21 June 2010 by Tristan Gooley
The sun has reached its northernmost bus stop, it has put on the handbrake for a second and has now, already, begun its journey back south.
At this time of year the sun lights up the countryside in early morning and late evening in a way that is unique. The light pours in from low in the northeastern and northwestern sky. This picture could not be taken at any other time, as the morning light is filtered through gaps in the woods to the northeast of where I live. It lights up strips and leaves the rest of the fields in shade.
A belated thanks to everyone who came to my talks and walks at the North Kent Walking Festival and the Travel Bookshop last week.
Tags: morning, north, northeast, south, summer solstice, sun |
26 April 2009 by Tristan Gooley
I was up early this morning and caught a great twilight show from Jupiter and Venus. This photo does not do Venus justice, but you might just be able to make it out in the centre of the picture between the two banks of cloud.
Jupiter’s orbit is outside earth’s and so moves through the night sky quite slowly, about one constellation per year.
Venus’ orbit is closer to the sun than ours and so its position in the sky changes quite rapidly. It spends about seven months as a bright object in the early evening sky, before disappearing behind the sun’s glare for about four months and then re-emerging in the early morning for seven months. It then repeats the cycle. Ancient civilisations were divided in their understanding of it, some realising that it is a planet and others giving it two labels, ‘morning star’ and ‘evening star’, without realising they…
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Tags: jupiter, morning, orbits, solar system, stars, venus |
21 March 2009 by Tristan Gooley
It is the morning after the equinox and not a bad one either. The sun rises due east on the equinox, but the daily difference is at its greatest at this time too so we have already moved north of east.
In this picture the horizon is well above sea level because of the hill, so we have to bear in mind that the angle the sun makes to the horizon will be 90 degrees minus our latitude, ie. our colatitude.
Tags: colatitude, due east, equinox, horizon, morning |
