Francis Hickenbottom's Nature Notes: 19th January, 2011.

Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.

19th January 2011 2009

Lunar eclipse. (Click to see a larger image.)

Jupiter and Uranus. (Click to see a larger image.)

The night sky has been particularly interesting during recent weeks.

The planet Jupiter has been prominent in the evening sky and has, to the Earth-based observer, passed very close to the planet Uranus. Jupiter is a bright object, easily visible to the naked eye, but binoculars are needed to view Uranus.

On the 21st December, there was a lunar eclipse just before sunrise. I wrapped myself up and went to stand on Heath Common, overlooking Wakefield city centre, in a temperature of -10 degrees celsius, to spend an hour photographing the Moon as it set over the city and went into eclipse. By the time I had finished, I was chilled to the core and my feet had gone numb. Fortunately, my life was saved by a dash to the Redbeck Cafe for a drink and a hot sandwich.

Venus has been prominent in the morning sky and Saturn, which appears significantly less bright, has been fairly close to it. There was also a partial eclipse of the Sun in January but conditions were not suitable for me to see that.

All of the photographs were taken using my Pentax K1000 camera, which reached its 31st birthday recently. I used Elitechrome 200 film.

Star trails. (Click to see a larger image.)

Whilst at Llandigige, I captured some star trails as the constellation Orion rose above the cricket pavilion. There are some interesting details to be seen if you look at the larger image.

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