Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

^my phone picked up an alert at 1.42am this morning but i could hear the rain

I know it's only watching via a video feed, but, it still had me mesmerised. !

Now MeteoEarth is defunct, what app are y’all using to track the enemy of the night sky…. namely clouds? Edit: Met Office seems to have the satellite image I was looking for…

I really want to get a look at the $100k toolbox flyby tomorrow!

At 19.12 this evening the toolkit will be zooming over London's famous London.

Dang, I forgot to look out for it. It will come over a few more times in the next few days but tonight’s sky was perfect for it!

Did see the moon though - iPhone SE held to the eyepiece again

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That's remarkable.

That’s stunning. I really want to get some snaps of the moon this winter but instead of just getting out there and experimenting, I’m stuck down an internet black hole of image stacking. Do more, think less.
Oh and I didn’t see any signs of the toolbox, bloody cold though!

Can anyone explain why there’s a dark ring around the moon?
Bad photo, but it’s hard to capture. Best to go out and have a look!

Edit: just gone back outside and it’s gone, but there was basically a circle around the moon that was darker than the area around it. I’d expect it to be brighter, any ideas?

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Think that's a 22° halo, i saw one in cyprus last month, but it had little spurts of light on the side of the halo, which is apparently called a "moondog"

It's a lunar halo from ice crystal refraction

The weird thing is, that the photo doesn’t do justice to, is that it’s bizarrely dark around the moon. It’s hard to understand why any refraction would end up that way.

moondog

@wmialil that is a fantastic word, thank you

Same reason the sky inside of a rainbow is lighter than the outside. Just in reverse.

22 halos are also known as winter or storm rings.

They are a reflection phenomenon, not refraction, hence no colours, unlike a rainbow.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo

I think the light goes through the ice so isn't that refraction, Snells law and all that?

Yeah, actually, on reflection (boom), I think it is refraction.

Apologies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-67535849

" A "lunar halo" has been spotted in the night skies.

The ring around the Moon was seen over the skies on Saturday evening in Staffordshire, the West Midlands, Surrey, Berkshire, Dorset, Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight.

The phenomenon is caused by the refraction of moonlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. "

I absolutely love that you can see the shape of the night on Venus.

This is now in my wallpaper rotation.

Family viewing of the northern lights on Saturday. A brief but intense show.

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Excellent. Is this by the River Tay?

Yeah, that's correct, I live one minute away.

Thanks for filling me with envy. Just to show that you don't need really dark and clear skies. I was out in North Yorkshire and nothing.

Very close to the site of the memorial?

The train into the girders came,
And loud the wind did roar;
A flash is seen-the Bridge is broke-
The train is heard no more.

"The Bridge is down, "the Bridge is down,"
in words of terror spread;
The train is gone, its living freight
Are numbered with the dead.

I like playing Geo-Guesser

Good guess, not many people know the history.

A brief pink display down in Buckinghamshire

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Stunning Aurora on my earlier links

Peak geminids shower will be 14th/15th this week but the weather is looking best on Thursday. Only a 5% moon too so hoping to take a bunch of photos to practice image stacking. 🤞