Thursday, October 29, 2009

Amazing Weather!

Here is Melissa enjoying the sunshine, don't forget it's nearly November!

This time last year it was snowing! (fact)

This week has had temperatures as high as 21 degrees, yesterday we had lunch in the garden with T-shirts and beautiful sunshine! Even night temperatures are still at 15 degrees, you could sit in the garden with a beer. Looking at the weather map warm air from the South is flowing across the UK, is this a true Indian Summer?

It is quite cloudy and a lot of moisture in the air, but for a half term week its amazing!

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Saturn's new ring


An incredible discovery today, been on the news and in the newspapers!

Saturn has a large diffuse 'ring' that has not been seen until now. The dusty hoop lies some 13 million km (eight million miles) from the planet, about 50 times more distant than the other rings and in a different plane.

Above is my image of Saturn taken in 2007 with my Skywatcher ST80 and Philips Toucam Pro II. About 3000 frames stacked in Registax. I wonder if one day I will be able to image the new ring with a super sensitive Infra Red camera. (I doubt it somehow!!)



Sunday, October 04, 2009

Tonight's Harvest Moon


A beautiful Moon tonight! Took this one from my bedroom window, no fancy equipment.
Perfectly clear and the Moon perfectly aligned high in the sky.
The Harvest Moon is the full Moon nearest to the first day of Autumn and today is the 4th October which only happens every four years.
I wonder how many farmers are out tonight gathering the crops in Moonlight?
A beautiful night!