ADS-B on, and so you can see the spook planes, although they are only a hex code -- at least when they are in areas with enough other traffic that that transponder needs to be on.
It does block quite a bit of military traffic. Most of what you see on there is transports, cargo planes, trainers, and transport helicopters. Occasionally you will see a fighter or a combat helicopter, but those are few and far between and when you do it's the hex code you mention. Flyovers for events seem to show up and not every time.
I'm not sure I'm buying the helicopter on the post office roof without photos or videos. The report I saw on that was on DFW Scanner and people tend to report a lot of crazy stuff on there.
#242
Posted 13 December 2023 - 04:24 PM
Someone on Facebook reported that a helicopter landed on the roof of the Post Office on Lancaster. Curious if the forums T&P residents saw anything.
I'm a T&P resident. I didn't see it, but I heard it! It sounded like a helicopter was right outside the window. It was very loud.
#243
Posted 13 December 2023 - 04:34 PM
That video from Dallas shows that the helicopters were flying fairly low. Not sure that they would land on the roof of a building like that, but if were flying through or hovering, that would be pretty loud.
#245
Posted 22 December 2023 - 07:14 PM
Was outside and heard this flying by. Quite a unique sound. Looks like he took off at FTW did a loop-around tour of Downtown and then headed out towards Arlington entertainment district, looks like he headed South after that.
https://www.flightra...N87745/33584b34
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#246
Posted 22 December 2023 - 08:50 PM
You are describing the Christmas light flight. My wife and I have a done it a couple of times over the years. It is quite the experience.
https://www.gga1.org...light-flights-1
- McHand likes this
#247
Posted 26 December 2023 - 09:01 PM
#248
Posted 26 December 2023 - 09:43 PM
You certainly get around.
#249
Posted 26 December 2023 - 11:31 PM
Was outside and heard this flying by. Quite a unique sound. Looks like he took off at FTW did a loop-around tour of Downtown and then headed out towards Arlington entertainment district, looks like he headed South after that.
https://www.flightra...N87745/33584b34
I remember that sound from my childhood. DC-3s were still flying commercially into Buffalo Airport; my parents' home was just north of the approach path.
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#250
Posted 11 April 2024 - 09:42 AM
A bunch of folks out on the Lockheed Blvd side set-up to watch planes today. Is there something special happening I don't know about today?
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