Xmas Telescope

This is my Christmas present, a Skywatcher BKP-1145-EQ1 Reflector telescope. It has two interchangeable eyepieces (25mm and 10mm), a Barrow Lens, a Red Dot Finder and a motor drive. Classic! Good photos of the Moon, here we come!

...but with the weather at the moment, I would have been better off with a Grey Cloudwatcher!

Moon 24th December 2018

At the time that the photo was taken, according to NASA's Santa Tracker, Father Christmas was heading from the Balkans into Italy! Did you see him?

Time 20:50.
Distance 249,915 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
85 degrees E compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 20.7 degrees.

Moon 22nd December 2018

It was too cloudy for the winter solstice (the 21st)...
The day after (the 22nd), still cloudy so a great 'arty' photo...
And it cleared up later, so a proper detailed photo!
And it was a full moon, so HOWWWLLLLLLL!

Time 18:30 / 21:00.
Distance 226,230 / 226,230 miles.
Full moon / full moon phase.
80 / 110 degrees E / E compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 19.3 / 41.0 degrees.

Moon 14th December 2018

The terminator is right on the 1971 Apollo 15 landing site, on the Hadley Rille in the Apennine region!

This was the first mission where the Lunar Roving Vehicle (the "Moon buggy") was used. Even though its top speed was meant to be about 8 mph, Eugene Cernan later hit 11.2 mph, making him the unofficial lunar land-speed record holder!

A recording of the Apollo 15 launch was included in the "Sounds of Earth" on Voyager 1, which is now 13.5 billion miles from Earth.

Time 16:45.
Distance 249,915 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
160 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 25.6 degrees.

Moon 21st November 2018

A full moon! Bright and shiny!
But 12 hours later, it's a murky morning; is that sphere the Moon or the Sun?
Of course, being 12 hours later and the same place in the sky it cannot be the Moon!

Time 20:15.
Distance 234,978 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
130 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 37.4 degrees.

Arecibo Moon (late!)

Really nice photo but...

...a day too late for the Arecibo Message 44th Anniversary!

By this time, 44 years ago, the message would have been 16.1 billion miles past the Moon! Yikes!

But it would still have had about 147,000 trillion miles to go!

I created a song to celebrate it.
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/arecibo-sound
(Full info on my other blog: http://samsswingnskank.blogspot.com/2018/11/arecibo-sound.html)

Time 18:30.
Distance 249,419 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
170 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 24.3 degrees.

Moon 11th November 2018

It's not only Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day on the same day, but the Moon is exactly the same phase as it was 100 years ago!

There's a very bright star to the bottom right of the moon, but I'm not sure what it is as I only have a hand-held planisphere! There are a few possibilities but I think it might be Altair in the Aquila constellation - the 12th brightest star in the sky. From the Arabic for "the flying eagle", Altair isn't spherical, but flattened at the poles because it rotates very rapidly (286 km/s at the equator!).

Here are the Moon details:
Time 17:15.
Distance 247,883 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
210 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 10.8 degrees.

Compare that with the results from 100 years ago at the same time:
Time 17:15.
Distance 234,773 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
165 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 25.0 degrees.

Moon 30th October 2018

No visible Moon on Halloween because of the weather, but here's the Halloween Eve Moon!

On the northern horn of the terminator lies Anaxagoras, named after Greek philosopher Anaxagoras.

It's an impact crater made of anorthosite, an igneous rock.
Most Earth anorthosites formed during Precambrian times and it contains titanium-bearing ilmenite which is used by steelworkers in blast furnaces.

The crater is 32.25 miles across. Imagine if the meteorite that it had hit Dudley instead it would have formed a crater from Brignorth to the NEC!

Time 23:30.
Distance 230,436 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
80 degrees E compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 15.1 degrees.

Moon 29th October 2018 Photo

Moon 29th October 2018

If the last post was 'all Greek' to you, here's Double Greek crater shadows!

Yes, I'm on about Eudoxus and Aristoteles (named after Eudoxus of Cnidus and Aristotle, both Greek astronomers) at the top of Montes Caucasus And even better, they're on the terminator!

The strange things about these craters is their shape. Eudoxus appears oval from Earth, but is really circular - an optical illusion! On the other hand, Aristoteles is a really strange rounded hexagonal shape!

Time 23:05 (GMT).
Distance 231,120 miles.
Waning gibbous phase.
80 degrees E compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 20.7 degrees.

Moon 19th and 20th October 2018

With the clear and frosty nights we have seen some great moons the past week.

But how much of the Moon do we actually see?

Here's a method I thought of to work it out, using the idea that you really have two circles - the Moon's circumference and the circle formed by extrapolating the Terminator arc.

Working out the diameter of the Moon easy because the terminator 'horns' are always at the 'top' and 'bottom', and after a bit of fiddling, you can work out the distance between the left/right edge of the moon and the nearest part of the terminator.
(Don't forget the most you can ever see of the Moon is 50%!)

