New posts to this blog can be found at http://cityobs.blogspot.com.
Crater Clavius on a hazy night, waxing gibbous moon. This was the scene on the cusp -- if a gibbous moon has one -- where the terminator met the southern limb. Up and to the right on Clavius is Blancanus, with its floor completely in the dark but with its outer rim picked out in sunlight. The crater on the lower left of Clavius is Porter, with Rutherfurd opposite. The four smaller craters down and to the right of Clavius are Moretus (the biggest one with deep shadow on its southern rim), Gruemberger, Cysatus and probably Curtius. Another attempt at this region can be seen here: http://www.astronomyblogs.com/member/northandeast/?xjMsgID=106260.
This was drawn with ETX-90 and 20mm Super Plossl with 2xBarlow. Seeing was very poor and deteriorated so badly while sketching that I had to abandon the effort.
A good view of a waxing crescent moon. The crater with central peak in the middle is Theophilus with the sunlit rim of adjoining Cyrillus up and to its right and the rim of Catherina off to their right. Sinus Asperitatis is up and to the left of Theophilus. The small crater just below Theophilus is Madler. Isidorus and, furthest away, Capella, are down and to the left of Madler. These craters are on the edge of Mare Nectaris. It's interesting to compare this sketch with my two previous ones of this group:
http://www.astronomyblogs.com/member/northandeast/?xjMsgID=71678
http://www.astronomyblogs.com/member/northandeast/?xjMsgID=84530
There has been a bit of progress.
And here's a picture of it, taken by putting my camera up to the lens (32mm) of my ETX-90. This was at at 3:52 pm. A power wire crosses the sun. Sunspot 1040 is faintly visible on close the left limb of the sun half way between the lunar limb and the wire.
A partial solar eclipse was visible in Beijing on January 15 as the sun set. I watched it in rhe ETX-90 with solar filter for 45 minutes or so before the sun disappeared behind a building. A while later, as the sun was about to disappear below the horizon, it occured to me that it might be possible to view it naked eye, protected by the city's perpetual haze. I found a good, building-free location and sure enough, as the sun hovered on the horizon, there it was with a big chunk blacked out, like a waxing crescent moon. I was careful to look only fleetingly. The next time a partial eclipse will visible in Beijing will be May 21, 2012 at dawn. The sketch is of sunspot 1040 which was also strikingly visible close to the solar equator as the moon began to cross. We have been having quite a run of sunspots after a long lull. The following, if it makes any sense, is NASA's readout of eclipses visible in Beijing in the coming years.
Calendar Date Eclipse Type Partial Eclipse Begins Sun Alt A or T Eclipse Begins Maximum Eclipse Sun Alt Sun Azi A or T Eclipse Ends Partial Eclipse Ends Sun Alt Eclipse Mag. Eclipse Obs. A or T Eclipse Duration
2010-Jan-15 P 15:32:47 15 - 16:52:27 03 239 - 17:09(s) 0(s) 0.822 0.742 -
2012-May-21 P 05:31:30 06 - 06:33:13 17 078 - 07:41:53 30 0.67 0.574 -
2018-Aug-11 P 18:12:19 11 - 18:51:05 04 287 - 19:14(s) 0(s) 0.341 0.23 -
2019-Jan-06 P 07:39(r) 0(r) - 08:34:32 08 129 - 09:41:13 17 0.316 0.197 -
2019-Dec-26 P 12:53:56 26 - 13:47:48 23 203 - 14:38:58 18 0.15 0.068 -
2020-Jun-21 P 14:33:26 57 - 15:50:18 42 266 - 16:58:44 29 0.589 0.49 -
2021-Jun-10 P 19:29:47 01 - 19:39(s) 0(s) 301 - 19:39(s) 0(s) 0.125(s) 0.051(s) -
2030-Jun-01 P 14:15:43 58 - 15:45:55 42 265 - 17:03:21 27 0.677 0.585 -
