Awful weather - typical Brits talk

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Cracking pictures of the night sky Poppy, do you get much light pollution where you are? 

I think the best night sky I ever saw was in Dartmoor some 20 years ago, we did a 3 day hike for Duke of Edinburgh in November, on the last night we stopped at a camp site in the middle of nowhere, only people there obviously, they had a tiny wooden gazebo type thing with the tourist leaflets in so we sat in there with a few beers playing cards, went back to the tent around midnight, looking up at the perfectly clear sky the depth of the stars was astounding, never seen anything like it since.  

Dustyevsky said:
Ah, a Pink Floyd quote. My experience with them was unfortunate. I  caught them just after Syd left, when they were down on their uppers, playing a small club in Richmond. They didn't impress, but I had to leave early. A wayward former friend from my home town (pop 3000) turned-up, stoned, and I'd no intention of reconnecting with someone who'd caused me much grief, two years previously.   My second experience with Floyd, perhaps18 months later, never happened, apart from reading the review in Melody Maker..... We forgot to go! 

At the risk of hoards of angry Pink Floyd fans hammering down the door I never thought much of their early work so you probably didn't miss much.

When you look at I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like from Syd and compare that to Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream from Walters the band certainly ended up in the right direction IMHO. 

Dustyevsky said:

Yes, time flies, but many weird bits and pieces of life's jigsaw seem eventually to fall into place, though it's never complete. I'm content with half the picture for now, and still see the possibility of an easier to manage garden when I approach 80 as potentially exciting. Will it have that elusive 'moist but well-drained' soil I'm always readng about? Hmmmm..

If I can make it to 80 and watch my kid grow up and hopefully have a family of their own I'd say that's pretty good going regardless of how the puzzle looks  

Weather wise, what a difference a bit of sun makes, this was Tuesday




Compared with today



So I went a little higher and at just over 1500 feet above sea level this was the view, it's full 360 but I had to take it in two photos. Not sure how well these panoramic shots show up on the forum but there's something a little special poking out the bottom of that cloud in the first photo below. 

twopenny

Wonderful photos Luna!

What a beautiful spot.

So - Trig Point?

But for where?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

twopenny said:

So - Trig Point?

So there's a thing that I might have been taught in a distant past but had forgotten about, I thought it was just there to mark the view point but you are indeed correct.

There would appear to be a few scattered near by, which will give me a good reason to wander. 

Thanks for pointing that out, really good information  

twopenny said:

But for where?

YGM

pink_poppy

It's not pitch black here, lunatic, but we get to see a good few stars and planets when the skies are clear. Like tonight, I can see The Plough, Orion's Belt etc. I'm pretty sure I saw the ISS going over about 20 minutes ago too - I took a very wobbly video of it   The reason I was looking out was that we have an aurora alert tonight - 100% chance of seeing it in Scotland, apparently. We do have clear skies, so fingers crossed.

I really like your panoramic photos. I can see a wee 'bow' under the cloud - not sure if it's a bit of rainbow or something else, but I can't think what they're called.

Thanks for the pelargonium/geranium clarification, Farway. I forgot to say that my MiL's red amaryllis is thinking about flowering. It's still only got two flower buds, but at least the stem is longer now. My other two garage rescues haven't changed in the last week or so - no flower stem at all, just a bud on each one amongst the leaves.

Time to go aurora hunting...

twopenny

Something for you Luna.

"The survey control network of trig pillars was accurate to 20 metres over the entire length of Great Britain. Today, the receivers that make up the OS Net network are coordinated to an accuracy of just 3 mm over the same area."

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/trig-pillar-trivia

Tried to see the planetary parade as we have a wonderful clear sky right out in the garden but it's freezing.

Having looked it up I may just get myself in many thermal layers and go to a dark sky area at sunset tomorrow. It's supposed to be good there.

I won't see the Aurora though Poppy   

LessImpecunious

Good starscape and view of parade here too tonight after often clear blue day, and the rest of the mish-mash was quite good too... 

