Al's Blog from the Bog

Jupiter and the Moon

For those who enjoy the study of celestial bodies it was quite a big night tonight. If the skies were clear above you, you would have been able to see a full moon and, just below and to the right, a very bright star. Except it wasn’t a star, it was Jupiter.

We’ve all been spoiled somewhat by the images sent back from various ‘space probes’ over the years, and I guess we all have a pretty good idea what Jupiter looks like.

The bright dot in the sky tonight was, well, a bright dot in the sky (at least, that’s all I could see with the primitive technology available to me). So not very exciting really.

Except that I did find it just a little bit exciting. The thought that I was looking at something so massive, so important to our welfare, so far away and yet, relatively, so close. I’m not very romantic or prone to emotion, but for a fleeting moment the ‘joybringer’ did something for me.

miscellaneous astronomy, Jupiter, moon, night sky, planets, stars

As if we needed to be told, the official weather data for August has been released by Met Eireann, revealing that August was another damp – or soaking – squib. Rainfall figures show that July and August have been, respectively, 1.6 and 2 times the average at the Belmullet weather station.

Here in Mayo we should be grateful, however, as some parts of Ireland have been far wetter, with nearly 4 times the seasonal average falling at Johnstown Castle in July, and 2.5 times the mean at Valencia in August.

Interestingly, the temperature and sunshine figures for Belmullet have been slightly above average, 6% & 7% respectively. The summary, then, is warmer and wetter, which happens to be just what the climate change model is predicting.

Life in Currane achill, Currane, Ireland, life, Mayo, weather