Super moon

[esoxlucius]

Once in a while we have a phenomenon known as a "super moon", due to its orbit bringing it into close proximity to earth. I've witnessed many in my time, but never, until this evening, have I been tempted to take a picture. The picture is a bit grainy but even so I'm sure you can get a feel for how bright it is tonight over blighty, and it looks almost twice as big as usual too.

If it's not cloudy where you are, and it's night time, poke your head out of the window and marvel at our moon!

 

[Deadeye]

Didn’t even know there was one this weekend - I’ll have to take a look!
I’ve given up trying to get pictures of nighttime objects, iPhone cameras are useless in that regard (and for zoomed in shots).

 

[esoxlucius]

Yes, my picture was taken on my phone, hence poor quality. Also, I do believe the bright object to the north of the moon could be Jupiter, not too sure. I used to be quite good at pinpointing the planets back in my observing days (still got my telescope boxed up somewhere). But I don't do too much star gazing nowadays so I'm a little rusty.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Yup Jupiter.

 

[jjohnwm]

Lol, I went out last night to take a peak at Jupiter, since it's apparently at its extreme closest approach to us at the moment. I was peering at it and quite enjoying the show...even with my binoculars I could make out a couple moons, and several more when I set up the spotting scope...but the whole time I was muttering to myself about the dang moon so close and so bright in the sky that it largely glared out and wrecked the view of the gas giant!

One man's trash is another man's treasure. As a consolation, I turned to look behind me as a Great Horned Owl flew past and settled on the peak of one of my barns/sheds...and as I did I was looking in exactly the correct spot to witness one of the most spectacular meteors I have ever seen. Bonus!

 

[Deadeye]

Lol, I went out last night to take a peak at Jupiter, since it's apparently at its extreme closest approach to us at the moment. I was peering at it and quite enjoying the show...even with my binoculars I could make out a couple moons, and several more when I set up the spotting scope...but the whole time I was muttering to myself about the dang moon so close and so bright in the sky that it largely glared out and wrecked the view of the gas giant!

One man's trash is another man's treasure. As a consolation, I turned to look behind me as a Great Horned Owl flew past and settled on the peak of one of my barns/sheds...and as I did I was looking in exactly the correct spot to witness one of the most spectacular meteors I have ever seen. Bonus!

Don’t worry - it’s not that much more spectacular at its closest…just brighter which means less detail is visible.
Saturn and the Andromeda galaxy are also really good this time of year.

 

[jjohnwm]

Don’t worry - it’s not that much more spectacular at its closest…just brighter which means less detail is visible.
Saturn and the Andromeda galaxy are also really good this time of year.

Is that the way it works? I have on a couple of rare occasions, I guess with perfect conditions, seen the Great Red Spot on Jupiter; couldn't see it last night, but not sure if it was because of the moon or just because the spot was on the wrong side. I was indeed peaking at Saturn recently as well. It's amazing how seeing a photograph that shows a huge perfectly focussed and colourful image simply doesn't quite convey the sense of mystery that one feels when directly observing the thing, even though...relatively speaking...you can barely see it.

I had to scout out Jupiter because my granddaughter is coming to visit today, and Jupiter is high on her list of places she wants to visit...right between Botswana and Disneyland...

 

[Deadeye]

Is that the way it works? I have on a couple of rare occasions, I guess with perfect conditions, seen the Great Red Spot on Jupiter; couldn't see it last night, but not sure if it was because of the moon or just because the spot was on the wrong side. I was indeed peaking at Saturn recently as well. It's amazing how seeing a photograph that shows a huge perfectly focussed and colourful image simply doesn't quite convey the sense of mystery that one feels when directly observing the thing, even though...relatively speaking...you can barely see it.

I had to scout out Jupiter because my granddaughter is coming to visit today, and Jupiter is high on her list of places she wants to visit...right between Botswana and Disneyland...

It was probably a bit of both. The bright light from the moon would distort everything around it, but if I’m remembering what I was told correctly, as Jupiter gets closer, more of its reflected light becomes visible, causing it to get washed out like that. Same reason a supermoon is so much brighter.
It rotates every 10 hours or so, so there’s a good chance the spot wasn’t facing you at the time.
Good luck with the Jupiter trip - it’s probably the cheapest option lol

 

[esoxlucius]

I used to have a real interest in the night sky many years ago. I soon realised however that there's only a few things you can see, and quite poorly at that, with an entry level telescope such as the one I had.

The most annoying thing for me is that you don't realise how damn fast the objects you are viewing are moving across the sky until you try to view them magnified. Unless you have a tracking system on your telescope to follow the object, you are forever twiddling and I got fed up of that.

And I wasn't into the night sky in such a way that I could justify spending a fortune on an all singing and dancing telescope, nor did I have the intellect to work one of the damn things anyway, lol.

What I enjoy doing now is taking my son out at night if the sky is clear and showing him some of the planets and a few star systems, those which I can remember anyway.

 

[esoxlucius]

I had to scout out Jupiter because my granddaughter is coming to visit today, and Jupiter is high on her list of places she wants to visit...right between Botswana and Disneyland

I've read that Botswana is quite nice this time of year, Jupiter not so much, a bit on the windy side, she'll need to wrap up!