Burning ring of fire...on the Moon

Earlier this week I was observing the gibbous moon, I noticed what looked like a burning ring of fire to the north of Plato.

It turned out to be the crater Fontenelle.

The whole rim of this crater was sunlit, giving a wonderful light show down here in Simpson Cross.

The main body of the crater was on the terminator, further enhancing the effect of the bright ring.It was mesmerising, I had not seen this event before.

This was approximately 6.00 to 6.30p.m. 18/12/07.... the moon was gibbous.

I was outside again at 10.00p.m. the effect had lessened, the sun's rays had moved on slightly.

As long as I time it right, hopefully in 28 days time +- I will see it again....

Colour in the gibbous Moon

Took this with a 60mm refractor. Camera: Nikon D50+ Camera Adapter (25mm plossl)

Using PaintShop Pro, I tried to highlight some of the various colours of the Moon. 

Orion and Sirius

Orion is now rising in the evening skies....here comes the winter.

Here comes the Orion Nebula...

The Plough

An old friend.....we celebrate our 32nd anniversary this year!

Total Lunar Eclipse March 3rd 2007

Total Lunar eclipse

3rd March 2007

Took these images with the Nikon D50+Camera Adapter+ 25mm plossl.
Telescope: 6 inch "Event Horizon" reflector.

Tranit of Venus.... 8th June 2004

8th June 2004

I captured this photo using a Canon EOS 1000, 35mm SLR camera.

I was sitting in a camping tent, with the 60mm refractor poking out of the tent flaps.

This seemed the best way to capture some contrast in my solar projection.

Sun projection method

(the safest way to view the Sun)

Wasn't sure if I could view the transit, the early morning cloud cover was considerable.

Luckily about 9.00am it cleared up nicely....blue skies from that moment on....beautiful transit.

Found in our bookshop 10 years ago.

Found this newspaper clipping in an old dusty book.

I wonder what Vega sounded like that night..?

Lunar eclipse 7th September 2006.

Thanks to our hard disk drive dying, the only pictures I had of the eclipse died with it.

Fortunately our son Jack had taken pictures of the eclipse.

This is one of them.

Thanks Jac 

Venus 19th of October 2007

05:20 GMT

Captured this image a few mornings ago.

Venus in the morning seems magical to me, possibly because I'm not fully awake at 6.15 am!!.

Recently the planet has been dazzling in the eyepiece.

Wonderful blues/violets showing up in the eyepiece at high power, thanks to the achromatic lens......though you won't find me complaining about it...:-)

Skywatcher 150mm f8 refractor, Nikon D50, Camera adapter+ 12.5mm ortho.

 

Partial solar eclipse 3rd of October 2005.

09:15 GMT

This eclipse was clouded out completely in Simpson Cross.

We rushed towards town in the hope that a sighting would be possible.

Luckily in Haverfordwest a brief gap in the clouds allowed two photographs to be taken.

The temperature did noticeable drop during the eclipse.

Also the birds were singing quietly as they did in the eclipse of 11th August 1999.

Photo: Fuji finepix f450 

To the Moon.

To The Moon

Art thou pale for weariness
of climbing heaven and gazing on the Earth
wandering companion less
among the stars that have a different birth,
and ever changing like a joyless eye
that finds no object worth its constancy.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

International Space Station

This was taken on the 31st May 2006 sometime between 10pm & 11pm, unfortunately I didn't write down the exact time....!!!

As the ISS was passing, I quickly set up the tripod and camera, I managed just 5 shots.

This was the best of them.