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7 May 202026 February 2022

Full Flower Super Moon

Thursday 7th May at 10:45 will be the third and final Supermoon of 2020 and it is known as the full flower moon. It is also known as the May full moon, full milk moon, full corn planting moon. Whatever name you give it is always present near the constellation of Libra.

To find the constellation of Libra use a star map or a night sky app and search for one of the stars in the constellation like Beta Librae.

The moonrise will be around **8.45pm BST later this evening.**

The moon will be at its fullest at 11.45am this morning, but it will not be visible in the UK at this time.

However, the moon will be at its most impressive before it sets this morning at around 5.42am and also after moonrise around 8.45pm later this evening. The supermoon will be 6% larger than normal and a whole 14% bigger than a micromoon (when the moon is farthest away from the earth).

Full moons are always opposite the sun, rising in the east as the sun sets, equally setting in the west at sunrise.

Just before sunrise for six mornings this week the moon’s orbital motion from west to east will carry it past three bright planets; Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (also Neptune, but you can’t see this with the naked eye). To help you tell the difference Jupiter will be bright white. To the left of Jupiter Saturn will be yellowish and Mars reddish.

You may even get the pleasure of seeing some of the Eta-Aquariids meteor shower which will be close to the Horizon. These meteors are appearing as the earth passes through the stream of debris leftover from Halley’s Comet (Halley’s comet is not visible and will not be until 2061). The shower runs from 19th April to 26th May and has it’s peak on the 6th May.

Looking at a full moon with the naked eye, binoculars or telescope can damage your eye and should be done with moon filters or similar.

Enjoy

Tom

18 December 201927 February 2022

Using trees to navigate

Trees

Trees are really good navigational tools, we will look at a few ways you can use trees to aid your navigation.

Tree Roots

When a tree grows it uses its roots not only to absorb minerals and water from the ground but to act as an anchor keeping the tree itself as upright as possible. When external factors play against the tree, the tree responds by changing its structure to cope. These external factors include wind, the sun, and even the angle of the slope the tree is growing on. If you look at photo 1 which is an Aspen you’ll notice that it has an extra long root that is protruding from the ground. This is a response to the wind pushing the tree. As the wind pushes against the tree it responds by creating larger and thicker roots to counteract the force. As the majority of the wind we get in England is from the south west (prevailing wind) the majority of supportive guy roots point towards a south westerly direction. So photo 1 was taken from the southern side of the tree facing north. This is not a hard and fast way of navigating as other factors can create this root structure such as soil type and erosion. Best tip is to take a sample of 4 or 5 trees for comparison.

Tree leaves.

Tree leaves can aid navigation in many ways, one of the nicest observations, one that many people say ‘oh i never noticed’ is the order leaves fall off a tree. As the autumn arrives and the leaves start to fall. The tree will shed the leaves that are least useful first, the ones on the shady side of the tree. As we know from looking at the sun earlier, the sun is predominantly in the southern skies so the tree will start to shed it’s northern, shady leaves first, maximising the photosynthesising properties of the remaining leaves (see photo 2 as an example).

Sun and shade leaves.

Following the same theme on leaves trees also have shade leaves and sun leaves. Shade leaves are darker and smaller than sun leaves which are larger and lighter in colour.

Lichen

See photo 3 – in this photo is a giant Cedar tree. If you look closely you will notice that it has a line down the middle with two shades of brown, one either side. The left hand side is actually lichen. It likes the sun, it prefers the warm sunny side of the tree so will be found growing on the southern sides of the tree click here for more on sunrise and sunset. This photo was taken from the eastern side of the tree facing west. There are other types of lichens that will be brighter if they are in the sun or prefer either shaded or sunny locations, however it’s rather an unreliable way to navigate so i’ll leave it out for the time being.

More to follow….

18 December 201927 February 2022

Navigate with the sun & stars

What’s the point? (compass pun intended).

You own a compass, GPS, sat nav etc. what’s the point in learning to navigate using other methods? When we have so much technology at our disposal why bother learning extra skills?

The answer is simple… to connect with nature.

It’s not just using natures tools to determine what direction you are heading, it’s about understanding what you are looking at on a deeper level. Once you dive into the depths of nature it opens up a whole new way of looking at everything.

The Sun

Sunrise and sunset

Rises in the east sets in the west. Well, sort of, mostly all of the time. The sun only rises due east and sets due west twice a year. That is on the spring and autumn equinoxes. An equinox is the time of year when day and night are the same duration. Each day the rising and setting point changes a little.

On summer solstice, when the day is the longest (June 20th 2020) the sun will rise at 49 degrees and will set at 311 degrees. At winter solstice, when the day is its shortest (December 21st 2020) the sun will rise at 128 degrees and set at 232 degrees. So throughout the year that is a difference in rise of 79 degrees and set of 104 degrees respectively.

Southern facing

As we are in the northern hemisphere the sun will always be in the southern half of the sky. And will be due south in the middle of the astronomical day (not midday 12:00). Looking at the compass in the picture you can see that the margin for error in winter is a lot less than in the summer in winter the sun only moves 104 degrees across the sky, in comparison to the summer where it can move 262 degrees, so adjust accordingly.

Using your watch to find south

Not totally natural but a neat trick so ill include it. If you point your hour hand of your watch at the sun, then bisect the difference between the hour hand and the 12 o’clock position and it will point you roughly south.

Stars

The best way to find north in the night sky is to find the location of the north star, Polaris.
You will first need to familiarise yourself with the constellation of Ursa Major or as i know it, the Plough, it is also known as the great bear and the big dipper. Once you have found this constellation you need to find it’s two stars named Dubhe and Merak (Stars 1 and 2 in the diagram). These stars are going to be used as navigational pointers to find Polaris. Measure the distance between star 2 and star 1 and then follow an imaginary line 5 times that distance from star 1. That will take you directly to the north star which, as you quite rightly assumed, gives the location of north.