Conversations with Selene.

Conversations with Selene
extracts from my poetry journal

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 It is midnight and the culminating Moon looks down at me with inquisitive eyes.

I stare back and shout "Shwt mae, Hello, how are you tonight?"

The Moon whispered her reply ~

"You are such a tiny speck, a mere grain of cosmic sand in the ever present Galactic hour glass..

how is it that you are so small?"

"But Moon", I replied "I am a GIANT!.. a COLOSSUS.. YOU to ME are small.. 
why, I can even place your full Moon face upon my thumb, and flick it like a coin"

The Moon sulked. 

I simply drank my chai tea, whilst overhead countless stars ebbed and flowed across the sea of the sparkling Milky Way.

Sometime later I awoke to the sight of a red faced Moon dropping slowly into the west. 

The darkened Moon smiled and whispered  "So long tiny speck of sand, see you later tonight, we will continue our talk then."

"So long dear Moon" I shouted..... "I will be waiting"

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Warming by the fire.

Jupiter and the Moon 17/04/16

I was feeling the cold tonight, so I decided to light the fire and grab myself some dandelion coffee.  

Observing Luna would have to wait another night.

Though I didn't entirely abandon the Moon.

Before packing away the telescope I captured a few images of beautiful gibbous Selene.

17/04/2016

The above image is a bit blurred at the edges, this is due to the method of photo capture that I use. namely afocal photography.

Best described with this photo:

afocal photography

Afocal photography is a brilliant way of capturing astro images, all you have to do is simply place the camera lens over the eyepiece of the telescope. 

Though sometimes it can be a bit hit and miss. Tonight's lunar image was a bit miss around the lunar limb. 

Blame it on camera shake from cold hands.

 

As I was packing away the telescope ominous dark clouds to the west were gathering and slowly rolling in for the night.

Maybe sitting by the warming fire isn't such a bad idea.


Warm fingers crossed for more clear skies in the week ahead.

Birdsong and the Moon

Tonight a blackbird was perched on Gilbert's roof, singing a song for the Moon.

A perfect evening to train the Jason refractor onto the waxing crescent.

The nearby blackbird gently sang and the troubles of the world melted away.  

 

Sketching Sol and Jove.

 Last night's Jupiter sketch.

I didn't stay outside long last night as it was windy and cold. 

There were also clouds looming on the western horizon, which is a sure sign of soon-to-be bad weather. 

Within the hour it was raining and blowing. 

Considering the amount of cloud cover this March, I have been lucky to capture several Jupiter drawings.

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 I've also managed a fair few solar sketches.  Here's a sample of my March solar sketches: