Stargazing and Space Exploration

[Scottie Dog]

Hi Aviador. I don't think it's distorted but I'll check the original when I'm back home. Can Venus have a partial eclipse?

I did think that it looked rather "special" as, after all Venus is the goddess of love, and it looks heart shaped to me!!

I've finally found the official answer to your question!!

In the same way as the moon has phases, so does Venus. However in the case of Venus the phases are vertical rather than horizontal.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Mars looms large!

Going around this evening opening windows to try and get some cool air, I looked south to see a reddish orb in the sky. Checking up, confirmed my thoughts that this was Mars. From what I see, I'm assuming that Mars is in close proximity at the moment.

Kevin

 

[rollo]

Looking forward to observing the blood moon tonight from about 9.00pm when the Earth's shadow will cover the moons surface.
Apparently Mars will put in an appearance as well but the mathematics etc are beyond me as I only went to Lyndon comrehensive in Sheldon and we never got past y=mc2 or something like that, ever understood it then or now, but the workings of the solar system and universe are true wonders to behold and put things into perspective, hope the sky remain clear.

 

[Scottie Dog]

Yes, hopefully the cloud will stay away tonight. I'm sat up in the North Lakes at present and there is variable cloud cover. I also need to wait an extra 10 minutes to let the moon clear the fella to the south east.

Anyway here's to clear views tonight.

 

[Scottie Dog]

Well that was unfortunately a "non-event". I think that if I looked really hard I might have persuaded myself that a slightly pink patch of cloud had been caused by the eclipse.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Well that was unfortunately a "non-event".

Same here, just north of Cambridge. We haven't seen a cloud in weeks, then the day that a lunar eclipse is due we have almost continuous thunderstorms from mid afternoon to around 8.30pm. The storm has ended, but the sky is still overcast

Kevin

 

[rollo]

No idea where to post this but todays launch to the International Space Station has suffered a booster engine failure and was unable to make orbit, the two crew members one American and one Russian according to NASA have safely returned to Earth using the emergency capsule ejection system.

Strange how the human race can cooperate on such projects but spends so much time in beating each other up, NASA couldn't resist pointing out the booster engine is Russian made, anyway alls well that ends well.

Please move elsewhere if this is in the wrong place.

 

[Jerry]

I'm glad they made it back to earth safely!

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Super Blood Wolf Moon

A 'super blood wolf moon' (no, I don't know either!) is predicted for the early hours of Monday 21 Jan 2019.
It starts at 02.37 and finishes at 07.48. Totality is between 04.41and 05.43.
I understand that a 'Super Moon' is when the Moon is closer to Earth in it's orbit and that the 'Blood' refers to the red colour during totality, from the light refracted through the Earth's atmosphere. I don't know what 'Wolf' refers to.
Weather is predicted to be clouds, but with some breaks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46908305

Happy Moongazing!

Kevin

 

[Aviador]

I'll be up and about for that one. Que the cloud or fog.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'll hopefully be up about 05:30 so will have a look.

 

[rollo]

Ditto.

 

[Jerry]

I'll try and get up a bit earlier to see that!

 

[Jerry]

I'll try and get up a bit earlier to see that!

Well that was a bust! Got up at 5am but just too cloudy here in Kettering too see anything

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Well that was a bust! Got up at 5am but just too cloudy here in Kettering too see anything

Sorry, Jerry! Overcast here too

Kevin

 

[rollo]

Same for me mist and fog from the nearby fields no chance, disapointing even worse the dog though it was walk time ---- unlucky!

 

[Elmdon80slad]

I managed these two - first one the normal super wolf moon, and the second the begining of the eclipse, it then went cloudy.

E.

View attachment 12029

View attachment 12030

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Awesome photos! Great clarity and pin sharp.

Cheers

Kevin

 

[Elmdon80slad]

Awesome photos! Great clarity and pin sharp.

Cheers

Kevin

Thank you kevin.

E.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

A fascinating video from Youtuber Anton Petrov. Basically, it's an incredible photo of a section of the Universe, compiled over many years from data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
I've watched several of Anton's videos, and he is always clear and concise in his explanations and never goes deeply into the maths or physics of the subject.

The video can be found here -

And the image that he refers to can be downloaded for free from here (be warned, they are huge files and he states it crashed his computer when he first tried to open it) -

Hubble Space Telescope image

Kevin