Moons Friday 29th and Saturday 30th November 2019

Low Moons means more atmosphere for the light to travel through means not-so-detailed pictures!

But the 29th photo has a great jagged look to the terminator with a very distinct line of craters. And, if you look closely enough, there appears to be a brighter patch of sky representing the rest of the Moon's surface?

30th is a very chilly and frosty night with quite a bit of moisture in the air. Brrrr.

(29th / 30th November)
Time 17:35 / 17:40.
Distance 240,388 / 243,626 miles.
Waxing crescent / waxing crescent phase.
220 / 210 degrees SW / SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 4.9 / 9.7 degrees.

Antimoon Friday 12th July 2019!

I was listening to a programme called 'The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry' and they were talking about 'The Heart of the Antimatter', and said that theoretically there should be Antiplanets and even an Antiuniverse! But what is antimatter?

Well, everything is made up of matter, including the Moon! Matter is made up of atoms which are made up of neutrons, positive protons and negative electrons. Antimatter is the opposite - neutrons, negative protons and positive electrons. (Neutrons are neutral - but are they positive neutral or negative neutral?!...)

In theory the Big Bang should have created as much anti-matter as matter but although we can make anti-matter in the lab we can't find any naturally occurring anti-matter. Maybe just as well because if a matter object meets an antimatter object, they would annihilate each other leaving a massive radiation blob.

So in theory there should be somewhere an Anti-Earth with an Anti-Moon! Maybe it would look something like this:

Time 06:43.
Distance 233,594 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
225 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 51.6 degrees.

The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bfry

Moon Wednesday 20th November 2019 (Apollo 12)

Morning Moon!

The sky cleared up from being cloudy in the space of an hour, leaving a great "red sky in the morning, astronaut's warning"!

Last day on the Moon for Apollo 12 - in 7 hours' time 50 years ago, they would be blasting off home!

This was last and only time that Bean and Conrad set foot on the Moon, although they returned to space later on Skylab. And this was Gordon's final mission, but at least he's orbited the Moon, which is more than most of us have ever done!

Time 06:29 & 07:20.
Distance 230,276 miles.
Waning crescent phase.
185 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 51.0 degrees.

Moon Tuesday 19th November 2019 - Apollo 12 has landed!

Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad became the third man ever to walk on the moon, four months after Armstrong & Aldrin, followed by Alan L. Bean. (In the Command Module was Richard F. Gordon.)

It landed in Oceanus Procellarum on 19th November 1969, at 06:54:35 - the same time as I took these photos!

They landed at 3.01239 degrees South, 23.42157 degrees West, later named Statio Cognitum, though better known to the crew as "Pete's Parking Lot".

'Mr. Bean' had the first lunar colour television camera but he accidentally destroyed it by pointing it at the Sun. Whoops!

Time 06:34 & 07:08.
Distance 231,838 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
205 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 53.3 degrees.

(07:08)

(06:34)

Moon Monday 18th November 2019

Frosty mornings means clear skies which means great morning Moon detail.

And Apollo 12 is on its way, only one day to go fifty years ago.

Time 06:43.
Distance 233,594 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
225 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 51.6 degrees.

Moon Wednesday 13th November 2019

A big moon!

I could see it out the back of my house, but there were trees in the way!
But I got a clear view through the bathroom window standing on my tip-toes!
But the photo through the trees looks very atmospheric.

(both photos)
Time 18:20.
Distance 243,874 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
75 degrees E compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 9.1 degrees.

Moon Tuesday 12th November 2019 (Apollo 12)

Not only... a full moon,
But also... Apollo 12 week!

Apollo 12 was launched to the moon this week, crewed by the astronauts:
Charles Conrad, Jr.
Richard F. Gordon, Jr.
Alan L. Bean

Alan Bean was a naval pilot who flew some great carrier planes such as the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and later went on to be an artist! He used real moon dust in his paintings!
Check out his work here!
http://www.alanbeangallery.com/

Time 22:00.
Distance 244,939 miles.
Full moon phase.
130 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 44.0 degrees.

1 Moon, 1 Day, 1000 Views!

I've had a few high-activity days previously but Sunday 10th November was the first time I've had over 1,000 views in a day!

So thank you to everyone who has viewed my blog.

Moon Monday 11th November 2019

I was out and about and saw a great moon but I had no camera!

When I was back home it was damp but later on (because of the British weather) the Moon looked beautiful!

Today was Armistice Day. 101 years ago the soldiers in Flanders would be looking forwards to coming home under a waxing crescent moon on a cool and wet night.

