Last night my daughter called and insisted that I go outside and look at Venus and Jupiter underneath the crescent moon. I pulled on my hoodie over my pajamas, slid into my mocassins, turned off the house lights and spent a good 10 minutes in my cold back yard looking at the sky. Venus was absolutely blazing and Jupiter was hanging up and to it's right, smaller but no less tantalizing. I think that most people in North America will be able to see them for the next few nights, if it's clear.

I also saw Orion and his shining belt, which reminded me of a painting that I haven't looked at in years. I like that it was painted the year of my birth.

Orion in December (1959), Charles Burchfield