Early to Rise

I didn't make the early to bed part - it was close to 2am for that. But a little sinus drainage had me coughing in the night and awake at 5:30 this morning. Rather than stay in bed and take the chance of disturbing Chris' sleep, I decided to get up and make some coffee. I'll need to grab a couple of hours of sleep this evening before spending the night working at the shelter.

The notable thing about this morning's early wake up was the morning sky. Opening my eyes and looking out the bedroom window I was looking just east of due south and staring at the head of the Scorpion. The constellation Scorpio is a prominent feature of the summer night sky and its presence in the early morning sky is a great encouragement that warmer weather isn't far away.

Our home's location is fairly rural; it is about the halfway point between Springfield and Branson in Southwest Missouri. These are not large cities, but they do dump enough light into the night sky to filter out viewing many stars. The billboard lights alone create a glow that follows the highways between the two cities. Even on clear nights there is an atmospheric glow that diminishes what you can observe in the night sky. If there is any moisture in the air, the obstruction is even worse. Any minute atmospheric particles seem to capture and hold whatever light is available to impede simple star gazing. 
I am glad that we live far enough from town or from city lights that we get to see the stars that we can observe. 
The winter night sky has some great stars, but it is often too cold to enjoy watching them. I'm ready to let them move on their heavenly way and I'll see them again on our next spin around the sun. 

Remaining true to the end of winter, weather in the Ozarks today will slip back to the cooler side of things. We've enjoyed a few days in the 60s (15+C) and will be back in the mid 60s in a few days. Today will be mid 40s (8C) and tonight will be sub-freezing. 
Spring training baseball games begin this weekend.

John