Posts by 

Peter Lowenstein

Here’s how much smaller the sun looks at aphelion

We passed aphelion, Earth's farthest point in orbit around the sun, on July 6. The eye can't detect it, but a camera shows that the sun around now appears at its smallest in our sky.

The young moon returns

And, especially if you're on the southern half of Earth's globe, Venus and Mercury are also back in the evening sky.

Golden virga at sunset

Peter Lowenstein captured thin curtains of golden virga on one of the first sunsets of rainy season in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

Old moon and Mercury, past 2 mornings

On spring mornings, from either hemisphere, you can't easily see Mercury. Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe - 19 degrees south latitude, where it's autumn now - shares this month's excellent Southern Hemisphere view of Mercury, as the old moon swept past.

Jupiter rising, Venus setting

Venus and Jupiter are the sky's 2 brightest planets, and they hang on either side of your sky now - Jupiter in the east and Venus in the west - shortly after the sun goes down.

Zimbabwe sunset and young moon

Following several days of cloud, rain and uncertainty, the skies suddenly cleared to reveal the sun and moon setting on what was expected to be the end of an era in Zimbabwe.

It looked like the sun set twice

A lone, small, very brightly illuminated passing cloud - at the exact point where the sun was going down - caused the illusion of a double sunset.

Rat-shaped cloud, with virga

"What was interesting ... was the development of a small upside-down cumulus on the underside of the cloud head from which delicate curtains of virga could be seen descending."

Skies after Tropical Storm Dineo

The storm made landfall near Mozambique in southeast Africa this week, causing at least 7 deaths. Hundreds of miles away, Peter Lowenstein captured strange and shifting skies.

Venus and a cloud shadow

Another sunset spectacle from Peter Lowenstein's hilltop perch above Mutare, Zimbabwe.