Ilkley Baptist

I have bought a telescope, second-hand, in fact damaged, from ebay; but now all is mended and I have it working. On holiday I spent a memorable evening sitting in a chair, staring at the full moon rising over the Lleyn Peninsula. Even through my very small, low-power binoculars, it was a wonderful sight. I tried drawing the features I could see, and since I've been home, I've been learning the names of some of the craters and seas that you can spot. There's Tycho, the big one near the bottom with lines radiating out from it that you can just about see with the naked eye. The dark sea that forms the 'o' mouth of the man in the moon is the Mare Nubium. Through binoculars you can see Aristarchus, high on the left hand side, a bright, white crater, which is white because it's recent and hasn't been blackened by the solar wind. Like a beauty spot on the cheek of the moon is the crater Grimaldi, then there are the craters Kepler and Copernicus, Plato and Aristotle, and numerous other mountain ranges, rilles and plains to learn about.

The telescope gives a wonderful image. When I first got it, the moon was full. As it waned, the edge of darkness has moved across the moon, throwing craters into sharp relief. You can see the small area at the edge (the terminator) very clearly. However, the waning moon rises later and later each night. It won't rise until 1am tonight, and won't get above the houses in Lister Street for another hour or two after that. Mind you, there are too many clouds to see it in any case.

So I may have to concentrate on other things. Jupiter is currently nicely placed in the evening sky to the south, and with the telescope I can see the moons, two on either side when I last looked. Uranus and Neptune are nearby, but much fainter. I haven't yet managed to look at the Andromeda Nebula. That should be a good, when we get a nice, dark, clear and moonless sky.