[OT] Her in the Sky
Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon
(and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest. I've always been innately aware of her Cycle, and would be at a loss without Her in the sky. Last night was the first clear and not bitterly-cold-and-howling-a-gale night since I got my telescope. Its a crappy telescope, I admit, barely better than binoculars, but it was free, and I've wanted but haven't been able to afford one since, oh, I don't know, for as long as I've been talking to Her in the Sky. I started off trying to get a view of Jupiter, but gave up in frustration after an hour or so. After another hour or so of cursing and muttering about bad design, I finally got my first ever glimpse of Her under magnification. I was astonished, astounded and more deeply in love than ever. After fiddling with the eyepieces some more, I settled on 'medium' magnification (and sorry, i don't know what magnification it was, I don't know about the technical side of the telescope) - high magnification didn't allow a stable enough image, with the wobbly tripod and worn out mounts. But medium magnification allowed me to see the craters, and the seas, allowed me to watch contentedly as she slowly 'sailed' past my little viewing aperture. Joel dragged me in at 11:30pm and told me off for staying out so late on work night and for being out in such frigid temperatures with just t-shirt and jeans. I had not noticed the time pass, nor the temperature drop. I am in love all over again. Yowie -- If you're paddling upstream in a canoe and a wheel falls off, how many pancakes can you fit in a doghouse? None, icecream doesn't have bones. |
[OT] Her in the Sky
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:44:41 +1000, Yowie wrote:
Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon (and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest. I've always been innately aware of her Cycle, and would be at a loss without Her in the sky. She is indeed beautiful, isn't she? My own personal rituals evolved into much the same - Moon-centered, and frequently led to me just talking to Her. As for watching through the telescope - some time if you get a chance to look at high magnification, on the lower left limb (between 7 and 8 o'clock), there are a few craters in a perfect line, appearing larger/smaller/smaller still with the smallest one right on the edge such that it's crater walls project beyond the edge of the Moon herself, so that when you first view them they look like a pyramid on the moon! I don't recall whether refracting scopes invert images; my reflector did, so the interesting craters appeared around 2 o'clock on Her face. It's an interesting visual effect when you first see it. |
Her in the Sky
On Jul 14, 4:56*pm, hopitus wrote:
On Jul 14, 3:44 pm, "Yowie" wrote: Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon (and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest. |
[OT] Her in the Sky
"Yowie" wrote in message ... Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon (and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest. I've always been innately aware of her Cycle, and would be at a loss without Her in the sky. Last night was the first clear and not bitterly-cold-and-howling-a-gale night since I got my telescope. Its a crappy telescope, I admit, barely better than binoculars, but it was free, and I've wanted but haven't been able to afford one since, oh, I don't know, for as long as I've been talking to Her in the Sky. I started off trying to get a view of Jupiter, but gave up in frustration after an hour or so. After another hour or so of cursing and muttering about bad design, I finally got my first ever glimpse of Her under magnification. I was astonished, astounded and more deeply in love than ever. After fiddling with the eyepieces some more, I settled on 'medium' magnification (and sorry, i don't know what magnification it was, I don't know about the technical side of the telescope) - high magnification didn't allow a stable enough image, with the wobbly tripod and worn out mounts. But medium magnification allowed me to see the craters, and the seas, allowed me to watch contentedly as she slowly 'sailed' past my little viewing aperture. Joel dragged me in at 11:30pm and told me off for staying out so late on work night and for being out in such frigid temperatures with just t-shirt and jeans. I had not noticed the time pass, nor the temperature drop. I am in love all over again. There are web sites that have star maps. You can tell them where you live and you will get a map of the sky for the day and time. But first to get familiar with the moon and the scope you have available. Best mistake we ever made. When Charlie and I first got married, we were shopping for Christmas presents for my sisters kids. We picked out an inexpensive telescope for her son. Only to find at the checkout we had actually picked up a much more expensive one. The store was crowded, the lines were long, so we decided 'oh what the heck' and bought it anyway. My now fifty year old nephew is still quite the amateur astronomer. I wait every fall for Orion to come back. Jo |
