Daehanminguk dailies, 11.10

As I briefly noted several days ago, we went back to Yeoju last weekend. The first thing we did on Saturday was to visit the Mok-A Buddhist Museum. These are the rest of the images that followed the solo shot posted on Sunday.


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11.7+11.8 dailies

Daehanminguk dailies, 11.07+11.08

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11.04 dailies

Daehanminguk dailies, 11.04

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10.26 dailies

Pre-sunrise planets

At the beginning of the month, I awoke quite early for several days in a row. I was able to catch the planetary parade that was going on then as a result. Unfortunately, clouds blanketed the sky on the 4th and 5th, so I couldn't see the Moon-Venus conjunction shown here.

Nov. 3

Nov. 4


On the flipside, I (unknowingly) captured Mercury in the ascending Sun's glow on Nov. 3.

Here's a starchart for that day, generated with Hallo Northern Sky:

Cheonghakdong closeups, continued

These were the first.

The prettiest placein Korea, part four

This post combines photos and video
from Cheonghakdong Village
on October 27...








...and on November 3.







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This was part three.

One from the weekend

Seated Maitreya at the Mok-A Buddhist Museum in Yeoju, Korea.
Check the next link for what seems to be a more thourough overview of the museum.

So long and thanks for all the photo-ops with the fish

All of the public-school English teachers in the province were taken on a field trip yesterday. One of the stops was a fishery science museum near Tongyeong. Interesting bits about the history of fishing in Korea, marine biology and hydrology... but the most captivating aspects were the fish tanks.

The prettiest placein Korea, part three

More images captured
at Cheonghakdong village.


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This was part two. Move on to part four.

Yet another Datura update

I obtained seeds from Datura plants of the same type that I saw in front of the school in September. Those plants were cut down a couple of days later*, and so there went any thought of collecting seeds. Or so it seemed.

Last week, as some of the teachers and I returned from a chrysanthemum festival hosted by the neighboring agricultural high school, I spotted the withered remains of some Datura inoxia (I think) along a hedgerow. When I went to check them out yesterday, I found that several of the stems had been snapped or trampled upon. I found two or three viable pods and brought them home to dry alongside the seeds from the double-flowered D. stramonium.



Datura inoxia and its seed pods



Datura stramonium var. tatula and its seeds
(and a citrine shard)

*My co-teacher asked the building and grounds maintenance men to take me to where I saw the seed pods last week. From what I could gather from body language and facial expressions, it seems that Datura is considered a bit of a weed [the name for Datura in Korean, 흰독말풀, can be translated as "white-flower pondweed"]. The men repeatedly made this chopping motion with their arms and wanted to move on.

As I walked back to the school, I saw remnants of the chopped stems from September... including a few that had re-sprouted. I dug up a couple and will pot them on Friday.


Some earlier Datura discourse

The prettiest placein Korea, part two

This was part one. This is part three.

My Lady Friend, the Double A's and I went to Cheonghakdong Village this past weekend. Many of the leaves featured below, which I photographed during my first visit on Oct. 27, had faded or fallen away. However, during the second trip, we were guided to a part of the village that I didn't see the first time. That will be featured in part three part four.

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Daehanminguk dailies,10.26 (part two)

This is Schisandra chinensis,
which I wrote about at length last year.





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10.26, part one

Daehanminguk dailies,10.26 (part one)

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This is part two.

10.24-10.26 dailies

Daehanminguk dailies, 10.24 to 10.26

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10.21 dailies

Homing in on Comet Holmes

Last week, I read about a periodic comet, 17P/Holmes, that surprised observers worldwide by ejecting some of its mass and becoming thousands of times brighter on Octber 24. People are also abuzz over the fact that this comet, despite its activity, has yet to produce a tail.

Comt 17P/Holmes grew brighter for a week, but it appears to have dimmed a bit in the last couple of days. It's still possible to pick it out, even in a washed-out, urban sky. Here's what I saw from Gimhae, which is not too far from Korea's second-largest city.


Comet 17P/Holmes is about 150 million miles away and it can be found near the constellation Perseus about an hour after sunset. The comet was discovered by Edwin Holmes in 1892. Its period of orbit is about seven years. I'll be interested to see if it produces more tricks as it approaches the Sun this time around.