I’m a member of the cloud appreciation society and I love the sky. When it is misty and the sky turns salmon pink, when there are dark storm clouds in the background and bright sunlight shines on the landscape in front of them. We see amazing lightening storms, cumulo nimbus, stratus, cirrus, mammatus, so many sorts of clouds.
I love looking up at the sky, looking at the stars and meteor showers or seeing a satellite tracking overhead. I’ve seen Jupiter and Saturn and Mars and Venus in the telescope.
What sees us under the deep blue sky? Alien faces with glimmering eyes. If they open wide a nova will scorch the ground. Smoke rising and polluting the air.
Photo of a tree, mirrored in layout app and then details added of a face using a symmetry tool.
Washed with Amber and lilac, gold highlights. Twigs sweeping the sky. Painting it with their fronds. Clouds form flocks of flying sheep, running home as night arrives. A symphony of colours shifting as they are viewed. Blue darkens to black, the colour I’d drained out of the sky until one solitary glimmer remains. Then the light of stars spring out. Tiny pinpricks in the firmament. Moon rise. The glow of it shines through a lowering fog. Time for bed and dreams.
Went for a walk locally with my hubby on the flat because I’m a bit nervous of falling over on the ice. I fell and pulled a hamstring a few years ago and it was very painful so I’m cautious on hills….
We walked 4.43 km in the wet snow and ice, equivalent to 2.75 miles. In my case that’s over 7000 steps. We did walk on the road for part of it because it was to slippy. I might try and find my snow chains for my shoes…. Photos of hubby and sunsets taken near the local allotments in Stoke.
Sunlight streaming through the window Shines on Christmas cards and books, ornaments my sewing kit. As the sun rises it also travels south in the sky in winter. Then in the afternoon it appears to move downwards and West. So because of the way the earth is tipped on its axis the position on the sky moves in arcs that tip further south in the winter and further north in summer. So the sun appears overhead eventually.
If the Earth was rotating on a vertical axis at 90° to the plane of the solar system, then day length would stay the same all over the world. 12 hours day and 12 hours night. There would be no seasons. There would probably be no poles as all parts of the earth would receive the same amount of heat from the sun.
Instead the tip of the axis means that the day length changes over the years. So at the solstices the earth has turned to have its poles either closest or furthest apart from the sun. It’s also complicated by the earth travelling in an elliptical orbit round the sun. In the summer in the North of the world the sun is actually slightly further away from the earth than in the winter.
Anyway enough of celestial mechanics. Don’t get me started on the moon! Happy Boxing day. X
I was looking out the window at about 4.15pm and the sky was purple pink. I know the sun was setting, but I did think for a minute that it might snow. It’s been a cold Christmas day and we are due a storm from tomorrow night with possible gusts of wind of about 60 miles per hour. Its due to be even windier on the coast. I had thought of going for a boxing day walk but I don’t know if that will happen now
I tried to view the shower a few years ago. We drove miles, but we’re stuck under a cloud base that was miles across. I gave up after forty miles. Tonight it’s the same, cloud everywhere. But if you get the chance try and see it for yourself!
The Geminid meteor shower is tonight. (morning of 14th December 2020). I looked up the information on Wikipedia I’m afraid as I don’t know enough about them:
The Geminids are a prolific meteor shower caused by the object 3200 Phaethon,[4] which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid[5] with a “rock comet” orbit.[6] This would make the Geminids, together with the Quadrantids, the only major meteor showers not originating from a comet. The meteors from this shower are slow moving, can be seen in December and usually peak around December 6–14, with the date of highest intensity being the morning of December 14. The shower is thought to be intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120–160 meteors per hour under optimal conditions, generally around 02:00 to 03:00 local time. Geminids were first observed in 1862,[1] much more recently than other showers such as the Perseids (36 AD) and Leonids (902 AD).
Every so often Jupiter and Saturn appear close to each other in the sky. That’s because Jupiter, which is the closer of the two to the Sun, goes round the Sun about twice as fast as Saturn. This month they will be in grand conjunction on the 14th of December 2020. They will be within about 1° of arc of each other. Jupiters four galilean moons (the four that Galileo discovered through his teliscope) will be visible too. The Moon will not be visible. So if you look South West on the night of the 14th you might just see the conjunction if the sky is clear. This is one of the best since 1262? Enjoy. For details have a look at websites like Spaceweather.com
Reasonably early in the morning, for once a bit of blue sky peeping through. Giving me the feeling that the sky has been washed clean. My windows need cleaning so they are covered in specks of dust and dirt. I’m sure a bird has flown into it a while ago, there is a dusty mark… At the village hall I once saw the outline of a pigeon that had hit a window. Birds have a sort of dust on them that helps protect their feathers. That’s what leaves a mark….
