Astronomy
Change of plan
When I returned home this morning I thought I’d play with the camera taking photographs of the misty valley and the Moon above; as the morning wore on my plans changed slightly 
At this point I thought it would be a good idea to go for a wander with the dog and the camera along the lane -
As I took this photograph I thought, wouldn’t it be good to take the Sun poking its head above the hills through the telescope rather than with the usual lenses, unfortunately I was not too close to the house and telescope at this point and the Sun was threatening to appear at any moment. So, a quick dash back to the house, set the telescope up and I’d just beat the Sun 
I quite liked the last one as there are a few small sunspots on view, next time I’ll plan in advance and get the scope set up and focused properly.
Now for the obligatory warning – If you own a telescope* or have access to one please don’t just look straight at the Sun through it as you’ll go blind, which may put a crimp in your day really.
*this really applies to all optical devices such as binoculars, camera lenses….
This isn’t the SuperMoon
Nor is it the megaMoon, it certainly can’t be referred to as the amazinglysplendoroussparklyMoon. It’s just the Moon, yes it may be a little closer at the moment but you’re not suddenly going to be blinded by looking at it, and it’s certainly not going to start boiling all the fluids in your brain Having said that, the Moon is super, but then it always is to me
I decided this morning to take a few early morning photographs of the Moon as it hovered above Blencathra and slowly sank behind it.
This is the Moon nearly fully behind Blencathra, I quite liked the effect I also too a few photographs and put them together into an animated gif -
The final two images give more of a Sunset effect than a Moonset -
Speeding along
This morning I got my camera gear ready for the ISS pass which I was cleverly notified of via Twitter, gone are the days of trying to work out when objects will be visible in the night sky, I just wait for the tweet
Armed with the relevant information, wrapped in a couple of layers to ward off the cold winds which had developed over night I stepped outside around 0530hrs to get ready. The cloud was fairly high towards the East and was also flitting around the Moon to the South, determined that the cloud would not trouble me and would have cleared away by 0627hrs when the ISS was scheduled to pass I set up.
It’s difficult of course to stand with a camera and watch the skies change above you and not attempt a photograph or two, so I started to play with settings in an attempt to capture the Moonlit clouds and the odd star or two that were playing hide and seek with the clouds. I played for a little too long and just before 0600hrs the battery went flat just as the cloud cover increased. I gave it up as a bad job and returned to the house to put the battery on charge, A while later I looked outside, the clouds were clearing and the sky was looking better for the ISS pass.
So grabbing the poorly charged battery I popped back outside, I decided my previous position with the camera was probably wrong and so I moved further down the lane from the house and set up again, the cloud crept in, and I started to doubt I’d see anything. Then as the clouds cleared I spotted the ISS whizzing along, it zoomed over the Moon and headed towards the Pennines, the visibility lasts for such a short time but it’s still an amazing sight.
One curious thing I noticed, there appeared to be two objects zooming along together in close proximity, I’m not sure if there is anything docking with the ISS or is about to leave but when I enlarged part of the trail there was certainly two trails visible – or perhaps it was just the atmospherics which created the effect as there was certainly a lot of moisture about this morning
Oh yes, the title, I wondered what speed the ISS was doing as it arced above me, turns out it averages 17,239.2 mph!
Reflected Light
I took some photographs of the Moon yesterday illuminating some mist in the valley, and I found myself thinking about how much the Sun influences our lives. After all the light from the Moon illuminating that mist originated in the Sun, the light itself has a very different property when it’s reflected from the Moon. I’m not talking about the physical make up of the reflected light itself, I’m talking about the way Moonlight gives a distinct magical feel to a scene, especially when you add mist into the mix
Twenty four hours later and I was trying hard to ignore the Moon and get home for some sleep, and in the end I did manage to ignore the Moon; I could not however ignore the way Venus looked rising above the trees when I parked up outside the house. So, I grabbed the camera and tripod and took a few quick images, as I was doing so I was struck by how different again the light was reflected by Venus compared to the Moon. There was a thin layer of mist which diffused the light just enough to make Venus look much larger than it should have looked, I quite liked the effect though
