Tomorrow morning, just before sunrise, there will be a partial eclipse of the Moon: this is a near-total eclipse, with most of the Moon passing through the Earth's umbra. Best time to look out will be around 04.30 - 05.30: here's a photo of the near-full Moon taken at 04.30 this morning.
The 'Summer Wine Crew' dodged the showers all day, moving from Cley to Cromer to Hickling! Our first trek out to the Sea Pool at Cley was totally birdless, while there was some compensation at Bishop's Hide with big flocks of Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets and Brent Geese. Carrying on round to Dauke's Hide we were delighted to see that the recently-present nine Lesser Whitefronts were close enough for photography: this is the third different group we've encounterd this year!
After coffee we moved along to Sheringham and then Cromer, where only one of our target species - a pair of Peregrine Falcons - was easy to find on the Church.
Last stop was Hickling, where a couple of Cranes and a year-tick Treecreeper were about the best!
Now the garden trees are coming into leaf, it's harder to spot our resident Sparrowhawks until they move! I just had time for one shot before he departed.
There are two reasons for posting more astronomy photos: firstly, we're housebound because the windscreen of our car has a crack top to bottom (courtesy of some little b*stard with an air rifle) which can't be repaired until Monday and secondly because the planets, stars and Moon are all incredibly well positioned for photography! Last night the Moon was snuggled up to Mars, with Jupiter just a little further west, while the seeing was so good that my 400mm zoom lens could pick out the Straight Wall (a fault feature on the Moon)
The skies are really clear over East Norfolk at the moment: last night's first quarter Moon was stunning!
Well: loosely speaking! Martin, a customer and friend, knowing how interested I am in anything to do with the Templars and the Crusades, sent me an amazing 'retirement gift' yesterday. These three coins are all of immense historical interest and will take pride of place in my collection: in order they are:
1) Bronze coin of Titus, commemorating the conquest of Judea: the reverse shows two Jewish prisoners either side of a palm tree.
2) Copper follis of Tancred, leader of the first Crusade and Regent of Antioch.
3) Silver denarius of Bohemond 111, Prince of Antioch. He was involved in the Third Crusade, where he occasionally collaborated with Richard 1st, 'the Lion Heart'. The reverse shows a Templar cross.
What an astonishing gift!
Lots to enjoy just after sunset tonight: Mercury is approaching maximum eastern extension: on March 8th it will be as high as it ever can be. With a telescope or binoculars Venus shows a crescent, supposedly the reason that Astarte was depicted with a crescent headdress. Meanwhile, further east, the Moon is in between Jupiter and the Pleiades - hard to photograph, but you get the picture!
Just Norman and me today! We drove straight to Stiffkey to look for the recently present Lesser Whitefronts (and the ever-present Glossy Ibis) Despite a good scan from several vantage points, neither of the targets were on show. However, as we headed back to Cley I saw the geese fly in: stopping at the flint barn we walked back and got some terrific photos.
Apart from the first Spoonbill of the year, the walk out to Bishop's wasn't particularly productive, although there were even more Avocets and Ruff than last week.It was nice to chat with ace 'togger Roger Tidman and his friend. The East Bank wasn't much better (we'd missed the morning's Twite flock) so after coffee we drove along to Kelling Heath, where we added Raven and Woodlark to the day list (the latter - the only one we saw - flew past as we chatted with Sue and Steve Gantlett)
At sunset, while I was photographing the crescent Moon and this week's planetary spectacular, this US cargo plane flew over from the direction of Mildenhall (ie: from the south west) What on Earth is it carrying slung below its fuselage? And what is it emitting from it?
I just managed a single shot as this dapper Sparrowhawk dashed low through the garden. With all the doves, pigeons and Blackbirds that feed here every day, it's like an 'all you can eat' buffet for him!
