The star in the centre of this picture caught our eye this morning. At nine, with the sun up and plenty of light in the southeastern sky, it seemed remarkably bright. However, once the picture was up on the computer screen, something else was very noticeable....
....bright lights on either side of it which, in a dark night sky, might have been moons. This may be an optical effect of the camera, but all three pictures showed the same.
According to the
Space.com website, the morning and evening stars, Mercury and Venus, are visible in the evening sky, and the only planet in the southeast around dawn is Saturn. Could this be a very bright Saturn?
Kilchoan Early Bird apologised for the quality of these pictures but since, by the time they were taken, the southeasterly wind had picked up and was bringing in rain, they're remarkably good and give a vivid idea of conditions off Ardnamurchan Point light this morning.
This was one of six trawlers which passed down the Sound of Mull this morning -
Havilah,
Westward Isle,
Resilient,
Camarose,
Colmcille and
Ardent. There's been an unusual amount of trawler activity in the last few days, perhaps ships moving after having been pinned down by the recent heavy weather.
Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird for photos.
The bright star could be an airliner travelling to your left with the sun reflecting off the flat belly surface between the wings. Zoom in and you can see what may be the darker wings 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock and the tail to the right. The space station was not visible at that time.
ReplyDeleteHi Derryck - the star wasn't there this morning - yes, we had enough clear sky to be able to see - so I think you're probably right. The thing that puzzles me is that it wasn't moving. Jon
ReplyDeleteIt definitely wasn't moving, I saw it over the North York Moors at the end of last week. Thought I was seeing double and needed replacement contact lenses! Would love to know what it is.
ReplyDelete