Five planets in the night sky

Last night and this morning there were five planets visible (six, if you count the one you're standing on!)

Just after sunset, Jupiter and Saturn were close together above the southern horizon, while Mars was still a brilliant object in the east. An early-ish rise finally allowed me to photograph Mercury, lurking in the dawn sky to the left (north!) of the bright star Spica in the constellation of Virgo. Venus was above and slightly right, quite near the blue star Porrima: to the north (left!) was Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the sky.

The crater fields on the Moon were spectacular last night!

Surprising visitors to our trail cam

Linda occasionally leaves a trail cam at an isolated local spot, as part of our wildlife surveying of the Heath. To our delight, when she checked last night's visitors there were Fieldfares, Song Thrushes and Redwings drinking at the water she leaves nearby. Even better, a delightful Stoat popped in several times. Add these to the Rats, Voles, Squirrels, Hares and Muntjacs we've had in the past and you realise that there's a lot more wildlife out there than you may be aware of!

The night before lockdown...

In a couple of weeks it's Linda and my 26th anniversary: normally we celebrate by going out to somewhere expensive for dinner, but since we are about to be plunged back into lockdown, we invited boon companions Sue and Peter around instead. It was a lovely evening, with several bottles of champagne and claret enlivening proceedings, all to a soundtrack of Led Zeppelin!

As our friends left, they called Linda and me out to see a spectacular halo around the Moon: the photos don't do it justice...

One last thing: earlier, while watching an F35 'hotdogging' over the house, we saw only our second Little Egret from the garden.

Lesser Yellowlegs at Cley: last outing before lockdown Mk.11

When this - or another - Lesser Legs was at Runham earlier in the year Linda didn't manage to see it, so, with lockdown looming - we made an early-morning dash up to Cley for a quick look.

Parking at the Visitors' Centre, we walked along the roadside path to where a small crowd of half a dozen or so birders were obviously watching the bird on Keeper's Marsh. We put our masks on (no-one else seemed to have bothered) and watched this elegant wader for ten minutes. A walk to the Coastguards and back gave us Bearded Tit (two family groups) eight Stonechats and other odds and ends.

Invigorated, we headed back home to prepare a dinner party (a fortnight in advance!) to celebrate our 26th Anniversary with friends Sue & Peter.

Jupiter and Saturn

In anticipation of their historic meeting on December 21st, the two gas giants are growing closer in the southern skies once more! Meanwhile, the beautiful Moon is a splendid sight in the East, with Mars still quite close...

Mammatus clouds

Just after dawn there was a decent display of rare mammatus clouds: I've only ever witnessed this once before, a couple of years ago. The formation soon spread out into a grey stratus overcast, but it was good to see while it lasted. (The origin of the name is fairly obvious!)

Beautiful crater fields on the Moon

The Moon is two days past full, so that the rich crater fields along its eastern limb were beautifully displayed in high relief tonight. I never fail to be enchanted by the Moon's battered surface: interesting to reflect on how many of the impactors that made the craters and maria basins (probably all!) would have hit the Earth if the Moon hadn't been there!

Red Kites near Hingham

Linda and I had to make a carefully-masked and disinfected trip down to Watton to retrieve our meteorites from a showcase at the Antique Centre. With the second spell of lockdown upon us, there doesn't seem much point in leaving them in isolation when we have a steady stream of online orders at the moment.

On the way home we came around a bend to see a Red Kite actually on the road eating a dead Pheasant. Needless to say, the bird flew off as we approached, so we parked and waited. The Kite never came back to its meal, but id did do a couple of circuits before flying off. (Interestingly, this was exactly the same location that we saw a pair of Kites in the Spring - presumably they are breeding nearby)

The Moon and Mars peep over the hedge!

Just after sunset last night, the full Moon and Mars rose over the garden fence: the Moon looked like a bauble hanging from our eucalyptus tree!

Something to look forward to: on December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn - the two largest planets in the Solar System - will come together until they are just a fifth of the diameter of the Moon apart!   This will be their closest conjunction since 1623...