Moon Monday 16th March 2020

An early morning moon, which was very clear in the sky - just look at the scenic shot!

The third photo was the scenic shot with the colour saturation set to 100!

Time 06:27.
Distance 237,266 miles.
Last quarter phase.
185 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 14.0 degrees.

Scenic Moons Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 11th March 2020

It was a bit cloudy on the 3rd and the 11th, which gave the chance for some great scenic Moons. On the photo on the 3rd, I changed the colour of the cloud around the Moon! What do you think?

Moons Thursday 12th March 2020

A really bright morning. But even the early morning sky wasn't enough to overcome the brightness of the Moon!

Time 06:32.
Distance 223,881 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
240 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 12.4 degrees.

Moon Wednesday 11th March 2020

Nearly another full moon! Hoooowwwwl again!

Time 22:33.
Distance 222,293 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
120 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 14.8 degrees.

Moon Sunday 8th March 2020

Full moon (nearly!)! Hoooowwwwl!

Time 22:28.
Distance 222,909 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
153 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 47.0 degrees.

Moon Montage 2!

A quick piece of Moonart!

Moons Sunday 1st to Friday 6th March 2020

Back to the late afternoon and evening Moons!

(1st March)
Time 20:20.
Distance 246,972 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
241 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 40.4 degrees.

(2nd March)
Time 16:53.
Distance 243,880 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
151 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 54.2 degrees.

(3rd March)
Time 20:42.
Distance 240,226 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
222 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 53.9 degrees.

(5th March)
Time 22:35.
Distance 232,108 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
222 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 54.3 degrees.

(6th March)
Time 20:47.
Distance 228,280 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
154 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 56.0 degrees.

1st March

2nd March

3rd March

5th March

6th March

Leap Moon!

A Moon on 29th February, which only happens every 4 years! But unfortunately, there are virtually no lunar missions connected to Leap Year's Day (29th February).

The closest mission is Luna 20, which left the Moon on 22nd February, 1972.

And the closest astronaut is Jack Lousma, who was born on Leap Year's Day 1936, but never went on any lunar missions, as he was involved in Skylab and Space Shuttle.

We have to wait until 2024 to see if there will be a lunar mission on a 29th February!

Time 17:13.
Distance 249,368 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
195 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 49.3 degrees.

Moon Art Thursday 30th November 2017

* * * 2 0 0 t h  P O S T * * *

This is my Moon artwork.

I started off with a photo of the Moon. I chose one that was nearly full, rather than a crescent, as although the features appear more flattened, I wanted a big Moon!

Then I did a coloured sketch of that photo, before overlaying the sketch onto the photo in Photoshop with multiple layers of hue saturation and contrast.

Time 19:25.
Distance 228,858 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
141 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 37.4 degrees.

Venus Sunday 16th February 2020

The big storm has gone and left a great evening sky with another bright Venus.

Venus Tuesday 11th February 2020

17:48 and it's quite bright but look how bright Venus is in the sky. It's so easy to see.

Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky, behind only the moon, with a magnitude of -4.8. The Moon tops it at -12.74 at its brightest and the Sun is a whopping -26.74. the brightest visible star is Sirius with 'only' -1.46 magnitude.

Venus appears so bright because the clouds in its atmosphere reflect about 70% of sunlight back into space - it has an albedo of 0.75 (albedo is a measurement of reflectivity)!

It's not as obvious in the photo just how much it is to the naked eye, so I've blown up part of the image to illustrate - pure white!

Scenic Moons Tuesday 11th to Friday 14th February 2020

The morning skies last week were generally clear but there was some cloud blowing around, giving the chance for some fancy scenic photographs. And look at that 'red sky in the morning' on the 14th!

Moons Tuesday 11th to Friday 14th February 2020

Some great early morning Moons last week.

Don't be a lazy-bone; get up early and watch the skies!

Tuesday 11th February 2020:
Time 06:44.
Distance 224,011 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
257 degrees W compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 19.9 degrees.

Wednesday 12th February 2020:
Time 06:37.
Distance 224,791 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
240 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 23.4 degrees.

Thursday 13th February 2020:
Time 06:38.
Distance 226,499 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
226 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 24.2 degrees.

Friday 14th February 2020:
Time 06:37.
Distance 228,893 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
211 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 23.7 degrees.

Tuesday 11th February 2020

Wednesday 12th February 2020

Thursday 13th February 2020

Friday 14th February 2020

Moon Thursday 6th February 2020

Time 20:23.
Distance 248,861 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
137 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 54.4 degrees.

Moon Wednesday 5th February 2020

Time 20:10.
Distance 223,983 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
154 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 57.7 degrees.

Moon Monday 3rd February 2020

Venus is too far to the right to fit the camera angle anymore but there is a great Terminator.

Time 18:59.
Distance 243,015 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
170 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 54.7 degrees.

Moon and Venus Saturday 1st February 2020

Can you see Venus?
(Tip: Look above the cloud on the bottom right.)

Time 17:20.
Distance 248,861 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
168 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 46.4 degrees.

Moon and Venus Thursday 30th January 2020

Venus again!
Zoom in and you can see some low magnitude stars to the top left of Venus (circled).
But I am not sure what they are called!

Pretty good using just a bridge camera.

Time 17:17.
Distance 251,672 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
194 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 36.8 degrees.

Moon and Venus Wednesday 29th January 2020

Moon by Venus again, complete with good Moon detail.

Zooming into Venus shows us how bright it was - it is practically pure white!

Time 17:48.
Distance 251,878 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
214 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 22.8 degrees.

Moon and Venus Tuesday 28th January 2020

Time 17:18.
Distance 251,373 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
214 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 22.8 degrees.

Moons Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th January 2020

The first Moons of 2020!

(3rd / 4th Jan)
Time 17:17 / 20:51.
Distance 250,196 / 248,368 miles.
Waxing gibbous / waxing gibbous phase.
156 / 211 degrees SE / SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 36.8 / 40.9 degrees.

Moon & Venus Monday 30th December 2019

Is this the last visible moon of the year and decade?

Also, in the fourth photo, is this the last visible Venus of the year and decade? I checked an online resource (inthesky.org) and the very visible bright spot on the right of the photo should be Venus!

(first two / last two photos)
Time 15:36 / 17:03.
Distance 249,214 / 249,214 miles.
Waxing crescent / waxing crescent phase.
177 / 188 degrees S / S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 21.2 / 25.1 degrees.