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.