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    AAAAAARGH The fallen Angel is on the other side of the hill, and he's going to be so fucking pissed off.

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      https://twitter.com/matthewbailyes/status/1282422182476492804

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        Turns out the moon is a mere stripling at 85 million years younger than thought:


        https://www.space.com/moon-85-millio...​​

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          I’d love to get out and see Neowise but it’s been continually fucking cloudy for weeks.
          Friday night is looking possible.

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            Thinking of driving out away from the city to try to see it tomorrow night as well. It's been clear, just hard to see it around me with how low it is on the horizon, and all of the light.

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              Originally posted by hobbes View Post
              I’d love to get out and see Neowise but it’s been continually fucking cloudy for weeks.
              Friday night is looking possible.

              When would it be visible?

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                I'm a bit surprised that no-one posted a link to this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53429054


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                  Is that a closeup of the sun?

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                    Yup. There's more detail on the link.

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                      Ta. Was too busy staring at the photo to notice the link.

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                        Hah, me too! Thanks NS, great stuff.

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                          Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post
                          When would it be visible?
                          It's not far from the Plough, so in theory all night as that's part of the constellation of the Great Bear which is circumpolar – the adjacent Little Bear includes the North Star, Polaris, around which the northern hemisphere sky appears to revolve, so the Plough is always above the horizon.

                          In practice, though, just after sunset and just before dawn are when it should be positioned most favourably for viewing from the UK at the moment, as it's coming up from the direction of Auriga (with the bright star Capella, see below) and Orion, which are basically out of sight during the night at this time of year. It should become easier to see as it moves closer to and 'below' the Plough over the coming week or two:

                          Last edited by Various Artist; 17-07-2020, 12:28.

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                            Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                            It's not far below the Plough, so in theory all night as that's part of the constellation of the Great Bear which is circumpolar – the adjacent Little Bear includes the North Star, Polaris, around which the northern hemisphere sky appears to revolve, so the Plough is always above the horizon. In practice, though, just after sunset and just before dawn are when it should be positioned most favourably for viewing from the UK... if the sky's clear.

                            Great, thanks VA. If the skies are clear and, more importantly, I remember, I'll have a gaze this evening.

                            I saw the ISS a couple of months ago which was a nice experience.

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                              Great stuff, happy gazing. Give the comet a while if you have no luck tonight, it should get better both later into the night and further into the month. I haven't spied it yet as the clouds have been against me so far, but here's hoping.

                              I saw the ISS simply loads of times in late May I think it was; I'd never known it make so many good passes over so many nights before, though the fact it came during a very warm clear spell obviously helped loads with the viewing.
                              I've got a great app on my (Android) phone, ISS Live Now, which has the live camera views of earth from the space station, occasional live feeds of spacewalks and interior activity, also shows me NASA's footage of rocket launches and the like – and now includes an 'ISS detector' that notifies me of upcoming visible passes and has a 'radar' image to help you see where in the sky it's going to appear and where the track will go, which turns live when it actually crosses your horizon.

                              Before that I used to just use NASA's Spot The Station page to tell me when and where to look, and there's a bunch of other websites that'll similarly help. I love watching the ISS go over whenever I get a chance to see it – it never fails to make me boggle, as it's both an amazing spectacle on its own merits and a continual headtrip that there's actually humans up there on that little light.

                              The station is in fact now back into another phase of regular visible passes, at least from where I am in south Wales: e.g. according to my app there should be a super one at 11:14 tonight then again on the next orbit at 12:51am. Then tomorrow night 10:26pm,12:03 am and 1:40am all look very good too, while Sunday evening has promising ones at 9:38, 11:25 and 0:52, and so on – these are all long passes (6 or 7 minutes) right across the top of the sky or at least pretty high up.
                              From where you are (i.e. a similar latitude albeit perhaps 150 miles east of me) there should be good views too at pretty much the same times.
                              Last edited by Various Artist; 17-07-2020, 13:22.

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                                Supposed to be some gaps in the cloud tonight. Fingers crossed.

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                                  The station is in fact now back into another phase of regular visible passes, at least from where I am in south Wales: e.g. according to my app there should be a super one at 11:14 tonight then again on the next orbit at 12:51am. Then tomorrow night 10:26pm,12:03 am and 1:40am all look very good too, while Sunday evening has promising ones at 9:38, 11:25 and 0:52, and so on – these are all long passes (6 or 7 minutes) right across the top of the sky or at least pretty high up.
                                  From where you are (i.e. a similar latitude albeit perhaps 150 miles east of me) there should be good views too at pretty much the same times.
                                  Annoyingly About a week ago there was a Jupiter, Saturn, ISS conjunction which I couldn’t see because of the interminable blanket of cloud this summer has produced.