Time 17:45 / 20:00 (GMT).
Distance 249,599 / 247,779 miles.
Waxing gibbous / Waxing gibbous phase.
130 / 145 degrees SE / SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 8.1 / 20.8 degrees.

Moon 23rd to 26th September 2018

4 big moons over the 23rd to 26th September.

Great to look at but only a mad man would send a rocket to the moon on these dates; just look at the history!

23rd September 1958, 60 years ago, Soviet Russia launched the R-7 Semyorka 8K72; mission - hit the moon! Take off, tick tock, tick tock, 93 seconds, BANG!

One year later, 24th September 1959, USA launched Pioneer P-1. On the launch pad, BOOM!

Another year, 25th September 1960, Pioneer P-30 went 230 miles into the sky, lost power, WALLOP!

Six years on, 20th September 1966, Surveyor 2 was nearly there until engine malfunction... Cartwheel into Copernicus Crater, CRASH!

23rd September 1969, the anniversary of Semyorka 8K72, the Russian Kosmos-300 had engine failure leaving it LOST IN SPACE! Well, stranded in Earth orbit anyway. Unhappy Anniversary!

Planets Synth.

Not strictly the Moon but...

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 about rhythms, and they used the orbits of the planets as a musical rhythm, so I decided to do the same using an oscillator synthesizer.

I adapted my old synthesizer written in HTML and javascript that runs through a web browser.

Firstly I worked out a frequency for each planet proportionally scaled on their distance from the Sun. Because of the huge distances of the outer planets I had to use a different scale for them.

For the planets' beeps per minute, I worked out a proportional tempo based on the orbits. I found a good tempo for Mercury first (240bpm), then calculated the other planets based on that. Again because of the huge numbers, I have to use a separate tempo range for the outer planets, otherwise the inner ones would have been beeping too fast or the outer ones too slowly.

Once I had that sounding good I thought it would be great to add modulation based on the number of large Moons each planet had, and also some delay.

Here is the final result.

https://youtu.be/KfGFkjA1yYU

Audio track for looping through a bass amp!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/planets-synth

BBC Radio 4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bgfqx7

Moon 27th July 2018

It's the century's longest 'Blood Moon' lunar eclipse, when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon.

T-minus 48 hours: big Moon
T-minus 24 hours: big Moon
Eclipse: No Moon! Too cloudy!

Let's see what you could have seen:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44945452

Time 20:30.
Distance 252,397 miles.
Full moon phase.
130 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude -4.6 degrees.

Moon 24th July 2018

Look at the bright spot in the bottom left; what is it?
It's not Jupiter because that was to the right of the Moon.
It's possibly Mars but that should appear red and this didn't.
So it's probably either Saturn or the star Antares, the brightest light in the Scorpio constellation.
Which do you think?

Time 22:10.
Distance 251,225 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
170 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 15.6 degrees.

Moon 23rd July 2018 Moonoshop Art

I've been thinking about the Moon as a crazy source of art so I messed around in Photoshop with tonight's picture of the Moon.

Complete list of tweaks:
1st photo: ordinary Moon
2nd photo: pointillized version of the 1st photo, maybe how Georges Seurat might have painted it!
3rd photo: contrasted version of the Moon in clouds
4th photo: monster contrasted version of the 3rd photo

Time 22:10.
Distance 249,871 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
180 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 17.7 degrees.

Moon 21st July 2018 Jupiter

And on the 49th anniversary of Apollo 11, the Moon can be seen with Jupiter - look for the small spot in the bottom right. Scientific proof that Jupiter is a lot smaller than the Moon!

Time 22:05.
Distance 245,485 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
200 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 20.4 degrees.

Apollo 11 Moon DVD

I have been watching the NASA footage of the Apollo 11 mission on this cracking DVD, 'Apollo 11; Men on the Moon', lent to me by space nut Russell Hale.
My favourite bit was the lo-fi 'beep' radio transmission sound when they were talking on the Moon.
I would recommend Moon buffs buying it.

Moon 22nd July 2018

22nd July - Apollo 11 Lunar orbiter goes out of lunar orbit. Back home!

Time 20:25.
Distance 247,761 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
165 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 19.1 degrees.

Moon 21st July 2018

21st July - Apollo 11 Lunar lander started the return launch. Armstrong & Aldrin had spent 21 1/2 hours on the Moon plus 7 hours rest period drop off!

Time 20:45.
Distance 245,485 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
180 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 23.1 degrees.

Moon 19th July 2018

19th July - Apollo 11 Lunar orbiter goes into lunar orbit, but it was behind the Moon so we couldn't have seen it!

Time 22:10.
Distance 239,026 miles.
First quarter phase.
230 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 19.5 degrees.

