Mercury

FriendlyFire wrote:

I’m simply saying Chips, that if you fish off the beach at high tides like I do, with only the sea as your horizon, then you actually notice these things. The moon is at it’s closest observable point to you when it rises over the horizon and as it rises it gets further away, so you can really see when it’s big and in your face, which happens on the biggest tides every single month.

That is actually false. This part is an optical illusion caused by the atmosphere.

The difference in distance you get in a day is negligible.

As FF says, illusion. The distance between the moon and yourself is greater when it is on the horizon than when overhead.

As for monthly tides, there are the spring tides every fortnight which generally have the greatest regular range and are larger than the perigee typically as far as I was aware?

Obviously tides are also affected by the perigee/apogee - but only every couple of months do the two coincide to give the greatest tidal range. At least that’s all I remember from it being explained when we were sailing!

Well, why we don’t stop talk our sly moon? I got in a astronomy forum, and everybody talking Saturn in this season, i believe that’s the better topic to talk.

Oh, you mean this guy?

Yeah, he is rarely seen…

Saturn is easier to observe (well, moon is easier than all), and now she in the good position for observe from earth, SO don’t waste your time to see the moon, because you can see it everyday.

I seen the saturn in the night time of day before yesterday, a orange tiny spot in the sky. But unfortunately, when i deployed my small telescope, clouds fall….

In the next few month, July, you can see the Jupiter and Saturn in one single night, wow that’s very exciting.

So this is beginning to look like I’m simply being decieved by a full moon (which obviously looks bigger than normal anyway) at high tide, and an optical illusion caused by the atmosphere. So about the only bit I’ve got right is that the stood in the right place at the right time the moon can look bloody huge. I can live with that.

@Chips:

Sorry have to come back to the last page:
I am sure that the distance between earth and moon is dependent on where on earth you are. Just an example (i know this wont happen in real but its better for understanding):

If you live on the north pole and the moon crosses the northern sky then i am sure you are closer to the moon than you are from the south pole or equator

Generally it interesting how many start are there or planets that you could see and the less of us know them by heart

OKay… Here is Saturn … with bad weather…

PS: Guys, i worked with it for a whole night, i need some encourage please

FriendlyFire wrote:

That is actually false. This part is an optical illusion caused by the atmosphere.

That’s also not true. The optical illusion is not caused by the atmosphere but rather by other circumstances that are still being debated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion#Proof_of_illusion

Btw. this does not only apply to the moon, but any object in space you can see from earth. (like the sun!)

From what I understand (and I grant this is very limited!) The moons orbit is slightly eliptical, but not by very much. Apparently it varies over a period of around 14 lunar months, thus resulting in greater tides at certain times during the course of the year. In addition to this, there are other changes that occur, such as the moon being at full or the earth and sun being closer to the sun (due to variation of the earths orbit of the sun) that have an impact of how close the moon looks or how bright it is. I would say that the media often exaggerate these kind of things. I’m not sure on the credability of whether or not this is truly the closest the moon comes for another 20 year, seeing as it was supposedly closer than it came this time around only a few years ago.

Anyway back to mercury, I wouldn’t want to live on that planet, that’s for sure.

NeXoSE wrote:
OKay… Here is Saturn … with bad weather…

PS: Guys, i worked with it for a whole night, i need some encourage please

Thats awesome! Hopefully youll get a clearer night at somepoint so its not so blurry

good job!

cheeseontoast wrote:

NeXoSE wrote:
OKay… Here is Saturn … with bad weather…

PS: Guys, i worked with it for a whole night, i need some encourage please

Thats awesome! Hopefully youll get a clearer night at somepoint so its not so blurry

good job!

Thank you cheese

I will still work with this, maybe next time for Mercury, when air is clear and i’m free.

Huor wrote:
@Chips:

Sorry have to come back to the last page:
I am sure that the distance between earth and moon is dependent on where on earth you are. Just an example (i know this wont happen in real but its better for understanding):

If you live on the north pole and the moon crosses the northern sky then i am sure you are closer to the moon than you are from the south pole or equator

Sorry, I hate to be ridiculously pedantic, but you mis-interpret. The distance from the moon to YOU may vary depending upon where YOU are. You are varying the position of a person on the earth, or talking about the distance from specific points of surface to surface. The specific points vary based upon their location given rotation.

However, I must point out the specifics of my post:

The distance from the centre of the moon to the centre of the Earth is not dependant upon where on the earth you are standing

As for your second point, not necessarily. Simple and most extreme counter example is during winter for the Northern Hemisphere (no daylight at north pole) and a New Moon (moon between sun and earth). To put more into this, the moon doesn’t orbit around the poles, but around the elliptic plane with some variation (admit, my interpretation isn’t necessarily 100% accurate).
Earth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AxialTiltObliquity.png
Lunar Orbit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_perturbation.jpg

The Moon differs from most satellites of other planets in that its orbit is close to the plane of the ecliptic, and not to the Earth’s equatorial plane. The lunar orbit plane is inclined to the ecliptic by about 5.1°, whereas the Moon’s spin axis is inclined by only 1.5°

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon

Earth axial tilt is 20 something degrees. So I think the moon is pretty much “closer” to the equator* than north pole, but I’ve not done any math based upon my rudimentary understanding to verify, so possibly talking out of my buttocks

As for photo of Saturn, awesome
What were you using equipment wise?

*where equator does not refer to the whole equator of the earth, as obviously a point on the equator on the opposite side of the earth is further at a single point in time than the north pole. Talking about an individual point where the point along the equator is, at that point in time, the closest point along the equator to the moon, whereas the north pole remains…the north pole throughout.

Really cool picture of saturn.
My bro bought a telescope not so long ago and when ive visited, ive had a quick peek at the recent activities too… but i know next to nothing about planet or object rotations, cept they all go around the sun and the moons circle planets etc.

As long as none of them will crash into earth within the next million years or so, im happy.

@Chips

The telescope is Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ + 2x barlow and 6mm eyepiece. Camera is my Nokia X6 phone.

But…. this collocation is bad… If i only use the 6mm eyepiece without 2x barlow, i may get more clear image.

@khayman

If you don’t want to delve into astronomy, you can use Stellarium to lead you.

And, you need some knowledge about Equatorial mount and other telescope components to set up and control your telescope.