February 26, 2013

My last day of my moon oberservation and I couldn't even see the moon! Goodness, the skies were completely full of clouds, and it was rainy. As I was searching for the moon, I saw two bright spots in the night sky around 7:45 p.m. as you can see from my picture. If I would be able to see the moon, it would be around 98% visible in its waning gibbous phase. I wonder if either of these two bright spots was the moon shining through the clouds?

My last night of the moon observations ... no moon in the cloudy sky!

February 25, 2013

Today is the day the moon is full 100% visible ... except when it is cloudy outside! Here is the picture of the cloudy afternoon around 12:20 p.m. Tonight at 7:40 p.m. it was raining, dark, and no stars or moon were seen. Only cloudy, rainy skies were observed. So the night I was waiting for ... the full moon ... I will trust that the moon was full and visible 100% to folks without cloudy, rainy skies.

My drawing of the full moon that I did not see tonight!

February 24, 2013

Today was such a beautiful day! It was sunny and felt like an early spring day! I found the moon tonight in the cloudy sky, and the moon was hidden behind a layer of clouds. It was shining through as a bright glow, but you could not see the actual moon. It is almost a full moon and should be about 98% visible if it were not covered by the clouds. It is still in waxing gibbous phase, and tomorrow we will have a full moon! Here is what I captured around 11:15 p.m.

February 23, 2013

Once again I did not see the moon today around 12:30 p.m. or tonight around 7:50 p.m.  I captured a picture of the night sky on my deck and was able to see a few starts, but did not locate the moon. It would be bright and around 95% visible in its waxing gibbous phase. In a couple of days it will be a full moon. Here is a picture I drew as well as the picture I captured of tonight's night sky.  

February 22, 2013

When we left for school around 7:00 a.m. the ground was wet, and it was cool and cloudy outside. It ended up being a rainy day with no moon sightings during the day or night when I searched for the moon around 9:15 p.m. I was able to capture a picture but it was a black 4x6 frame, so I drew what the moon would look like according to calendar-365.com.  It would be around 85% visible in its waxing gibbous phase.

February 21, 2013

Today was overcast, cloudy and cooler than I had anticipated! The weather was supposed to be in the mid 50s I thought, but when I was outside, it felt cooler due to the light wind all around. I did not spot the moon during the day around 12:20 p.m. or around 3:40 p.m. nor did I see it after class around 7:50 p.m. I captured this picture around 3:40 p.m. to show the clouds all around. If I had seen the moon, it should be around 80% visible in its waxing gibbous phase.

February 20, 2013

Tonight around 6:35 p.m. I spotted the moon after class ... the sky was full of clouds and there was truly a hole in the clouds where I watched to moon come in and out of sight as clouds drifted by. The hole in the clouds did not appear to move as if they were the frame of the moon! As I was taking pictures, I was able to capture a couple with the moon in sight. It was brightly shining and looked about 75% visible in its waxing gibbous phase.

You can barely see the moon behind some drifting clouds!

My favorite picture of the bright moon through the hole in the clouds!

You can barely see the moon here

You can see how bright the moon is shining as it peeps through the hole in the clouds!

February 19, 2013

Wow what an incredible sight to see the moon in the clear blue afternoon sky. It was around 4:00 p.m. when I spotted the moon in the crystal clear sky, and it was truly amazing to see! I felt it was the clearest view I had ever had of the moon and I could see over half of the circle in the sky. It is in the waxing gibbous phase, and according to calendar-365.com, I should be able to see around 62% of the moon. I think this picture is the best one thus far of my 30 day tracking!

February 18, 2013

Well today was a sunny day, but rather cool. Tonight it is cloudy, and I could not see the moon as I searched for it around 10:00 p.m. It is supposed to rain around 1:00 a.m., thus the clouds are rolling in. It is breezy outside, but I was still unable to see the moon as there were too many clouds. According to calendar-365.com,  the moon is 62% visible and is in the waxing gibbous phase. Here is what I saw ...

A view of the night sky through the trees

February 17, 2013

Today the moon is in its first quarter and is half visible. My picture shows the moon looking quite round and full, but that is not the case. The moon appears half full, bright, and clear to the eye. I also noticed online that the moon will be its closest to Jupiter between tonight and tomorrow 2/18/13 so if I were to see the moon and look less than a thumb width to the left of the moon, Jupiter would be visible. So cool! It was another pretty day and pretty night with a great moon sighting and picture!

February 16, 2013

Wow when I saw the moon tonight, it looked like I could see almost half of the moon! It was super bright in the night sky and so beautiful! When I took the pictures, the moon appeared blurry and fuller than real life! It was only about a third visible when I looked at the moon, and it is still a waxing crescent phase.

February 15, 2013

TGIF! I went home sick and only took a quick picture during the day. It was a bright sunny day with pretty puffy clouds in the sky. I did not capture a picture of the moon in its waxing crescent phase and did not see it when I took this picture. The weather felt like it was an early spring day in the lows 60s. Today the moon should be about 25% visible according to calendar-365.com.

February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day! The moon was a pretty sight tonight as I left class. The skies looked clear, and the moon shown bright in the sky. It was about 16% visible per calendar-365.com, but to my eye, it looked a much more visible than that. It looked more like I could see one fourth of the moon as it is in its waxing crescent phase, though my pictures are unclear. It was a cold night but one of happiness when I saw the moon!