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                                    Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                    Great stuff, happy gazing. Give the comet a while if you have no luck tonight, it should get better both later into the night and further into the month. I haven't spied it yet as the clouds have been against me so far, but here's hoping.

                                    I saw the ISS simply loads of times in late May I think it was; I'd never known it make so many good passes over so many nights before, though the fact it came during a very warm clear spell obviously helped loads with the viewing.
                                    I've got a great app on my (Android) phone, ISS Live Now, which has the live camera views of earth from the space station, occasional live feeds of spacewalks and interior activity, also shows me NASA's footage of rocket launches and the like – and now includes an 'ISS detector' that notifies me of upcoming visible passes and has a 'radar' image to help you see where in the sky it's going to appear and where the track will go, which turns live when it actually crosses your horizon.

                                    Before that I used to just use NASA's Spot The Station page to tell me when and where to look, and there's a bunch of other websites that'll similarly help. I love watching the ISS go over whenever I get a chance to see it – it never fails to make me boggle, as it's both an amazing spectacle on its own merits and a continual headtrip that there's actually humans up there on that little light.
                                    Thanks, didn't know that those exist. Turns out that I missed a perfect chance to see it Wednesday night.

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                                      You're welcome Inca. Yes, it's predictable almost to the second when and where it'll show up, so if you're forearmed there'll always be a chance. It usually goes through spells of making visible passes over a series of nights before vanishing from view for a month or two, presumably thanks to a quirk (but a fairly steady one) of the way its orbits gradually vary.

                                      And hobbes, keep your eyes peeled for any upcoming ISS pass significantly after midnight, because by about 1 am the Jupiter and Saturn pairing are pretty well up and visible (cloud permitting) from the UK at present. So, while the station might not pass right by in their direction on any given showing, it should certainly be visible in the sky at the same time.


                                      Just been out trying to do some comet-spotting, but clouds are still not quite clearing enough here. I think it's already past perihelion though so will be getting a little dimmer towards the end of the month, ergo sooner will be better preferably so I'm going to have another peek in a bit...

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                                        Just glimpsed the comet twice a few minutes ago, for maybe 30 seconds in total, but alas the clouds closed right back in again! Did at least see the ISS go over while I was out there, purely by accident, so that was a nice bonus at least. Maybe tomorrow night the weather will be with me.

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                                          Nice and clear here but couldn't see the comet.

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                                            Oh I do plenty of ISS watching VA. It's just that particular conjunction would have been cool.

                                            In fact the first time I saw the ISS was it transiting the Sun through my solar telescope.

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                                              I did manage to get a fairly OK view of Neowise last night through binoculars. The problem is my house is on the side of a hill near the top so my view south is spectacular, but to the north the houses over the road are higher up, so block quite a bit of the Northern sky.
                                              Luckily the comet was between two houses so I got a look.
                                              Annoyingly I then couldn't find it with my small telescope (it wasn't naked eye visible and my optical spotting scope is configured for Bessie, my big scope.) so I couldn't get any pics.
                                              It wasn't a total loss though, I just went round the back and had a look at Jupiter and Saturn for a bit.

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                                                Hobbes there, rehearsing his explanation to the police who turn up asking questions about a bloke out at night peering at his neighbours' houses with a pair of binoculars.

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                                                  Can you imagine if I'd been using Bessie?

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                                                    Originally posted by hobbes View Post
                                                    I did manage to get a fairly OK view of Neowise last night through binoculars. The problem is my house is on the side of a hill near the top so my view south is spectacular, but to the north the houses over the road are higher up, so block quite a bit of the Northern sky.
                                                    Luckily the comet was between two houses so I got a look.
                                                    Annoyingly I then couldn't find it with my small telescope (it wasn't naked eye visible and my optical spotting scope is configured for Bessie, my big scope.) so I couldn't get any pics.
                                                    It wasn't a total loss though, I just went round the back and had a look at Jupiter and Saturn for a bit.

                                                    If only it was Uranus rather than Jupiter and Saturn in the last sentence.
                                                    Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 18-07-2020, 22:48.

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