[OT] Her in the Sky
Jofirey wrote:
I wait every fall for Orion to come back. Every fall we rent a cabin near the Lost Maples area here in Texas. One of our favorite activities is sit by a fire and watch Orion come up over the ridge across the river. It's magical! And every year we swear we're going to buy a telescope and bring it out. Perhaps this year... :) -- Victor M. Martinez Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM) Send your spam he Email me he |
[OT] Her in the Sky
"Victor Martinez" wrote in message ... Jofirey wrote: I wait every fall for Orion to come back. Every fall we rent a cabin near the Lost Maples area here in Texas. One of our favorite activities is sit by a fire and watch Orion come up over the ridge across the river. It's magical! And every year we swear we're going to buy a telescope and bring it out. Perhaps this year... :) -- That picture is just as clear and lovely as any photograph Tom takes with his camera. Jo |
[OT] Her in the Sky
Daniel Mahoney wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:44:41 +1000, Yowie wrote: Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon (and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest. I've always been innately aware of her Cycle, and would be at a loss without Her in the sky. She is indeed beautiful, isn't she? My own personal rituals evolved into much the same - Moon-centered, and frequently led to me just talking to Her. As for watching through the telescope - some time if you get a chance to look at high magnification, on the lower left limb (between 7 and 8 o'clock), there are a few craters in a perfect line, appearing larger/smaller/smaller still with the smallest one right on the edge such that it's crater walls project beyond the edge of the Moon herself, so that when you first view them they look like a pyramid on the moon! I don't recall whether refracting scopes invert images; my reflector did, so the interesting craters appeared around 2 o'clock on Her face. It's an interesting visual effect when you first see it. The odd thing about Australia (and hte rest of hte southern hemisphere) is our moon is upseide down, and the phases go ( 0 ) rather than ) 0 ( like yours do. So I have no idea where '2 o'clock' might be - and whether my telescope turns the image upseide down. Still, its something to discover for myself, and I look forward to finding them. Yowie |
[OT] Her in the Sky
The odd thing about Australia (and hte rest of hte southern hemisphere) is
our moon is upseide down, and the phases go ( 0 ) rather than ) 0 ( like yours do. So I have no idea where '2 o'clock' might be - and whether my telescope turns the image upseide down. Still, its something to discover for myself, and I look forward to finding them. Yowie Hmmm, I never thought of that. When I say "2 oclock", I mean that for me, through an inverting telescope, the crater formation is at the upper left limb (where 2 o'clock would be on the face of a clock). Since we don't know if your telescope inverts, it could be either 2 or 8 o'clock. And that's just approximate, so it will give you an excuse to look all around the visible edge of the full moon :) Dan |
[OT] Her in the Sky
Yowie wrote:
The odd thing about Australia (and hte rest of hte southern hemisphere) is our moon is upseide down, and the phases go ( 0 ) rather than ) 0 ( like yours do. It's not the moon that's upside down, it's you guys. :) (Kidding :)) But that's interesting, and it makes sense, since the earth's shadow would getting larger and smaller in the opposite direction. My education about celestial bodies was quite pitiful. Considering that I was interested in astronomy, I didn't even know which direction the moon waxed and waned. A friend of mine taught it to me about 5 years ago, complete with a handy mnemonic. (It wouldn't work for most of us, since the words are in Russian and the letters representing the orientation of the crescent moon are Cyrillic - but for some reason I remember that better than anything I learned in childhood!) -- Joyce ^..^ (To email me, remove the X's from my user name.) |
[OT] Her in the Sky
Daniel Mahoney wrote:
Hmmm, I never thought of that. When I say "2 oclock", I mean that for me, through an inverting telescope, the crater formation is at the upper left limb (where 2 o'clock would be on the face of a clock). Since we don't know if your telescope inverts, it could be either 2 or 8 o'clock. Wait, would that be 8 o'clock or 4 o'clock? If it just flips it over (ie, as a mirror image across the horizontal diameter), then 2:00 would become 4:00. But if it actually rotates the image of the moon by 180 degrees, then you're right, it would be 8:00. Joyce - knows very little about telescopes, but does know about image transformations! (To email me, remove the X's from my user name.) |
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