Pembrokeshire Astronomer

Down to Newgale beach this afternoon. Looking out to sea.   With several days of wind and rain now thankfully in our rear view mirror. It's good to sit on the kitchen step, listening to the gentle sound of the waves crashing against this most Welsh shore.  With the calming view came the urge to do some typing on the old poetry generator. I picked out one of my poems from my "Stream of Consciousness" poetry collection.  There's roughly about 650 poems in this collection; below is number 251. Written in France, back in 2024, whilst heading our slow zig zag way towards the Dordogne and beyond.  The whole journey seemed fuelled entirely by Baguettes, Camembert, Boursin and grape juice. I practically ate my own body weight in Baguettes over the next two months! Back in the UK I'm allergic to bread. Someone, somewhere has an explanation for this.

Tonight's Aurora display was definitely the best naked eye display I've ever seen. With just the camera phone to capture the event, here are a couple of  pictures. The phone captured the red glow beautifully. Though the naked eye didn't pick out the red that well. By eye alone the green colouring was very prominent, ribbons of long stretched out cloud one second, then  tufts of singular green cloud the next, totally mesmerising!  That dance of the green aurora continued for over an hour. At one point a streak of billowing green appeared and slowly weaved its way past Orion and upwards towards The Pleiades. Later on our son turned up to visit us, which made the evening all the more memorable. It was a magical evening, never to be forgotten.  Newgale Aurora : photo Jac Lee.

It was finger-tipping cold, the sky was clear, the light was fading, we were driving eastwards.  Right in front of us was the evening star, not Venus, this time it was Jupiter the planet of gas enshrouded mystery. The stars hadn't yet made an appearance, we drove on. Ten minutes later we reached our park up for the night.  Now we had the star show, above Jupiter Gemini was out and about. The phone camera captured this picture:  In the distance you can see the red lights of the Preseli Mast. Gemini stands out in this.photo, you can see Bright Jupiter just to the left and below the star Wasat. A great start for the evening, but alas an hour later in came the Preseli Mist and all stargazing was put on hold for another night. Still it was great to see Jupter and Gemini on this most cold of nights.

It is cold outside. With just this night, in the stillness of a  year beginning. Stargazing with mind and eye, soaking in the bright snowy white Moon. Studying Orion as it peeps over scudding  winter clouds.  What luck to be beneath the Heavens, feet planted firmly with gravity glue. Looking up and out into the cold, bone-drying freeze of the Cosmos.