Cloudy nights

Oneonta has had some cloudy weather lately, and even during my Thanksgiving trip back home to Michigan the weather was still cloudy. The Sun had a strong outburst of energy and particles into space, called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that arrived at Earth on November 28th. This storm sparked northern lights for viewers in the northern latitudes of Canada, Norway, Finland, etc. Even some people in Wisconsin and Minnesota reported seeing the aurora. Here in New York, we were clouded out.

Cloudy nights make me think about what I'd love to be doing, were the skies clear. Venus and Mercury are both visible after sunset these days, and Jupiter is visible for most of the night. However, the waxing crescent Moon, only 4 days past its new phase, is always fun to look at with binoculars or a telescope. Viewing the Moon along the line separating day and night, called the terminator, provides an excellent view of the surface terrain. Craters come to life through moderate magnification as the shadows stretch out along the landscape. Even better, and unlike most other astronomical targets, the view changes from day to day as the Moon orbits the Earth, resulting in movement of the terminator across the face of the Moon and allowing new craters and mountains to pop out of the darkness.

Thursday night in Oneonta is supposed to be clear, according to the Weather Channel. This may provide for a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with our planet's nearest neighbor. If you're using a telescope, pick a feature and bump up the magnification to take in even greater details. You might even try your hand at sketching what you see in the eyepiece. For some tips, check out how Galileo did it:

We often take the Moon for granted (or, as professional astronomers, we often think of it as a nuisance), so grab some binoculars or a small telescope and have fun exploring!