The trick with the parade is to find the brightest thing in the sky in the earlyish evening, looking towards where the sun set - that will be Venus - then look back up and over along the trajectory the sun will have followed during the day - a second bright "star" will be Jupiter, and going further up and over heading towards the sunrise position should be a noticeably orangey-red object much duller and a bit smaller than the first two - Mars... If you look again an hour or so later all three will have moved further in the direction of sunset, confirming you've got the right ones. Once you've done it once or twice they become much more obvious...

pink_poppy

That was interesting about the Trig Point, twopenny, I didn't notice it initially and had to go back for another look. I've still to work out what YGM is, lunatic??

Thanks for the planetary parade info, Less. I think the big planet I keep seeing is either Venus or Jupiter, but it's too late after sunset when I'm looking.

There was indeed an Aurora here last night, but when I went hunting after my post last night it had turned cloudy - clear in the South and cloudy in the North again. I left it for an hour or so (watched the last episode of an Agatha Christie series) and tried again. This is my poor attempt to capture the Aurora and The Plough together, cue a shaky Plough and only a tiny bit of the Aurora - they were in different places   I couldn't see all of those stars, btw, they only really show up on photos...


I'm loving these lighter mornings - just after 7am and it's already daylight. There's a slight pink tinge in the sky at the moment. Nice, sunny day forecast though - yippee    

Dustyevsky

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

twopenny said:

So - Trig Point?

So there's a thing that I might have been taught in a distant past but had forgotten about, I thought it was just there to mark the view point but you are indeed correct.

They don't always guarantee a wonderful view, though. This is a disappointing one at about 1000' we walked to on purpose, but only the field it was in and very far away places were visible. Oh, and the livestock, but Never Mind the Bullocks.  

Great contrasting panoramic shots yesterday, Luna. Those are what I mean by a wonderful view.

I'd not disagree with your assessment of early Floyd, though that kind of music was in its infancy. I won't say how my friends and I 'relaxed' to Astonomie Domine, but it seemed very good mind-blowing at the time!   I was lucky enough to catch this Welsh band at Middle Earth, which by then was headed along a similar path, although the song on this YouTube doesn't suggest that. I've included it because of the comments from one of its members.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3chTdNNT0

 Sadly, they went the way of most bands, including the one I was in...i.e The Road Not Taken.

Dustyevsky

Thanks to you folks I knew more of what I was viewing last night but still only saw 3 planets with any degree of certainty....and then only because of Mars being reddish. Nice glow to the sky around dusk, anyway, and I think that's Venus. PP, this was the only steady shot I got out of around 10. No aurora, even when I ventured out much later. Brr!

Farway

Frosty morning, with blue sky & sunshine. I never looked for stars last night, but I'm guessing from Less' description the bright dull planet I saw the other night was Jupiter.

Like Dusty, I only saw three then, and no trig points either.

Depending on weather I'll have another look tonight

Good pic of the trig point Dusty, very nicely captured!

And Luna for panoramas. Does your camera stitch them together or have you got a special lens?

Hopefully the sun will warm up & I can get out and make a start on sowing in the steps cracks at the front.

twopenny said:

Go for the Love in the Mist Farway.

I've tried for years and now it's self seeding. Could be the seed that fell into my shoes as I was walking around the area but I think it eventually gave into my determination from packets.

Farway, no sign of confirmation email from T&M yet. It's been 3hrs.

Oh found it in Junk

Sold, LITM will be tried, again

And good luck with the strawberries, very annoying plants, until you pick a sun warmed ripe one, then all is forgiven

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Dustyevsky said:

Yes, time flies, but many weird bits and pieces of life's jigsaw seem eventually to fall into place, though it's never complete. I'm content with half the picture for now, and still see the possibility of an easier to manage garden when I approach 80 as potentially exciting. Will it have that elusive 'moist but well-drained' soil I'm always readng about? Hmmmm..

If I can make it to 80 and watch my kid grow up and hopefully have a family of their own I'd say that's pretty good going regardless of how the puzzle looks

It gets better when you see 80 in the rearview mirror and see your kids kids setting out on their own with the future ahead.

And getting some bendy young bodies to do what you can no longer do, DGS hopefully under worktop this weekend sorting the dishwasher drain pipe, with advice from Grandad & dad