Skywatch Friday: The fog lifts!

This is the view out of my window when I got into work this morning..

only to clear into the most beautiful sunny day!

For more photos from around the world check out http://skyley.blogspot.com

Third time lucky..

By jove, we have finally managed to grow a pumpkin! It has managed to survive 5 months of slug attacks - I'm very impressed with it! This is a major accomplishment, I've been trying to get one to grow for the last three years!! I think the key was actually planting it in April this time, instead of September! Now, what to do with it.. I was envisioning a pumpkin pie, or maybe a halloween lantern, but it is a bit on the small side! For now, it is decorating our doorstep!

Herding kittens

On Saturday, we decided to let the kittens have their first proper play in the garden. We've given them the odd 5 minutes out there in the last couple of weeks, since they had their jabs - but now they've got to the point where they storm the front door as soon as you open it, and all efforts to keep them inside are now totally in vain! They just love it out there! This new game is going to make trying to go to work a lot more interesting. I think we're going to have to raise our game so we don't end up kitten herding every morning! Hmm.. a cat flap is definitely looking more appealing by the day.

Anyway, here are some photos of their first proper kitten adventure..

Guess which one's the naughty one..

Jupiter

We got back from the cinema the other night, and I saw what I thought was a sky lantern at first - but then, it looked too high in the sky, and too large. I then had a moment of panic when I thought it might be that satellite we were expecting to crash down! Eek! On closer inspection though, it didn't seem to be moving, so we decided it was probably ok after all! At this point I remembered what the astronomer at the Greenwich observatory had told us last week - Jupiter has returned to the night sky! Sure enough, the iPhone stargazing app confirmed it. It is amazingly bright, but then again, it is a huge planet. We got out the binoculars, and managed to see it a bit closer, we even got a glimpse of all the colours!

Apparently Jupiter and the Earth will be as close as they get to each other all year on 29th October. It's definitely worth a look!

In the absence of a photo (maybe I'll take one when it gets dark..), take a look at the Best Astronomy Photos of 2011 from National Geographic! There are some lovely ones. It makes me want to get a nice telescope! Or maybe I need an observatory..