With such beautiful weather - why not sit outside tonight and watch the skies perform their magic.
17th June 2019 - As evening twilight begins to fade, the full moon shines down on us.
The planet Mercury and the planet Mars will appear about a degree apart in the west-northwest at about 5 degrees above the horizon.
Mercury will appear brighter than Mars, with Mercury on the right and Mars on the left.
The two bright stars to the upper right of Mercury and Mars will be Pollux and Castor, the âtwinsâ in the constellation Gemini the Twins.
The bright star appearing nearly overhead will be Arcturus. The brightest planet in the evening sky will be Jupiter, appearing in the southeast at about 18 degrees above the horizon.
Vega, Deneb and Altair the âSummer Triangleâ will be rising in the east-northeast
About 10 minutes after evening twilight ends, the bright planet Saturn will rise, appearing as bright in the east-southeast as Mercury will appear on the opposite horizon in the west-northwest.
One of my interests is ISS spotting There are various websites that tell you when you can see a flyover at your chosen spot. They are at dusk or dawn and there are regular spells without a siting being possible
Maybe if you had twenty going over at lunchtime and turning the sky into a noughts and crosses board in the morning , you would feel slightly differently?
We are having a break in Lot et Garonne at the moment. Lovely, almost blood red moon rose tonight. Taken some pics but wonât be able to process them till we get home.
Wouldnât bother me in the least JaneâŚ
I canât understand how you can find that a problem Jane, if you could hear them I could understand the problem but seeing a few trails at lunchtime certainly wouldnât ruin my day âŚ
I love seeing the trails high in the sky. Makes me think of past adventures to wonderful places like Australia and India and, more recently, that glorious feeling of returning home to France and my hubby after short trips to the UK.
OMG I LOVE aircraft contrails - makes me feel great and lifts my spirits imagining the people up there soaring above and playing with the clouds.
Before I lived in the Pyrenees I often used to look down at them from above en route to Cairo, Joâburg, Capetown, Accra etc - mostly African continent destinations on that routing. I looked down and thought âI wonder who lives down there and what are they doing?â - magical memories. Now, some of them, are looking down at me
Iâm lucky enough to have lots of sky where I live (clear Milky Way at night etc) and follow aircraft, my ex colleagues and passengers as they criss cross the skies above us (Flight Radar 24).
Couldnât give a stuff about contrails - apart from how wonderful they look
Mind you - could always go back to the skies later in life lol
And then we have the wonderful Bette Nash flying into her 80âs
Just for you Simon⌠an excerpt from one of my poemsâŚ
"For each day can bring a moment of joy
So brief, so perfect, so true.
Like the laugh of a child, the song of a bird
Or a plane cutting shapes in the blueâŚâŚ "
Yesterday evening, in the twilight, I went prowling around my village.
We seem to have an unusual number of hedgehogs this year and I went out to check on their progress.
One stayed hidden in the undergrowth; one snuffled here, there and everywhere (including around my feet); suddenly a third came strolling out of nowhere, wandering without a care in the world and suddenly âdashedâ into the tiny garden at the bottom of the chemin.
I am now wondering if that hedgehog could smell the tray of rainwater I had carefully placed under the cherry tree, a few days ago.
Anyway, I spent ages gazing down instead of up - but when I did look up, the skies were glorious.
As I walked quietly back to the house, I heard the cry of a Little Owl and managed to locate its silhouette on Maguyâs chimney. It suddenly swooped under the apex of the church roof and disappeared into a cavity, still calling plaintively. Aha, so that is where the nest is - just over a week ago I found 2 dead baby chicks on the stones just below that spot.
I watched for quite some time in the descending darkness but that bird never emerged and I imagined it seeking the babies - in vain. Just in the final light, I spotted a second Little Owl on another rooftop. Mentally encouraging it to go to the nest and âtry againâ - I was sorry to see it swoop off in the opposite direction.
Hopefully that couple will try again next year.
After that drama - the skies did live up to expectations and I shall be out on the prowl again tonightâŚ
Weather permitting - Tonight (18th) we should be able to see Saturn âat 9 oâclockâ of the Full Moon and Jupiter way up there at â5-minutes pastâ
