Tag Archives: Moon

Pictures, Thoughts

Birds and more from my windows

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During the first several weeks of the Coronavirus lockdown I wasn’t able to go out with my camera. As I live in a flat and therefore don’t have a garden I couldn’t even go out into the garden and take pictures there. Still, I did have my windows (including the door of my “fake balcony”) and I managed to take a few pictures from there. Here are some of the better ones:

  • Fluffy Blue Tit
    Fluffy Blue Tit
  • Great Tit above some fresh leaves
    Great Tit above some fresh leaves
  • Sparrow balancing on a vertical branch
    Sparrow balancing on a vertical branch
  • Sparrow among fresh shoots on a tree
    Sparrow among fresh shoots on a tree
  • Heron in (and behind) distant trees
    Heron in (and behind) distant trees
  • Insect on some tree buds (1)
    Insect on some tree buds (1)
  • Insect on some tree buds (2)
    Insect on some tree buds (2)
  • Beautiful Moon in the afternoon light
    Beautiful Moon in the afternoon light
Birds and more from my windows, click on the picture for the large version in a gallery

Nothing spectacular, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Sparrows are what I mainly see from my window. But also a distant Heron at the top of some trees around a nearby pond. Also some insects collecting pollen. And a beautiful clear Moon in the afternoon light.

Thoughts

A question about the night sky for astronomers (and others who know this)

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My knowledge about stars and the night sky is rather limited, so please stay with me even when I get the terms wrong:

Recently I’ve started to go for a quick walk before going to bed. Certainly at this time of year it’s dark by then. Recently we’ve had a few clear nights, allowing me to see the stars in the night sky. Which made me wonder about what we can see up there. For the purpose of this question I’m splitting the objects out there into two classes: Objects like the Sun, which is sending out light itself and objects like the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus and the others in our solar system which don’t send out light themselves but reflect light from the Sun.

Now, when I look up into the sky and see all these lights up there in the night sky, what share of these thousands of lights are objects like the Sun and what share are objects like the Earth etc just reflecting light from another Sun? Are they pretty much all objects like our Sun (i.e. far too hot to visit) or can we see objects just reflecting light outside of our solar system? I’m only talking about what we can see with the bare eyes, not using telescopes or other technology.

If you know about this kind of stuff, can you leave your answer in the comments? (Please note comment moderation is turned on, I will approve as soon as possible).