The Clangers Thread (for Eclipses of the Moon and other astronomical stuff)

Stig

Anyone watching?

oohaahmortimer

Nope , just an early /late Richard
Is it orange (ish)
I know it was as bright and clear as you like before I went to bed early 4 hours a go

Stig

Not orangish yet. Just getting slightly darker.

oohaahmortimer

Ok , I may have a look in a bit

Stig

Great Wakering, Essex, 1:38:57.

Stig

Looking red now.

shine166

Addickted

Stig said:

Great Wakering, Essex, 1:38:57.

Didn't know you kept chickens Stig.

Stig

Fascinating sky this evening. The last quarter moon looks beautiful. Above it and to the left is a feint red spot; Mars. Below it and to the right, looking like a very bright star, is actually Venus. Neptune is in the same region too, but you'll need some decent optics to see that.

Well worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

Redmidland

Stig said:

Fascinating sky this evening. The last quarter moon looks beautiful. Above it and to the left is a feint red spot; Mars. Below it and to the right, looking like a very bright star, is actually Venus. Neptune is in the same region too, but you'll need some decent optics to see that.

Well worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

Yep saw it earlier and thought it was just the pole star. Had a look again now and wow how bright is Venus? Can see Mars just as well, Thanks @Stig

rina

Stig said:

Fascinating sky this evening. The last quarter moon looks beautiful. Above it and to the left is a feint red spot; Mars. Below it and to the right, looking like a very bright star, is actually Venus. Neptune is in the same region too, but you'll need some decent optics to see that.

Well worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

you've got too much ambient light, Mars looks quite bright from Ruislip. it looks cool with the 3 of them in a line and all bright

McBobbin

Thanks for the heads up. Just shown the kids

ricky_otto

Stig said:

Fascinating sky this evening. The last quarter moon looks beautiful. Above it and to the left is a feint red spot; Mars. Below it and to the right, looking like a very bright star, is actually Venus. Neptune is in the same region too, but you'll need some decent optics to see that.

Well worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

Nice one stig - fascinating stuff.

RedChaser

Nice heads up

ricky_otto

RedChaser said:

Nice heads up

If you look to the far right you can see where Nicky Baileys penalty ended up.

carly burn

Is Jupiter the Christmas star?

mistrollingin

McBobbin said:

Thanks for the heads up. Just shown the kids

Thanks from me also, looks brilliant from Bexley.

iainment

Thanks for that. Here in rural Kerry it's very clear. And beautiful.

RopeYardRails

Looks really clear, thanks

Bigfatpete

From today's game.

Stig

I think Rina is right about the ambient light. A couple of things to add to my wish list; a decent telescope and a house miles from anywhere.

Venus:



The Moon:



Mars:

Tutt-Tutt

Yeah, My son and I saw that on the walk home from The Valley. Venus was very clear. Thanks @Stig . Perhaps we'll call it the Magennis star.

redman

Thanks Stig. Looks quite spectacular. Never realised Venus was so bright.

rina

Stig said:

I think Rina is right about the ambient light. A couple of things to add to my wish list; a decent telescope and a house miles from anywhere.

I spent new year in Selsey where Patrick Moore used to live and on the nights when there was no fog you could see why- possibly the clearest skies I've seen in this country, wish I was still there tonight as it would be a great place to view from

man_at_milletts

Stig said:

I think Rina is right about the ambient light. A couple of things to add to my wish list; a decent telescope and a house miles from anywhere.

Venus:



The Moon:



Mars:

We've recently moved to the middle of nowhere in Kent, and the difference in light pollution from New Eltham is unbelievable.

The Moon, Venus and Mars are all bright as a button tonight.

iainment

There's a dark sky area in Kerry. The difference is astounding to be in an area that has no ambient lighting for miles around.
An ordinary cloudless evening is just mindblowing with so many stars to see.

Paddy7

Beautiful again. This Autumn / Winter, Venus has looked incredibly bright. No idea about the astronomical reasons but stunning on these clear sharp nights.

1StevieG

I remember being at friends just outside of Castlemaine in Victoria a few years back and the Sky at night was astounding to the naked eye. Makes such a difference with no light pollution.

Red Riding Hoodie

Would really recommend one of the planetarium talks at Greenwich observatory - they highlight some of the key constellations and how they sit with others. You also get to look through the big scope - when we went Jupiter was visible inc four of its moons. Usually on around Feb/March.

Where it comes to determining if it's a bright star or planet you can see one rule of thumb is stars twinkle whereas planets dont

bazjonster

Venus appears so brightly because its dense atmosphere and thick clouds reflect 70% of the sunlight. What with that and it being the closest planet to earth it pretty much always gives a bright, dazzling display.

(PS: The whole astronomy thing really fascinates me and is a bit of a guilty pleasure, or just escapism? I am sure that many of you have it already, but the free Mobius Sky Map app is a great bit of kit for learning about the nightsky and reading it 'live' so to speak. Just little things like the light from the closest star outside of our solar system takes 4 years to reach us intrigues me! So, as a minimum, when you look at the stars at night, that light has taken 10s, 100s, 1000s of years to come into view! And that's with that light travelling at 186,000 miles per second!!).

AddicksAddict

We went up the Atlas mountains a few years ago. No light pollution at all. The night sky was mindblowing.

As long as they aren't behind the sun, you get really good views of Venus and Mercury during an eclipse. There's one in August in the US this summer, I still can't decide whether to go or not.