Pete Lawrence

@ForterraUK Desford brickworks seem to have increased the brightness of the lights at the site. This can't be good for the neighbouring National Forest and it's ruining the local night sky.

That bright Geminid I posted yesterday left, like most bright meteors, a meteor train which was captured in the subsequent images and (hopefully) animated here...

Bright Geminid meteor trail caught this morning (13 Dec).

Receding partial phase of last night's total lunar eclipse. Always going to be a tricky one from the UK, especially with lots of cloud around. But there were gaps. This is from Thornton Reservoir in Leicestershire.

The cool thing about lunar occultations is the fact that the Moon's edge is effectively a razor sharp occulting edge as there's no lunar atmosphere. The star is effectively a point source of light. Despite our atmosphere fuzzing the star, disappearance is instant.

Electra (17 Tauri) disappears (fast!)

A lot of occultations this evening!

youtu.be/GpYKdvnWB3o?fe… partial solar eclipse time-lapse courtesy of a Seestar S30.

Sleep deprived eclipse!

Burst of auroral activity seen on last night's Northern Lights flight operaing out of Birmingham International Airport.

A quick guide to March's total lunar eclipse... youtu.be/Ju6j9AXKQYI?fe…

There are two eclipses visible from the UK in March 2025, the first is a total lunar eclipse which occurs on the morning of 14 March. However, the UK gets a challenging view of this event, totality reached just before moonset.

An unusual view of Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina. LRO data used for elevation mapping combined with my image of the region from 3 Feb.

Rupes Recta, the Straight Wall. Despite its dramatic appearance, the slope is estimated to be a gentle 10-25 degrees.

Jupiter on 5 Feb 2025. 15 mins de-rotated. NTB outbreak visible as the bright patch just left of centre on the northern edge oh the NEB.

The Ray of Hesiodus is an effect caused by the dawn lunar light streaming through a gap in the co-joining rim wall the Pitatus. Imagine the view from the far side of Hesiodus as sunlight first appears. Why am I thinking of sneaky UFOs? 😂

Another clair-obscur effect from last night, the 'Eyes of Clavius'. This happens then the lunar dawn hits the rim edges of 21km Clavius C and 28km Clavius D, both craters located inside the walled plain of 225km Clavius.

100km Plato showing impressive rim shadows cast on its floor. The largest is from what's known as the gamma peak. Observations in the past have suggested the shadowis curved. This became known as Plato's Hook. Controversy still surrounds the curvature.

Lunar dawn arrives at the Apennine mountains (Montes Apenninus), 5 Feb 2025. Fortunately I caught the autocorrect which suggested they were the Pennines! 😂

Libration sea Mare Humboldtianum right on the lunar limb.