Author Archives: Carol

Watching the Terminator on a waning Gibbous Moon

Posted on by March 30, 2025
Inspired by lovely sketches by astronomer Mary McIntyre, I decided to see whether I could also see the movement of the Moon’s terminator over just a few hours.
I set up two waning gibbous moon missions, just over four hours apart on Slooh Australia One.
I had read that “careful observers” would maybe be able to see the 15.4 km per hour (9.6 mph) movement of the terminator (as at the Moon’s equator)
Apparently top class human athletes would be able to keep up with the terminator!
If you look carefully towards the terminator where I have labelled craters, you may also spot the differences as the Moon waned from 14:00 – 18:30utc.

Seven year as an astronomer member on Slooh

Posted on by March 30, 2025

I’m celebrating another anniversary on Slooh – 7 years as an Astronomer member.

When I joined Slooh, the account tiers were a bit different and I started off as a “Crew” member for a while. Everyday on Slooh is a huge blessing.
I still have the list of names of everyone who helped me with projects, when I was clearly in the deep end. All my efforts received tremendous support and I gained Slooh “gravity points” to fly- way up to “Hubble” level.
Oh wow, those middle of the night star parties ( just audio – no Zoom back then) with Paul Cox, Helen Avery and Dr Paige Godfrey
The Slooh Moon Phase Challenge:
Thanks to my grandchildren who posed for my shots, my Moon poster was awarded with a book from Slooh, which made its way all the way to South Africa! Who would not feel blessed?

Lunar Eclipse March 2025

Posted on by March 30, 2025
March 14, 2025.
With each lunar eclipse , the Moon dresses itself in a different robe. This time it went from pinkish, reddish, purplish – almost like a plum and what a delicacy for any worm!
I will remember this Lunar Eclipse Slooh Star Party as one of the best. The presenters were awesome, the work produced by students for the Lunar Legends competition was outstanding and some so moving, that I had to wipe a few tears.
Of course I had to do the Quest!
(In South Africa the March Fullmoon is known as the Harvest Moon)

Satellite Explorer Quest

Posted on by March 30, 2025
Satellite Explorer Quest
My first Earth Science using Sentenel-2.
My first port of call was home base. Obvious were urban features , mountains, areas with vegetation and the large body of water, which is called False Bay.
Next in line I visited the Kogel Bay Nature Reserve which is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom. Satellites are used to monitor the invasion of alien vegetation.
I meandered up the west coast of Africa to Walvis Bay (Namibia) where ocean meets the Namib desert. Typical of this region is the fog and low clouds that roll in due to the cold Benguela current and s/westerly winds. The tiny square patches in my image looked a bit large for normal urban buildings. I established that these were Saltworks. The ponds are artificially flooded and being rich in nutrients attract wetland birds such as flamingos.