Harvest Moon 13-09-19

[johnfosteruk]

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.

Mono

RGB

 

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by johnfosteruk

[PhotoGav]

What a cultured post! Good to see you back at the scope and hope you get plenty of time to relax with the skies. Love the RGB version. Is a mono Moon a thing of the past?!

[johnfosteruk]

Cheers Gav, and no, RGB is the thing of the future

 

[paulastro]

Excellent, even more impressed if the Longfellow came from memory!

[johnfosteruk]

10 hours ago, paulastro said:

Excellent, even more impressed if the Longfellow came from memory!

It was, but it is one of my favourites. It's one of 4 that I'm able to recite from memory.