Wednesday, March 25, 2026

A cold Spring night with the waxing Moon (and a reminder the Earth keeps moving)

Felton Davis, the having-trouble-staying-retired founder of the Second Avenue Star Watchers, shared these photos and dispatch from last evening on Second Avenue and Third Street: 
Six-day-old waxing Moon between Auriga and Taurus, with Jupiter in the constellation Gemini about 12 degrees over. It took three people to help spot the Moon, while the old man sat in a chair and twisted the knobs on the aging Orion reflector. Why is it so hard to get a good cellphone photo through the lens? Because all the time you're trying, the Earth is rotating, and that causes the Moon to move out of view. (It seems that very few people actually have a sense that our planet is rotating.) A beautiful, clear night, but my fingers were freezing up, so I had to pack it in.

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