Astronomy in the south of France: the moon with Venus
April 4th, 2007 | 
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I’ve always had a bit of an interest in astronomy but I’m a bit of a warm weather astronomer hence my interest in solar eclipses which are the one astronomical event which is pretty much guaranteed to occur when the temperature is well above freezing.
However, one advantage of being in the south of France now is that the nights are generally warmer and we’re also outside the city lights so have a much clearer sky. In fact, the sky is so much clearer that the moonlight is noticeably brighter in comparison and when there’s a full moon, you could almost read with the light outside.
Anyway, that’s to introduce an occasional series that I hope to do on the sights that we see in the night sky over here which, hopefully, will be illustrated with some images though I’m still trying to work out how to take night sky photos with the digital camera so bear with me.
To begin with, here’s a nice photo of the crescent moon with the planet Venus taken in February.
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I know very little about Astronomy, couldn’t tell you the name of any stars or constellations, but I do love looking at them. I once saw a meteor shower that just took my breath away. I had no idea what to expect and was very surprised to see actual balls of flames coming down. It seemed so close, but in reality it wasn’t. It’s a sight that I will never forget and wish I could see it again. The last time such a shower came to my area, it was very cloudy, so I couldn’t see a thing. Such a disappointment. The next time I will be more prepared and bring my camera.
What you should do is to mail Terry at TerryMosel@aol.com and ask him to put you on his mailing list or subscribe to the blog version. It’s mainly stuff related to astronomy in Ireland but quite a lot of it is generally applicable to astronomical events in the northern hemisphere and he usually has links to all kinds of interesting websites.
He always says something about upcoming meteor showers and also when it’s worthwhile looking for the northern lights (they’re sort-of predictable a few days in advance).
Try out the camera in advance by taking photos of the moon. I found that it was quite difficult to get my camera to take that photo properly.