Moon 18th July 2018

***  1 0 0 t h  P O S T  ***
18th July - 49 years ago today, Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin put on their spacesuits and climbed through the docking tunnel from the Columbia Command Module to the Eagle Lunar Module.

Time 22:05.
Distance 235,292 miles.
Waxing crescent phase.
240 degrees SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 18.5 degrees.

Friday 22nd June 2018 (Jupiter)

You can still easily see Jupiter now - here it is as a small, sharp dot on the left-hand side of the photo. But when you zoom it in, you can also see a faint, fuzzy, grey dot. Perhaps it's Callisto? Or Ganymede? Or Europa? Or even Io?

Time 22:15.
Distance 242,106 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
200 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 27.9 degrees.

Friday 22nd June 2018

Today, Copernicus is right on the terminator!

Copernicus is named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. However, it previously had lots of different names: Carthusia (after the Chartreuse Mountains), Phillipi IV (after Philip IV of Spain), Etna M. (after Mount Etna), and has since been nicknamed "The Monarch of the Moon"!

Time 22:15.
Distance 242,106 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
200 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 27.9 degrees.

Thursday 21st June 2018

See the Moon on the Summer Solstice!

Does the Moon have a solstice, a longest/shortest day?

It was tricky to work out but I think the answer is "yes", but it's a bit more complicated than an Earth's longest/shortest day!

If you were standing on the Moon and the time it takes for the Sun to go away and come back to the same place is a day (a synodic day), than your day would average 29.5 Earth days, varying from 29.26 to 29.83 Earth days, a difference of just over 13 hours!

This month, the Moon's is on lunation 1181 and its day will last 29d 7h 05m!
The Moon's longest day this year was the first couple of weeks in January (lunation 1175), lasting 29d 19h 47m.

Time 19:45.
Distance 239,197 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
170 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 34.2 degrees.

Moon 26th May 2018

And this is what the moon itself looked like last night.

There's a program on the BBC at the moment about 'The Last Man on the Moon'.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b3gd8g

He was Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, the eleventh and last man on the Moon to date, stepping off the Taurus-Littrow valley on December 14th 1972.

If you were born on December 15th 1972 you would be 45 years old and no one would have been on the moon in your lifetime!

Time 22:20.
Distance 242,644 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
170 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 27.7 degrees.

Moon 26th May 2018

It's Jupiter again, with the Moon in view.

In the photo, Jupiter looks 17 times smaller than the moon but appears just as bright. But in reality, Jupiter is 42 times bigger than the Moon, and 2250 times further away from the Earth! It just shows how big it is to be able to reflect so much light back!

Time 22:20.
Distance 242,644 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
170 degrees S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 27.7 degrees.

Moon 21st May & Moon 23rd May 2018

In these two photos, the cloud covers the moon but it makes great pictures. However, it gives me a feeling of cold and it reminds me of "wuthering" in 'The Secret Garden' (the book I'm reading), and clouds move and change, and they're not pure greyscale - you get little hints of colour.

(21st May / 23rd May 2018)
Time 21:23 / 22:46.
Distance 230,970 / 235,671 miles.
First quarter / waxing gibbous phase.
225 / 220 degrees SW / SW compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 42.7 / 36.5 degrees.

Monday 30th April 2018

A great full Moon (first photo) but look how bright Jupiter is! It's a great time for seeing Jupiter; the second to fifth photos show it on 30th April, 2nd May, 4th May and 21st May 2018. BUT because it looks so small, it's difficult to get a sharp image with just a normal bridge camera; you need a tripod or something like that to get one!

(30th April 2018)
Time 21:13.
Distance 241,920 miles.
Full moon phase.
115 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 1.3 degrees.

Moon 22nd May 2018

These are two Moons spread over 30 minutes with the camera in a fixed position on a tripod. The Moon hasn't rotated much but it has moved across the sky and in an arc! This is because the Earth is rotating much faster than the Moon.

(left / right Moon)
Time 19:17 / 19:54.
Distance 233,274 / 233,274 miles.
First quarter / first quarter phase.
165 / 180 degrees S / S compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 46.6 / 47.2 degrees.

Thursday 26th April 2018

Only the second Moon this month.
April last year I managed nine posts!
Lots of cloud - look how fuzzy the Moon looks.

Time 21:15.
Distance 235,482 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
150 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 37.8 degrees.

Wednesday 25th April 2018

I did an experiment to compare:
optical zoom vs. digital zoom!

Optical zoom is supposed to give better detail than digital zoom. However, the picture would be smaller.

If you enlarge the optical zoom picture in Photoshop to the same size as the digital zoom image then the pixels look a lot bigger.
But the optical zoom picture looks more '3D' - the shadows are much clearer.
Perhaps this could be because the digital zoom picture is more sensitive to camera shake. Who knows?

(for both photos)
Time 20:20.
Distance 233,750 miles.
Waxing gibbous phase.
150 degrees SE compass point (azimuth).
Altitude 42.0 degrees.