Moons & stars & stuff

 I got up a little before four this morning and expected to see the nearly full moon, because the back yard was so bright – but instead there was a uniformly gray sky glowing science-fictionally from horizon to horizon, the color of a blackboard that needs cleaning.

I knew where the moon should have been, just entering the trees to the west, and when I stepped outside and walked east I did just see it, like a smudged yellow thumbprint on that blackboard. The moon’s ghost, no edge visible, curiously affecting.

That reminds me of a telescopic sight, a planetary nebula informally called Jupiter’s Ghost. NGC 3242, in the constellation Hydra, it’s about the same size as Jupiter in a sufficiently large telescope, but pale bluish green – startling the first time you see it. Takes a pretty dark sky, impressive down in the Keys.

Thinking in those terms because last night was going to be a star party, our astronomy club getting together at a member’s place out in the country. Scrubbed by weather, my last chance until December or January.

Joe