February 13, 2013

Oh my goodness, today is supposed to be an unlucky day ... but it was a very lucky one for me because  I SAW THE MOON!!! It was definitely a cloudy night, but I was in Cahaba Heights at the Summit when I first saw the moon. It quickly disappeared behind the clouds, then reappeared shortly. It was difficult to get a clear picture, but here is what I captured.

Moon sighting at the Summit

Moon hiding from me at the Summit

Then I saw the moon again a little later and tried to get some better pictures.

The moon again!!

Moon trying to hide

I can still see the moon ... barely!

Look-ee there!

Best picture yet!

As I made a circle around Birmingham, I was passing through Irondale and the moon was a gorgeous red tint that was the bottom sliver showing. I saw it for a few seconds, but it disappeared as I was driving, and I did not get a picture!

February 12, 2013

Today was a rainy, cold, overcast day. The moon is in the waxing crescent phase and is supposedly 7% visible and would be a thin sliver of the right side of the moon, according to pictures from calendar-365.com. I did not see the moon tonight, but the sky had a red hint to it when I was searching for any moon sighting! 

February 11, 2013

Today was another overcast, gray, rainy day that was basically cold and dreary. The clouds were out and no moon was in site. It is the day after the new moon, which means that the the moon is now a waxing crescent, according to calendar-365.com. Thus the moon is only 1% or so visible ... so even if the skies were clear, I do not believe that I would be able to see the moon. Tonight I saw nothing visible in the night sky except for a good deal of fog!

Dark, overcast night sky

Foggy night driving

Fog in the sky

February 10, 2013

Today was a day of thunderstorms, thus skies were completely cloudy, overcast, and dreary. Today is the new moon, thus the moon is not visible in the sky even if the skies were clear. I suppose that is a good thing that there is not a chance of a moon sighting, so I will not get my hopes up. It will be couple of days before the moon could be visible. Today the high is 63 degrees with a low of 57 degrees with strong thunderstorms and flash flooding. A lovely day to stay inside!

February 9, 2013

Today was another beautiful, sunny day, and the night skies were partly cloudy to me. I was hoping to see a glimpse of the moon until I realized the moon would only be 2% visible, according to calendar-365.com. Tomorrow is a new moon, so I would not be able to see if anyway. So another day goes by without a moon sighting by me! I snapped this picture as the sun was setting, and the clouds were coming in for the rain tomorrow.

February 8, 2013

Today began cloudy but by midday it was pretty day with sunny, blue skies! It felt like a early spring day when I was outside watching the class play on the playground! I had to take a picture of the pretty day since we had not had many! 

Tonight the skies appeared clear and starts were out, but no moon in sight. One picture I took captured one star but not the others that were visible to the eye. According to calendar-365.com, the moon would only be 7% visible in this waning crescent stage. 

February 7, 2013

Today was a misty and drizzly day. The night sky appeard to have a high layer of clouds tonight as I could not see the moon nor any stars. The moon continues to be a waning crescent and would be about 14% visible if I could see it. The air felt cooler to me today than the past couple of days but there was not a change in the highs and lows as the remain around highs of 60 degrees and lows of 41-43 degrees. This picture turned out just black but I tried to get the tops of a couple of trees in the picture for better perspective.

February 6, 2013

Happy foggy morning! Since I could not see the moon in the morning, I waited until I was driving home around 8:00 p.m. but had no luck. The moon is still a waning crescent and would be about 24% visible. I saw a dark night sky without stars or clouds that I could see.

February 5, 2013

Today was a very fcloudy day and tonight was completely foggy. I know this may be a surprise, but I saw no moon. I did take a picture of the thick fog as I drove home. The moon phase is a waning crescent according to calendar-365.com. It was supposed to be partly cloudy today with showers ... but as I drove home around 8:00 p.m. I could not believe how thick the fog was!

February 4, 2013

I never knew it was so difficult to locate a glimpse of the moon! Today the moon phase is the last quarter and I should be able to see about 45% of the moon. However, today is cloudy with a high of 52 degrees and I see no moon ... just a sky full of clouds.

February 3, 2013

Today I thought I would be able to see the moon because it was mostly sunny and clear during the day and the stars were visible tonight. However, when I looked outside around 8:15 p.m. I only saw stars ... no moon. Today the moon phase is supposed to be the last quarter which means I would be able to see half of the moon. Here is a picture of my clear night sky.

Clear night sky ... turned out to be a black picture!

February 2, 2013

Showers today ... and yet again I saw no moon. According to Calendar-365.com the moon phase is called waning gibbous. Thus, if I could see the moon, it would be 67% visible. Instead it is cold, overcast, and cloudy out today and dark skies with a few stars visible tonight.

Cloudy, cloudy, cloudy!

See one star in my picture!

February 1, 2013

Today was a cold day with overcast skies around 11:00 a.m. I saw a sky full of gray clouds, but no moon. A friend saw the moon earlier this morning around 8:00 a.m., but I missed it. There is a 30% chance of rain today but it looks like it will be overcast all day. The moon phase is called a waning gibbous.

January 31, 2013

Once again I saw no moon today or tonight on this last day of January. Per the moon calendar the moon is 85% visible if one is able to view it in the sky. Our skies were clear tonight, but I saw no moon around 8:00 p.m.

January 30, 2013

Around 4:00 p.m. I was once again traveling in my car and was unable to see the moon. Today began with a delayed start for school due to possible tornadic weather conditions. It was a rainy day with little hopes of seeing the moon. It was supposed to be the high of 70 degrees and the temperatures were dropping to the upper 30s at night after the storms brought in the cold front. Around 8:00 p.m. I saw no moon but several stars were visible in the night sky though you cannot see them in my picture.