FIVE MOONS!

FIVE MOONS!

On the 14th, I could see a bright spot to the right of the Moon and I didn't know what it was at.

So I looked it up on the Internet and I found out that it was Jupiter! How exciting!

Even though they look close together, they are really far apart - in fact, Jupiter was 423 million miles away and the Moon was only about 0.25 million miles away.

I was excited about seeing Jupiter but I got much more excited when I zoomed in the photo and saw four fuzzy dots in a diagonal line around Jupiter and worked out that they were Jupiter's four largest moons - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto!

It's amazing that I could photo them using only a hand-held camera - no tripod!

 

14th March 2017

Two photos similar to yesterday because of the arc of the moon but this time I recorded the compass points both times! The Moon travelled approx. 53 degrees in 2 hours 10 minutes. It's not easy using just this to work out how long the orbit around Earth is because both the Moon and the Earth are moving at different speeds.

Tuesday 14th March 2017, 21:00 & 23:10.

(21:00) 102 degrees E compass point. (23:10) 155 degrees SE compass point.

Waning gibbous phase. Distance 244,942 miles.

Pressure 1033mb rising, humidity 83%, partly cloudy, good visibility.

13th March 2017

The first photo at 20:30 shows the Moon low in the sky so I had to take the photo through branches. However, the second one at 22:50 was much higher in the sky! So it must have been rising in an arc and not parallel to the horizon.

Monday 13th March 2017, 20:30 & 22:50.

195 degrees S compass point.

Full moon phase. Distance 242,563 miles. (The same distance as yesterday - strange?)

12th March 2017

I don't know why the Moon was grey rather than yellow in this photo. I must have changed one of the colour balance settings on the camera, but which one? Do you prefer the yellow or the grey tint one?

Sunday 12th March 2017, 23:00.

Full moon phase. Distance 242,563 miles.

8th March 2017

A much better photo - I have been trying different camera settings.

This photo was taken with 'spot' exposure metering - so the camera works out the light/dark exposure by measuring the very centre of the image (only the bright moon). Before it was including the dark sky.

I also changed the film speed range from ISO max. 1600 to 6400. The faster speed range reduces very fine detail but is better for extreme light situations.

Wednesday 8th March 2017, 21:45.

175 degrees S compass point.

Waxing gibbous phase. Distance 234,186 miles.

5th March 2017

I only saw the moon 3 times in February because of the cloudy and wet weather. Is that unusual? I don't know! I will have to keep a record for next year and the year after and so on to see if it is or not.

Sunday 5th March 2017, just after midnight (actually the 6th, 00:04).

First Quarter phase. Distance 230,423 miles.

17th February 2017

A daytime moon!

I took this photo in the morning before going to school.

Friday 17th February 2017, c.08:00.

Waning gibbous phase. Distance 250,129 miles.