A sketch of Capuanus, a 60km-wide crater on the southern shore of Mare Nubium. This took about 35 mins in bitter cold. Hazy sky.
A very good view of the ISS and dimmer Shuttle Atlantis flying from horizon to horizon almost directly overhead in the early evening yesterday (26th). Atlantis -- STS-129 -- has separated from the ISS and is preparing to return. The sight was particularly striking in the hazy and light polluted environment that otherwise allowed only the moon, Jupiter and a couple of stars of the summer triangle to shine through.
Mars, which I last observed early last year , is now reappearing. I happened to be up around 2 am last night, and it was very bright and distinctly reddish-orange in the east between Castor and Pollux and the horizon. It was a very clear, cold night, with Orion and the stars of winter beautifully arrayed.
A coincidence of rare events last night. Just after midnight, an hour or so after the start of heavy snowfall in Beijing (an event that occurs only a handful of times every year, despite very cold winters), there was a loud rumble seeming to come from the east. It was so odd that I went outside, and it continued for what seemed like a couple of minutes. Having returned indoors, I saw a bright flash through the curtains followed immediately by an explosive clap of thunder. A few minutes later another long rumble, seeming to come from the west, and then it was over -- even as the snowstorm continued (the temperature seemed just about or slightly above freezing, at a guess). Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the phenomenon which confirms how rare it is. The conditions that normally seem to trigger this -- proximity to the sea or large lakes, doesn't seem to apply here. Beijing is about 150 miles from the sea. Snow this early in the year is also highly unusual, although there was an exceptionally early snowfall on Nov 1. The local media said the thunderstorm was the latest in Beijing in 150 years. Beijing has experienced thundersnow before, however, as recently as 2003.
Strangely Astromist on my Pocket PC failed to predict it, but Calsky did with great precision -- the emergence of Europa from Jupiter's shadow. I don't recall having witnessed this common event before from start to finish. Jupiter was quite low in the sky, over an apartment building in terrible seeing. The ending of the eclipse of Europa appeared to take half a minute or so, from a very faint point of light to sixth magnitude. The Great Red Spot was supposed to be crossing Jupiter's face at that time, but I couldn't make it out. A 15mm Super Plossl was the maximum the planet could sustain.
