I'm not the brightest...

[pipnina]

Today, entralled at the break in cloud, travelled for 10 minutes down to a beach car park where LP from Plymouth is reduced by a load.

Problem is: I may have escaped 80% of Plymouth's LP, but the moon is like 90% full tonight. I might as well have stayed at home :s

Well, I saw a surprising ammount of detail in Jupiter. The atmospheric conditions were good at the very least.

Now there's +1 thing to stop me observing. I wanted to see M31 and M42 dangit!

(I think I saw M42, but It wasn't the 1 degree size it should have been, I only saw the very middle, very faintly. )

[ghostdance]

Sounds like a good evening, and near a moonlit sea! Lovely...

Sure, M42 is not going to reveal her mysteries very much at all under a near full Moon, and forget M31, but hey, Jupiter was great and there was always the Moon itself, especially looking along the terminator. And the Beehive, and Castor & Pollux......

Forever Changes...

Wish I'd been there - I'm sidelined with a bad shoulder so think how lucky you've been!

[pipnina]

Sounds like a good evening, and near a moonlit sea! Lovely...

Sure, M42 is not going to reveal her mysteries very much at all under a near full Moon, and forget M31, but hey, Jupiter was great and there was always the Moon itself, especially looking along the terminator. And the Beehive, and Castor & Pollux......

Forever Changes...

Wish I'd been there - I'm sidelined with a bad shoulder so think how lucky you've been!

Hehe. I guess having a bad shoulder would have been way worse than this.

But this also does mean I won't see my targets for another week or two at least (Waiting for the moon to go away and the clouds to vanish again!).

I saw some detail in Jupiter's weather bands and all four moons (If I remember, three on the left (Or is it right?) and one on the right (Left?)). I don't find the full/near full moon that interesting tbh. The terminator is scarecly there!

Well, I guess I'll have to get on with assignment work instead. Lesson learned!

[John]

You have to adjust your viewing plans to suit the circumstances.

With a bright moon in the sky, the planets, double stars and the moon itself are by far the best targets.

You can glimpse the brightest deep sky objects such as M42 and M31 under such conditions but they are so far from their best under moonlight that it's much better to wait until a moonless night comes along.

[ronin]

M42 is bright in the centre but the outer reaches get dimmer and so it is not always easy to see the full extent.

The moon is 97% tonight and will be full on March 5th.

What you will always find is that when it is a full moon and it is shining bright then the sky is also clear.

Just read the posts complaining of it at about 29 day intervales.

Strange but observing the moon seems not to occur.

[ghostdance]

 I don't find the full/near full moon that interesting tbh. The terminator is scarecly there!

Well, you got me on the terminator (tho I managed to hold up my 10x50s for a few seconds and there looked to be some nice detail right on the T) but........you're looking at the surface of another world, pip!  Blimey, that alone could keep me gaping for ages...

I'm still learning craters, rilles and rupes and will be til I fall off the perch...and remember the Moon was the particular delight and study of Sir P. Good company

[Astro Imp]

I found to make the moon more interesting it was necessary to put some work in investigating what I was seeing. To this end I recommend the Virtual Moon Atlas: http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualmoon/