For astronomy geeks

supersonic

And other geeks lol. Look due west now, you can see Mercury as a faint dot under a very thin crescent moon.

whyamihere

Cheers for that! Great sight.

supersonic

I can only see it with binocs, need to get darker lol. Moon looks very strange, and can see the rest of the disc too.

whyamihere

I was able to just about see it with the naked eye. I'll try to get a picture when it goes darker, likely to fail though.

The moon is looking impressive tonight. Shows how clear the sky is.

Kitty

Cloudy here.

docker0141

i hate clouds

nicklouse

too light and cloud cover.

supersonic

Been a lovely day here! Bit of cloud, but a nice (dare I say it?!) early summer evening.

Been dry too, Wharncliffe woods were on fire lol.

Don't think my phone cam would do a good pic.

The Northern Monkey

wonder if my bro got his telescope out.
He's got a big astronomers thing that he can fit his SLR to. Tis pretty awesome
think its this one but in white
http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/do ... escope.cfm

supersonic

Ah, a big 8 inch Dobson.

I only got a six incher ;-)

whyamihere

I needs me a telescope...

Wonder if they'd let me use the big one at uni if I ask really nicely. And get there tonight.

supersonic

Well, I balanced my binocs on the garden table, and put my Nokia 95 against the eyepiece lol.

Not too bad!

whyamihere

Right astronomy fans, who wants to hazard a guess about why the whole of the disc of the moon is slightly illuminated?

supersonic

I know lol, but will keep my trap shut ;-)

supersonic

Another:



Bloody trees and washing lines!

The Northern Monkey

quite sweet.
ones my bro took a while ago.

supersonic

Very nice! Not with an N95 then ;-)

whyamihere

Just tried to take a picture of the big dipper with my N95.

Epic, epic failure.

supersonic

N95 in the dark are awful! I tried the binoc thing before with saturn, couldn't balance the things, so pleasantly suprised that the above came out ok!

Need long exposure and a stand really.

The Northern Monkey

supersonic wrote:

Very nice! Not with an N95 then ;-)

lol, nah, nikon something or other I think.

Telescope is crazy though, need a filter for looking at the moon because its so bright. will burn your retina otherwise!

Anonymous

how can you tell that is mercury, i would have mistaken it for a star i think.

sonic, those pics are ace and ben, your bros pics are superb!! does anyone know the place where you can go for a look at the night sky where there is no light pollution, im sure its somewhere down south but its not a proper observatory?

i saw it on the box ages ago and thought id love to go and visit for a proper good look at the stars.

the only other place ive been for an amazing look at the sky is africa, one visit in south africa an 3 times in kenya, the sky is absolutely packed with stars you dont see in the UK!!

supersonic

Ah, I knew it was there ;-) Planets don't 'twinkle' like stars either and can be seen as small discs. Through a telescope mercury looks similar to the moon, phases and all.

Best place in the UK for dark nights is North Scotland or Ireland, as far away from the big cities as possible.

stubs

Is the dark part of the moon reddish because of reflected light from the Earth

supersonic

Indeed it is. Can't always be seen, and usually shows itself as a dark grey disc against the night sky.