Bonfire Night Astronomy.

Our village was cloud free for several hours last night, this gave me the opportunity to go outside and observe.

The Moon was bright, Jupiter, and Saturn were high up, plus Mars would be around later in the evening.

I was spoilt for choice.

Jupiter first, not the best of seeing conditions, but the Newtonian returned a fair view of the Great Red Spot.

Time to spy the Moon. 

The gibbous phase, (my favourite), was just at the right position to show off the Moon Maiden.

She is always a welcome sight. I first made a post about this Clair-Obscur effect back in July 2012. 

Here is a link to that post - Moon Maiden - July 2012

Just after 7pm Mars could be seen climbing from behind the Frenni Fawr to the north east.

I did briefly observe Mars later in the evening, but there was no discernable surface detail, though the North polar cap was in evidence.