(second photo)
Time 22:15.
Distance 246,000 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
155 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 45.6 degrees.

Moons Thursday 7th and Friday 8th November 2019

These Moons show just how weather affects astronomy - and Britain certainly has a lot of weather!

The first Moon was in quite a lot of cloud, meaning only the mares were visible. 24 hours later and the (second) Moon had plenty of detail.

(left/right sides)
Time 21:05 / 22:30.
Distance 251,605 / 250,920 miles.
Waxing gibbous / waxing gibbous phase.
185 / 200 degrees S / S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 29.1 / 32.4 degrees.

Weather (7th / 8th November):
Humidity: 89% / 92%
Barometer: 996mb / 1012mb.
Weather: Partly cloudy / clear.

Moon Tuesday 5th November 2019

Two moons, two hours apart!

This shows what I was talking about in yesterday's post. The second moon was nearer the horizon, so it looks redder and less defined.

(left/right sides)
Time 20:30 / 22:30.
Distance 250,795 / 250,795 miles.
Waxing gibbous / waxing gibbous phase.
200 / 225 degrees S / SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 19.3 / 10.3 degrees.

Moon Monday 4th November 2019 (later)

Here is the Moon later in the evening, near the horizon.

Why does it look redder?
Why does it look bigger?

It looks redder because, when the Moon is on the horizon, the light particles have to travel through more atmosphere to get to your eyes, and the atmosphere scatters the blue particles away from you, but not the red.

And no-one knows why it looks bigger, although the general consensus is that it is an optical illusion, by how the brain thinks of the relative size of objects to the ones around it. A bit like Father Ted's 'Small and Far Away'!

Time 22:08.
Distance 249,177 miles.
First quarter phase.
230 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 4.8 degrees.

Moon Monday 4th November 2019

A daylight moon.
Not much detail but a great scenic shot - look at the dark cloud above the Moon!

Time 16:07.
Distance 249,177 miles.
First quarter phase.
205 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 15.0 degrees.

Moon Sunday 3rd November 2019

Hard to see moon this time of year because of weather and firework pollution. 30 minutes later and this moon was gone!

Time 17;35.
Distance 246,772 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
180 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 15.2 degrees.

Moon Thursday 17th October 2019

Another early morning high magnitude object in the sky. It was very easy to see and looks very bright.
I checked the 'In-the-sky' app and it says it's Procyon, in Canis Minor.

Time 06:45.
Distance 244,489 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
245 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 37.5 degrees.

Moon Friday 18th October 2019

Some great morning moons this week. Look at this one! Some great crater detail.

There was also a great star display in the sky when I got up. These stars were easily visible with the naked eye. Half an hour later and the sky was too blue!

Don't be a lazybone, get up early and watch the sky!

Time 06:35.
Distance 242,185 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
235 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 47.5 degrees.

Moon Tuesday 8th October 2019

20 new Saturn moons were discovered this week and 17 are going in the 'wrong' direction!

They are all roughly 3 miles in diameter whereas our Moon is around 3000 miles. If I drew a line on this picture to show where the moon is only 3 miles diameter it would be virtualy on the pole!

You could walk around the equator of one of the new moons in just over 3 hours! (If it was flat...) To do the same on our Moon would take over 130 days!

Time 18:55.
Distance 251,141 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
145 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 11.2 degrees.

Moon Wednesday 9th October 2019

And tonight's Moon - spot the difference from yesterday.
Yes, the Moon is more damp!

Time 20:30.
Distance 251,996 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
155 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 18.5 degrees.

Moon Wednesday 2nd October 2019

Very clear Moon (even in not-so-dark light!) and a very clear dot to the left of it. What is it, though?

If it's that bright, it can only really be Jupiter, Saturn, Venus or Polaris (the Pole Star).

But now, there are some really good apps (and websites!) to find the answers to these questions and using 'In-the-sky', I found it was Jupiter!

(You can also listen to some great jazz on BBC Sounds while you're doing it!)

Time 19:25.
Distance 232,936 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
220 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 9.2 degrees.

 

Moon Saturday 7th September 2019

My homework was about forces acting upon a satellite so I chose the Moon! Here it is.

Even Pluto has a gravitational pull on the Moon because even though it is insignificant, gravitional pull never reaches zero.

And the American flag left by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin also has a weight force and a gravitational pull on the Moon! Well, in theory, anyway, even if it has probably disintegrated by now. Still not bad to consider a $5.50 flag made by Annin of New Jersey is still affecting a (theoretical) effect on the Moon!

Time 19:05.
Distance 244,648 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
165 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 12.5 degrees.