A fabulous month

Fabulous - not in the sense that it was nothing but a story, a dream . . . but we both thoroughly enjoyed discovering something of South America, and Chile in particular. in spite of its troubled past, the people are friendly and helpful, the scenery is spectacular, and the view of the night sky and the Milky Way in the Atacama is out of this world!  Plus i had lots of chance to practise my Spanish.

We returned a week ago,  and the glow has not yet faded. I may copy some of my poedoodles and sketches to this blog, but otherwise some sketches are here and some words are here. And there's also Harry's lively blog which he kept while we were there.

The eclipse makes the stars shine

The lunar eclipse on September 28th early in the morning in the UK was well worth missing some sleep for. 


It all began with a wonderful sunset on Sunday evening.

Then the harvest moon rose and hung low and lustrous in the sky, and huge as it does just after it appears.

A few hours later I grabbed some sleep, knowing that my resident astronomer would wake me up later to see this and more.

Photograph by Harry

Harry played magician and camera wizard with some more great pics. 

The constellations grew clearer in the still night as the moon's light dimmed. I recognised The Plough, Orion, Cassiopeia, Auriga, and Perseus - getting better! 

The only downside was that I was late waking up to lead my friends on a walk the next day, but they were quite affable and what's an hour among mates?

Old dogs and new tricks

I am having fun with Memrise.com - learning to recognise pieces of classical music, and name the composer.  Yes, they're short snippets, but I am learning some of them, and when I hear the whole thing on the radio I listen more carefully.  The other day, I was driving along and recognised Chopin's Waltz no. 1 in E flat.  But will it stick?

I've often used music and songs to help me learn words, now I find I'm putting words to some of the music to help me to remember the title and composer!

Next thing - learning some of the constellations.

The waxing moon

Yesterday evening:

above a chimney
in a pink gold evening sky
the moon's question mark


and today:


in the midday sky
the moon is a pale sunshade
as parachutes fall


I didn't attempt to take photos of either though.

skygazing

early evening star
Venus - a narrow crescent
approaching the sun

ISS - just before 2200 hours

from west to east
high and bright in starlit sky
ISS glides by

Saturn

Harry takes the telescope out in the garden – it’s fairly dark away from the streetlights, and the sky is clear.
Saturn is just above the roof. He adjusts the eyepiece and sets it up so that I can look. I can never quite believe that this planet, with its clear rings, is real.

through the lens
a magic cartoon planet
I laugh in delight

a walk round the village in the dark

street lights shine

but look beyond

Selene holds court

no humans on foot

cats lurk

 owls hoot

midnight

midnight clear sky

planets, stars, galaxies

and hedgehog shuffles

sky again

 ruddy-winged starlings

fly as sunset glows below

new moon and Venus

sunset glow  birds flight

crescent moon and half Venus

and a vapour trail

or perhaps better than either:

starlings' wings glow pink

above the sunset

new moon and Venus