13th April 2017

 It's been cloudy for a few nights so instead... I made a model of the Solar System!

The Moon is 250,000 miles on average from the Earth. Hard to imagine, but how much harder to imagine the distances of the planets from the Sun? It's incredulous!

In the photos, the Sun is represented by a fiery orange sphere, the Earth by a globe, and the other planets by marbles and pool balls. The planets are not to scale but the distances are.

The tape measure is 5 metres long, and Pluto is off the scale!

I'm including Pluto because this is a NO-BULLY-PLUTO blog!

The second photo shows the view from Pluto, the exposure makes it look a wild and lonely place.

9th April 2017

Looks like a full moon.

Did you see any lycanthropes?

Sunday 9th April 2017, 23:25.

Full moon phase. Distance 244,447 miles.

Compass south 160 degrees.

8th April 2017

You may think this is a full moon but it's not quite.

There's another moon song called 'Bad Moon Rising' - check Youtube!

Saturday 8th April 2017, 23:20.

Waxing gibbous phase. Distance 243,305 miles.

Compass south 175 degrees.

7th April 2017

I tried the tungsten light setting on the camera for a bit of fun and got this cool blue colour.

There's a song called 'Blue Moon' - check Youtube!

Friday 7th April 2017, 23:20.

Waxing gibbous phase. Distance 241,112 miles.

Compass south 180 degrees.

6th April 2017

Moving cloud so difficult to get a good exposure for the moon and a clear view.

Thursday 6th April 2017, 23:20.

Waxing gibbous phase. Distance 238,827 miles.

Compass South West 230 degrees.

5th April 2017

You can see the Sun's shadow go from Anaxagoras at the top to the big crater of Copernicus in the middle to the cluster of craters around Schiller at the bottom.

Wednesday 5th April 2017, 23:15.

Waxing gibbous phase. Distance 236,472 miles.

Compass south west, 215 degrees.

Clear skies.

4th April 2017

Same day, 8 hours later. Look how the angle of shadow has changed, now top right to bottom left.

You can also see moon daytime and nighttime. If you were standing on the bottom right of the moon you would be able to see the Sun but if you were standing on the top left of the moon it would be dark.

You would also be either very hot or very cold because the Moon has no atmosphere so cannot keep the Sun's heat at nighttime.

Tuesday 4th April 2017, 23:55.

First quarter phase. Distance 234,091 miles.

Compass west, 260 degrees.

Clear skies, great for Moon watching.

4th April 2017

Daytime moon!
It's exciting because it feels funny seeing the moon in the daytime.
You can still see a lot of detail even though it's daylight.
Can you see the angle of the shadow is the opposite of 2 days ago - now top left to bottom right?

Tuesday 4th April 2017, 16:00.

First quarter phase. Distance 234,091 miles.

Compass east, 90 degrees.

12 degrees Centigrade, Humidity 51%.

2nd April 2017

I only saw the moon a few times in March because of the cloudy weather - a bit like February.
But April looks like being a bumper month. Here's the first one.
Nearly midnight; the Moon was very low.

Sunday 2nd April 2017, 23:50.

Waxing crescent phase. Distance 229,616 miles.

Compass west, 290 degrees.

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.

10th February 2017

Another week with no Moon.
Had to be quick to take this photo in a brief break in the clouds.
Too much moonshine to see any detail.
Still a good atmospheric photo.

Friday 10th February 2017, 23:00.

Windy - fast moving clouds.

Approx. 220 degrees SW compass point.

Full moon phase. Distance 234,494 miles.

4th February 2017

Another long time with no visible Moon.

Too much cloud and rain.

Saturday 4th February 2017, 20:00.

4 degrees Centigrade, Pressure 998mb, Humidity 83% (approx.), clear but watery sky.

230 degrees SSW compass point.

First quarter phase. Distance 229,833 miles.

Both photos show the precipitation pollution!

24th January 2017

Another few days with no Moon.

Another morning Moon!

Tuesday 24th January 2017, 07:45.

Just above zero degrees Centigrade, clear blue cloudless early morning sky, some sunshine.

160 degrees SSE compass point.

First two photos are maximum manual zoom.

Third photo is using digital zoom but not much detail because of the sunlight.

Last photo is a bit of fun. I liked the silhouetted birds so in Photoshop I put the Moon into a silhouette and set the contrast to crazy!

20th January 2017

The Moon is back!
First Moon I've seen for a week.
Friday 20th January 2017, 07:45.
Just below zero degrees Centigrade, clear blue cloudless early morning sky, ground frost.
190 degrees SSW compass point.
First photo is maximum manual zoom.
Second photo is using digital zoom, c.90x.
Look at the line of detail down the middle between the light and the dark. The middle detail strip has very clear highlight and shadow.