Pembrokeshire Astronomer

Saturday, 10 September 2022

Harvest Moon - 20h17m BST

Oh boy was this Moon a wonderful sight to behold!

This year's Harvest Moonrise near Crymych was exceptional, luckily I was prepared.

My trusty 42x12 binoculars were sat on a nearby fence post, trained on the Moon, and the phone camera was placed (afocal) near the eyepiece.

A couple of seconds later the rising Moon was captured.

Some nearby bats were enjoying the Harvest Moon as much as Helen and I were, their presence was confirmed on our bat detector.

The sky was now dark, and every so often a bat silhouette could just be made out swooping towards and then hastily away from us.

The Moonrise was beautiful and the nearby bats added to the magic of the night.

The bat detector's squeeks and chirps made it all the more fun.

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge".

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”

― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Yesterday's giant prominence was still showing well this morning.

Though it does look as if the maximum was sometime in the hours of darkness last night.

Still, as proms go, this is a beauty.

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SOLAR WARNING

Never look directly at the Sun with the naked eye or with any optic (unless you have the proper solar filter).

Permanent and irreversible eye damage may result.

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“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Currently there is a beautiful prominence on the solar limb.

Earlier this evening I captured a few Ha images with the PST.

The Sun also has filaments, plages and sunspots a plenty at the moment.

All good news for the solar astronomers.

The phone camera I use is good at capturing prominences, but terrible at revealing any surface detail.

Time for a new type of camera I guess... Hmmm... I wonder!