The Moon and Pleiades, a sight to behold

[ApolloMatt]

If there was ever a way to show a newcomer the the use of binoculars for stargazing, tonights moon grazing past the pleiades was it.

I set up the bins on my tripod, pulled the girlfriend away from the TV and she was amazed!

I was going to get the scope out and take some images, instead we just sat and soaked up the view.

A simple setup and pure enjoyment.

Regards

Matt

[Doc]

The moon just amazes everytie i view it. I also get the urge sometimes to image but I think by the time I set it all up and polar align etc etc I've wasted valuable observing time.

[yeti monster]

That must have been a thrilling sight, how close together were they? My favourite lunar phases are New, New cresent and old crescent, especially tropical when you get the cheshire cat grin!

[Takahashi]

how close together were they?

Not as close as last month's close encounter, but close enough to make a very pleasing wide-field pairing. It was better in that the Moon's phase wasn't quite as blinding as the last time, where the half-Moon all but blotted out the Pleiades. I missed a photo-op though, as by the time I'd thought about it, a horrible veil of thin cloudy Rubbish had started to materialise, bringing the night's proceedings to a halt.

[yeti monster]

As I'm 8 hours ahead of UK, and a fair bit further south, I couldn't have caught that one. This evening, I believe the moon will be in Hyades for me, which could prove interesting to see.

Edit: No it won't, mis read HA, been up since 02:00, now 09:12 and I'm off for a wee nap...........

[waccoo]

I saw parts of the occultation from South Georgia. The following link is a video I took of what I could see from here.

It's not GREAT quality, but, it's the best I could do with my camera.

There are some other astronomical videos in my collection if you wish to look through them.

[yeti monster]

YouTube is banned here in China, but I'll be keen to watch when I return to UK, thanks.