Fantastic Moon in the Country

The Hill Billy

Following on from redman's post about the sun last week (& what a beautiful sunrise it was)...

This morning I had the privilege of watching the full moon set from Skerries train station around 06:15. T'was as orange as a Blackrock bird's tan, but in an absolutely beautiful way.

What really struck me was how fast it moves through the sky. Within the space of three to four minutes half of the disc set below the tree line on the horizon. Amazing!

Flukey

There is a lovely moon here in Dublin tonight. It is amazing how fast things do move sometimes. We casually look at something for a few minutes and it doesn't appear to move. But when you do measure it against something you can see how quick things do move. Put yourself into a fixed position, like looking out a windown, then pick a star, planet or the moon, and follow straight down to the horizon to get a pointas a marker to where it is. Then, after a few minutes of taking in the wonders of the sky, look again and see how much it has moved.

Sometimes, even better is watching an object disappearing behind something, whether it be a wall, a rooftop, the branch of a tree or whatever. With something like a narrow branch, you can see it move behind, disappear, and reappear all in a few moments. With the moon itself, watch how its own position in relation to a nearby bright star changes, even over a few hours. It can be quite close to one, and not long afterwards, you'll see a bigger gap as it moves away or smaller as it moves towards it.

One I've mentioned here before a few times, is as darkness begins to fall, to try and see stars first appearing. Over the course of a few clear evenings, you get a good idea of where they appear and where to look for them and at what times. We could have a few clear evenings this week to do it. Venus appears first now. If you know a constellation well, once its brightest star appears or a nearby one, you can know where to look for the next ones to appear. Sirius appears in the south now, and once you pinpoint it, you can watch for the stars of Orion appearing, watching for Betelgeuse and Rigel first and also for Procyon in nearby Canis Minor.

We are also getting to the time of year where it is easier to see satellites. Once the sun is down and there is still a slight bit of brightness, it's a good time to look for them. I spotted one earlier this evening. The weather is meant to be good this week. A good opportunity to do some of these things.

redman

Yep that was some moon, and the satellite volume is incredible too!

Flukey

Not a bad evening tonight either. Still plenty of sunshine but good clear skies too. A bit of fog would be the only thing that could cause a problem. Other than that though, it should be OK.

joewicklow

I got a photo of the moon setting early one morning last week....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joemalone/454069602/

Kevster

Whoa, that is awesome joe - truly awesome :cool:

Wait a second... ...That's from your garden? From my garden - front or back - all you see is concrete

joewicklow

True, im lucky to have a nice view from my garden but its balanced out by the 2 hours stuck in my car every day!!

Kevster

Tell me about it... ...When I go to Carlow it's only 1 hour stuck in the bus/car but when I'm in Dublin it's - like you - 2 hours. Plus, now that they're doing the M50 upgrade it's going to get worse. I live in Naas by the way.

joewicklow

Ah im only 25 mins from Naas, just the far side of Blessington!!

redman

Great Pic!

Flukey

A very nice picture.

Spare a thought for the man in the moon and how far he has to go to work.

Tea drinker

Yo joe! You got some skills with the steel my man! eh and the glass too.
Well done on the vista for your garden, good choice.