Astronomy, The Sky and Outer Space

You have been luckier than most then, Helen.

Hi all, I've just got so excited coming home from the Hollybush. I've seen the asteroid travel almost right overhead, passing the moon & brilliant Venus. Yes, the Hollybush. The Tandoori mixed grill was umpapah.

Neil, Surprising! Beautiful! Truly wonderful!

Hi all, Venus is just setting in the w-nw, sky as I post this. Hopefully a clear sky tomorrow, but Venus is so bright.

Lovely big bright moon tonight, it is called a blue moon, but it isn't blue !

Beautiful!

Hello, The early hours of this morning saw a partial eclipse of the Earths shadow on to the top right segment of our moon. I meant to see if I could see it but I was fast asleep at 3am. It was intrigue trying to work out how such fine calculations could be made that took me in to my love of numbers when I was around ten years old. Amateur astronomers, as well as looking at the moons of Jupiter, also like watching their shadows on the planet's surface.

Hi all, With clear pre-dawn skies above Coventry, worth a early rise to see the giant winter constellation of Orion, the almost complete crescent moon nearly lying on his back. Help, can someone help to prop him back up again, he's fallen over. A bit of basic geometry, if we use the crescent moon as an archers longbow, then fire an arrow, that points to where the sun is. Way below the horizon. Fun hey.

I was too busy driving the ZZZZZZs at that point. Sadly light pollution here makes astronomy rather uninteresting unless it's directly overhead. There has been a lot of solar sunspot activity recently, which triggers the aurora on Earth. While I have no chance seeing it here, I've seen some fantastic YouTube footage from Iceland where loads of live cameras have been set up to film the volcanic eruptions. They've caught some of the best aurora footage I've ever seen. Fortunately you don't have to stay up to catch it because the live feed is recorded on a rolling feed that can be scrolled back at least 12 hours. I've seen some great still pictures of spectacular events but never seen properly how it moves. I'll flag up, next time it happens.

Quite a good night for aurora last night, see it here at about 0:35 am and again at 2:00 am.

Brilliant Helen, C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS might be visible to the naked eye in the coming weeks. I've always been intrigued by some of the names used in Astronomy, a mix of languages adding to the delight. Castor & Pollux, for example. A glorious morning in Coventry so after getting the bins in, I'm off for a jaunt. Wrapped up of course.