Starship Asterisk*

The moon, tinged quite orange as far as the moon goes, sinking behind a house. I grabbed my camera to take a photo but first the lens cap was on, then the battery was empty, and then, after I'd put in the alternate, the CF card was full. Alas, just as I finished deleting pictures, the moon had sunk behind an invisible cloud that nearly lined up with the house roof.

Murphy strikes again

geckzilla, that sounds quite like many of my attempts to take pictures!

Tonight, I saw a nearly half moon and Mars shining above a restaurant at which I ate too much, the red of Mars contrasting nicely with the white of the moon.

There are noctilucent clouds outside. It's not a fantastic display, but it is very obvious.

Capella is hanging above it all, serenely, as she always does, when the noctilucent clouds are having a go at it. Except when the clouds get really wild and crazy and drown Capella in a tsunami of luminosity. Don't worry, Capella will emerge again. Tonight she is barely getting her toes illuminated.

Ann

The noctilucent clouds are already fading. The sky is getting lighter in the northeast.

Ann

A pretty new Moon, with just a hint of earthshine.

Just got back from a few nights out of town with the family, in a lush valley of subtropical rainforest, on the edge of Nightcap National Park, about two hours drive South of Brisbane. Every night was cool, clear and beautifully dark, although the Moon reached first quarter by the last evening. (I was enjoying the log fire inside the house too much, to stay up later than the Moon.) Here are a few simple images, each a single exposure of 20 seconds through an 18mm lens, taken straight off the sensor and reduced for upload. I liked them so much, I didn't feel compelled to process them in any other way.

Nice ones, Nit. You can count me jealous. And the lens flare in that last one looks like a little glowing bird fluttering by at an opportune moment.

geckzilla wrote:Nice ones, Nit. You can count me jealous. And the lens flare in that last one looks like a little glowing bird fluttering by at an opportune moment.

Obviously this is indisputable primary photographic evidence that glowing fairies do exist

No, I didn't see it, because I was asleep - but my local paper says that there was a fine display of noctilucent clouds over Malmö last night.

Ann

Heh, I just read the caption for the bird lensflare picture and realized Nit had already described it as such...

Right now I'm looking through the tree branches at a giant orange orb rising almost E/SE. Looks nice!

Hey, that was a Super Moon i saw last night. The July 12th one. How come no one mentioned anything about the Super Moon??

Beyond wrote:Hey, that was a Super Moon i saw last night. The July 12th one. How come no one mentioned anything about the Super Moon??

Because:

a) It wasn't a super moon (the full moon of 11 Aug 2014 will be closer; it will occur within half an hour of the closest perigee for the year).

b) Super moons are no more interesting than the moon at other times. If anything, their overly hyped mention tends to build up certain expectations in non-astronomers, such that they are often left underwhelmed by the actual event. "Oh look, a full moon that is ever so slightly bigger than all the others for the year, but not so big that I can tell. Oh look, dinner is ready."

Edit: well, the July full moon may have been a super moon by some the correct definitions. But "super moon" is an astrological term, not an astronomical term. The biggest/closest full moon for 2014 will be in August.

Nitpicker wrote:

Beyond wrote:Hey, that was a Super Moon i saw last night. The July 12th one. How come no one mentioned anything about the Super Moon??

Because:

a) It wasn't a super moon (the full moon of 11 Aug 2014 will be closer; it will occur within half an hour of the closest perigee for the year).

Since it was a full moon occurring within 90% of perigee, it was, by definition, a supermoon.

b) Super moons are no more interesting than the moon at other times.

While the average casual viewer probably can't tell the difference, an experienced observer can. I don't think many people are disappointed; just having an astronomical event in the news is probably a good thing.

I recall the first time I looked up the meaning of "super moon" and it was "the largest full moon of the year". Today, I looked it up again, and Wikipedia says "any full moon within 90% of perigee". Hmmph.

Whilst I agree that astronomical events are good to see in the news, I maintain that "super moons" are over-sold.

My apologies, Beyond. My memory had failed me on the meaning of "super moon".

Most people love the super moon events. I guess it's because it's an event enjoyable to anyone with eyes. Most others require at least binoculars. The moon is pretty grand despite the fact that there isn't a lot of scientific excitement going on there these days. There is probably also a surprising amount of people who still worship the moon as a goddess...

Nitpicker wrote:My apologies, Beyond. My memory had failed me on the meaning of "super moon".

No problemento Nitpicker. Astro things are strange, words are strange, and when you put them together... well, you get a Super Moon a month, 3 months in a row, starting last night.

Funny, I just got off the phone with my mother. She asked me if I saw the big, bright moon the other night. (I did.) The moon is grand at all times and is a wonderful thing to observe and study.

Accidentally imaged (but did not see) a conjunction this morning of Jupiter and Venus. Got woken up at 6am by a dog that wanted to come in. Dragged myself to the door without putting on my glasses, and noticed a pretty sunrise. A very blurry sunrise. My camera was on the table, so I snapped a couple shots and went back to bed. Later, I remembered there was a conjunction this morning (and even closer tomorrow). Looked at my images, and sure enough, there are the planets.
Top center. Probably need to view at full size to see them, Venus above Jupiter.

This morning, I shot the conjunction by design.
(The little bump on the right side is Pikes Peak.)

Nice ones. I should have gotten out of bed and taken a look. All I was doing was tossing and turning anyway.

And this morning, with the planets at their closest. Here, you can just make out the planets framed by a diamond of four stars, 43-gamma CAN, 33-eta CAN, 31-theta CAN, and 47-delta CAN (clockwise from the left). Not a lot of detail, but not bad for a so-so zoom lens.

While shooting the conjunction, I also grabbed a few quick images of the Moon overhead. Visually, I could make out a strange bright spot just inside the terminator. In the image, I can see that this is the Sun illuminating the peaks of the Apennines. I'm sure this is a well known effect, but I've never noticed it myself.