1031

26th May 2006 - last day of this session - new moon about 05:30UT tomorrow morning

Sky has been clouded over for days - missed a chance for lengthier viewing earlier on Saturday evening - just caught Lyra's Vega and Double-double in the East. Later, at around 02:50 BST, the small constellation Delphinus was in the East, with bright Altair in Aquila further SE and Pegasus to the NE. 23 day Moon considering getting up behind houses in the SE.

The Dolphin stars fitted in the field of Bresser 10x50 binoculars. Looking for more information I found the 4 main stars were 'named' Job's Coffin and you might like to have a Da Vinci Code moment and work out who named the Alpha and Beta stars ;-)

See Ridpath and Tirion's 'Guide to Stars and Planets' and the excellent Constellations for details

The sky around 20:00 BST as the sun ducks down behind the trees in the west - sunset in about an hour

And the east, still with plenty of clouds, slowly thinks of darkening - no moon till around 2 am but Jupiter might appear and Vega and Deneb should be about in the east earlier in the evening


Not much to offer tonight, folks. Cloud in the SE then the moon and Jupiter decided to play hide and seek with telegraph poles, trees and low rooftops waiting to the SW!	Got the Bresser out for a quick look when some of the clouds had gone around 22:00 BST


Contrast view of Pythogoras - now in sunshine - peak less prominent than last night	The dark multi-ringed Grimaldi and the western rim coming into view with bright Sirsalis to the south and Hevelius further north


Seeing was somewhat better than last night but the moon was poorly placed for me - getting low over the garage roof with disturbed air and a struggle to get my Tal to behave not helping!!	Jupiter was a little clearer than last night - photo stacked from short video	Could see the shadow from the central peak in Pythagoras well and the other craters on the edge of darkness round to Carpenter were spectacular at times - pity the photo wasn't!!!!


North of Aristarchus the Rümker Hills were showing just east of the terminator but they defied all my attempts at a decent photo. Smallest clump of volcanoes in the Oceanus Procellus says Chuck Wood!	Impressive as ever, Aristarchus shone brilliantly and the winding Schröter's Valley could be seen more clearly than last night.	The pale swirl of Reiner Gamma can be seen to the west of the Reiner crater. Strong magnetic field detected here though the jury is still out on its exact origins


Grimaldi still in darkness - but dawn arrived at Sirsalis though the floor is in shadow - no sign of the rilles to the east and south with my scope last night.	*Henry and Henry Brothers stand between Mare Humorum and the terminator. On the edge of the dark you can just* see Byrgius A starting to shine**	Wider view of the terminator edge in the SW round Schickard - much better when the air is less disturbed with heat from the roof ... but at least it was warm for sky-gazing


A muzzy 11 day moon - seeing appalling! No clear pics but moments of sharp viewing	An even muzzier Jupiter


Aristarchus again with the less bright dark-floored Herodotus. Too muzzy for clear view of Schröter's Valley but the high rise to the North was very prominent.	Marius with its dome fields in the hills to north and west just starting to show. Wrinkle ridge stretches 700km south (Grego, The Moon) Rays from Kepler coming in from the east.	The 2 prominent 'domes' below crater Mairan - Mons Gruithuisen Gamma (20km across) and Delta - not able to see the crater on top of Gamma - Charles Wood wonders if these are volcanic (Modern Moon)


Mare Humorum (see the wrinkles in the lava) - with Gassendi sharp and Menelaus dark to the west and ancient little Liebig (37km) standing out clearly	Odd shaped Schiller in the south with the Hainzel group above - very clear at times but muzzy pic!!!!	Walled plain J Herschel - 156km - eroded and battered - above Sinus Iridum	Young crater Philolaus - 73 km with 2 central mountains (see Virtual Moon Atlas)

Pale blue moon in the evening sunshine - catch it before any clouds come in!

19:30 BST

Later on - still high cloud and disturbance from warm roof


Cleomedes - showing the two craters in the south and the hills to the north (for more see Peter Grego's 'The Moon and How to Observe it')	Crisium edge with the rim of sunken Yerkes and the promontories above to the western edge. Pickard shows just east with Pierce and smaller Swift further north (for more details see Antonin Rukl's 'Atlas of the Moon')	Stevinus and Snellius - with the Snellius Valley lit up. The valley, like the Rheita Valley is likely to have formed when ejecta was flung from Nectaris making a row of craters joined together (for more see 'Modern Moon' by Charles Wood)


In the early evening with the sun still bright, the northern horn had De La Rue and Endymion standing out	To the south the huge craters Petavius, Vendelinus and Langrenus showed and the Rimae Petavius stood out clearly. (Petavius is a Floor Fractured Crater)	In the shadow the Rheita Valley was just emerging

1st May - the moon was high enough to see from the backyard with the Tal as the sun went down. As it hid below the roof when the sky grew dark I watched the stars appear, yellow Arcturus and the two golden stars of gamma Leo(?). Jupiter was rising ... I waited till it cleared a roof, a tree, a wall, a fence and it finally was there in my finderscope. Another few minutes and I'd see it for the first time this year in a telescope ... but ... along rushed a huge cloud sneaking up from the south. Drat!!!!


but I sneaked back later ...	Seeing very poor, but Callisto, Ganymede and Europa were there and 2 bands of cloud on a hazy Jupiter


The Theophilus group Piccolomini and Fracatorius	Area of libration


Well - at least it's the moon and not just a pretty sunset!! (via finder + aerial)	This was better ...


As the sun gets lower - the clouds rush on down 20:53	And even more clouds come in to the viewing area 21:08


Early 7 day moon	Archimedes etc,	Jupiter!