Tonight our very own Moon is ‘gibbous’ – meaning its phase – its illumination – is somewhere between half and full, as seen from Earth. My telescope – on my roof in town – is dusty these days, but it still works OK – and I was able to hold my iPhone 6 Plus up against the eyepiece to get this picture. It’s a little tricky, and what I’m NOT showing you is all the failures I took before I got lucky with this one !
I apologise for not wishing you all Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope you all had a good one. I was too depressed to go near social media. Anybody else know that feeling ? I had probably the most miserable V day of my whole life. Owing to a diary oversight I was alone all day, and really couldn’t face going out to eat on my own. So I cooked up what was in the fridge, forced it down, and drowned in E-mails all night. I do NOT want sympathy, so please don’t give me any. But now you know that this particular rock star does not have a magically perfect life. Maybe that’s a useful thing to know. Today, yesterday is over, and its dull pain is fading, so I thought I’d venture out. Hope you guys are all setting a better example than me !
Let’s share this gibbous Moon (it’s up there right now) and celebrate that we have a Moon to light up our darkness. I have long thought that the fact that we have a moon of the exact size that can cover the face of the Sun so perfectly may have something to do with the fact that we – Earthly life – exist. But that’s just my enthusiastic amateur astronomer’s view. I’ve never heard any other astronomer express that view. The mysteries and beauty of the night sky give me hope – hope that my own impossibilities are very small in comparison. The trouble is, believing it is one thing – but FEELING it is another altogether. Have a great weekend, folks. Bri
PS Just so you know – cos I didn’t, for ages – ‘GIBBOUS’ is pronounced with a ‘g’ as in “give”’ – not as in “gin”.
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Lunacy, tragedy. Surely it’s time ? Time to stop this ? The country made a terrible mistake in voting to leave one of the world’s most powerful communities. You can’t blame anyone for voting that way – there was no information available on which to decide how to vote. But now ? It’s more obvious every day that this was the stupidest thing we ever tried to do. We need to stop. Think. Turn around. Cut our huge losses. STOP trying to divorce our partners in Europe. But who has the courage to stand up and STOP Brexit ? Cometh the hour, cometh the man or woman ? I’m prayin’ …
Bri
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