Click here for enlarge image – Jupiter  6 degrees from Crescent Moon tonight.  The photo was captured by Derekscope (Derek Rowley).

Good opportunity for photo!
Keep your eye on the western twilight sky just after sunset, waxing crescent Moon – only 2% sunlit that should be an amazing slight, if your skies are clear.

Moon
Moon age :-  0.57 day old
Moon sets :- 17:42 / 5.42pm
Constellation :- Capricornus (The Sea Goat)
Disk Illumination :- 2% sunlit
Distance from Earth :- 250,077 miles
Best seen :- From 17:00 / 5pm to 17:30 / 5.30pm

Sun
Sun sets :-  16:52 / 4.52pm
Constellation :- Capricornus (The Sea Goat)

The Crescent Moon, only 13% sunlit, lies just over 4 degrees south of brilliant white planet, Venus in the early morning at the SouthEast, best view from around 06.45 / 6.45am.

Catch Venus and Antares (orange star) in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion) rising in the SouthEast just after 05:00 / 5am.

See the SkyMap for sighting – excellent opportunity for photo!

Click here for the SkyMap to diagram for triangle.

Thursday 18th November 2010

Click here for above enlarge image.

Sea of Crises
Watch night fall across the Sea of Crises on the Moon that a basalt-filled impact basin in 376 miles in diameter and more than 3.8 billion years old.  It’s got some killer mountains around it – good place for exploring right after a Full Moon on this Sunday 21st November 2010, when the rest of the Moon is still washed out in direct sunlight.
Click here for close-up – Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises).

Autumn Sunrise
Yesterday if you saw a sun rise in the morning that the first sunrise of Autumn where the photo was showed above and  captured by Monika Landy-Gyebnar woke up early and went outside at dawn to photograph the first sunrise of autumn!

The sight of this Super Harvest Moon beaming
through the trees
Above a Full Moon was the “Harvest Moon the first Full Moon of Northern Autumn that it arrived on the exactly night of the Autumnal Equinox.

See more images :-
From Doug Zubenel (Kansas, USA)
From Jan Lameer (Amsterdam Harbour, Netherlands)
From Dusty Hicks (Oklahoma, USA)

If you saw a Full Moon last night that the action begun at sunset last night (Sept 22nd), the last day of northern summer. As the sun sunk in the west, bringing the season to a close, the full Harvest Moon will rise in the east, heralding the start of Autumn. The two sources of light will mix together to create a kind of 360-degree, summer-autumn twilight glow that is only seen on rare occasions.

The Harvest Moon gets its name from agriculture. In the days before electric lights, farmers depended on bright moonlight to extend the workday beyond sunset. It was the only way they could gather their ripening crops in time for market. The full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox became “the Harvest Moon,” and it was always a welcome sight.

Usually, the Harvest Moon arrives a few days to weeks before or after the beginning of Autumn. It’s close, but not a perfect match. The Harvest Moon of 2010, however, reaches maximum illumination a mere six hours after the equinox. This has led some astronomers to call it the “Harvestest Moon” or a “Super Harvest Moon.” There hasn’t been a comparable coincidence since Sept 23, 1991, when the difference was about 10 hours, and it won’t happen again until the year 2029.

More information :- Harvest Moon.



Can you see the image of “the Man in the Moon”?

Have a look as the Moon approaches full  -  The eyes are made from Mare Imbrium and Mare Tranquilitatis, the nose from Sinus Aestuum, and the mouth from Mare Nubium (see image above). The map  helps you figure out which maria is which.

Though in the southern hemisphere, the face will appear mostly upside down.

While the Moon covers a patch of sky no bigger than your little fingernail, there are hundreds of sights to see, even with a small telescope or large binoculars.

Did you know?
Tomorrow on Saturday 18th September 2010 will mark the first ever International Observe the Moon Night!
This year’s InOMN will be used as our pilot year to inform us on how to make it better and more interactive. They are testing the waters and would love to hear from you about how we’re doing.

The InOMN website is ever evolving, so please be sure to check back often! : – www.observethemoonnight.org

Could people live on the Moon?
There is no atmosphere on the Moon, so you would not be able to breathe. It is possible to set up scientific bases there, but anyone walking on the Moon would need a spacesuit.

Moon Facts:-
An astronaut last walked on the Moon in 1973.
The Moon is bigger than the planet Pluto.
The Moon is about 230,000 miles from Earth, it would take you more than 9 years to walk to arrive the Moon!

Why is the Moon covered in craters?
Most of the Moon’s craters were caused about three billion years ago by meteorites – these lumps of rock and iron hurtled through Space and crashed into the Moon at high speed – they are continually being hit by objects from Space, most however are smaller than a golf ball.
See the video, the flashing white light was hit the Moon by a small rock.

Does the Moon affect Earth?
Yes! – the Moon has its own gravity that pulls Earth’s seas towards it, making them bulge because of the Earth spins making that bulge moves around the Earth’s surface.
When the Moon is overhead, the sea reaches highest level that when the Moon is over the coast, there is a high tide. It is called Spring Tide.
More information :- Understanding how Tide Cycles follow the moon.