SHORT DAY

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme

MOON OVER THE DAM

This post is part of the Roentare’s Water Meme

and also part of the Nature Notes meme

MOON AND VENUS

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

PEEK-A-BOO

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

UP, UP AND AWAY

We often have hot air balloons overhead in our neighbourhood as they use a nearby park as a launching ground. The balloons are a hit with both locals and tourists.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

JUPITER AND MOONS

It's a warm, clear Summer night in Melbourne tonight and gazing out from the window, I can see stars! Brightest object in the sky is the planet Jupiter, seen in the first photo, with nearby star Wasat (Delta Geminorum).

I zoomed in with my camera (a compact Sony DSC-HX90V) and with a bit of fiddling I was able to capture the second photo, showing Jupiter and its four Galilean moons, and Wasat.

The last image is a screen capture from the excellent, free, planetarium program "Stellarium". It shows in greater detail what I was observing through the camera. Isn't technology wonderful?

The Galilean moons are the four largest moons of Jupiter. They are, in descending-size order, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa. They are the most readily visible Solar System objects after Saturn, the dimmest of the classical planets; though their closeness to bright Jupiter makes naked-eye observation very difficult, they are readily seen with common binoculars, even under night sky conditions of high light pollution.

The invention of the telescope allowed astronomers to discover the moons in 1610. Through this, they became the first Solar System objects discovered since humans have started tracking the classical planets, and the first objects to be found to orbit any planet beyond Earth.

They are planetary-mass moons and among the largest objects in the Solar System. All four, along with Titan, Triton, and Earth's Moon, are larger than any of the Solar System's dwarf planets. The largest, Ganymede, is the largest moon in the Solar System and surpasses the planet Mercury in size (though not mass).

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

MOONSTRUCK

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

SPRING EQUINOX

The Southern Hemisphere's spring equinox, also known as the September equinox or vernal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, marks the start of spring for locations south of the equator. It occurs on or around September 22 or 23 each year, when the Sun is directly above Earth's equator and both hemispheres receive equal amounts of sunlight - hence on that day, there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

SEPTEMBER BLOOD MOON

A blood moon is a term for the reddish appearance of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse. This occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on the Moon. Sunlight passes through Earth's atmosphere, which scatters the blue light and allows longer-wavelength red light to pass through and reach the Moon, giving it its characteristic crimson colour.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

SKIES ASSORTED

A mosaic created with many a sky I've observed over a six-month period around the suburbs of Melbourne.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE "COLD MOON"

June is the first month of our Southern Hemisphere Winter here in Melbourne. On June 12th we saw the full moon, called the "Cold Moon". Although we had a fairly cloudy sky last night, the moon did peek through several times allowing photos such as this below to be taken. I used my iPhone for a quick take. The temperature in our garden early this morning was 2˚C.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

FULL MOON NIGHT

In the suburbs...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

EVENING FALLS

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

NIGHT SKY, JUST NOW

Looking out of my bedroom window, with the Moon Jupiter Orion and Sirius taking pride of place. I have included a screenshot from the excellent app Stellarium that is a must have for all stargazers as it can help identify all those heavenly bodies up there in real time. If you are interested in all things space, star, planet, exoplanet, SETI and extraterrestrial life, follow my account on Instagram: @nicvard

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

FULL MOON

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

IN THE MOONLIGHT

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

FULL MOON

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

SUNRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

SUNRISE

Winter sunrise with the crescent moon and Venus. It was cold (0˚C)!

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

MOONRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme