I haven't had a telescope out in anger for 4 months thanks to crazy work commitments and things going on at home, and that was only a quick session.
Yesterday I saw the forecast for the evening, decided that although it was probably wrong (because forecasts are often wrong, in case you hadn't noticed ) I was going to setup to observe the Harvest Moon.
I know it's just another full moon just like any other cycle but it's special. It's lovely to sit outside with the bins studying ejecta rays, remembering harvest festivals when I were a lad (somebody always brought a can of Campbells soup!).
As I grabbed 200 frames to finish off the session (I stacked 20%, Pipp, AS3!, IMPPG to process) I remembered a little Longfellow -
It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighbourhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the labouring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer's close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.
I've not been unhappy with my recent astronomy-less state, but I think I shall be making more of an effort to make the time now, happily work has started to ease off a little, much obliged.
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