Not quite the Sea of Tranquility...

... but Tranquility on the sea in the marina. It reminded us of the Apollo 11 landings. The Mare Tranquilitatis was named in 1651 by two Jesuit priests who were early physicists. It escaped being a called the Mare Belgicum. It was an assumption by early astronomers that the dark flat areas on the surface of the Moon must be bodies of water like they would be on Earth but they are actually vast basaltic lava flows.

Looking for the Winter Hexagon

I am trying to get reacquainted with the late autumn sky after the weeks of cloud cover. It took me a while to tell the difference between Auriga and Gemini. So it is Auriga top left. Looking into it brought up another asterism to look for - the Winter Hexagon. I could see the bit from Capella down to Aldebaran but Orion had not yet risen so Rigel was behind the garage. I've now got something to look forward to this winter,

Nuffield Physics

This old tractor in the Penrith Christmas Lights parade was a Nuffield ie one from the works of Lord Nuffield, William Morris. It reminded me of the money he put into Physics education. The Nuffield A Level Physics course was so innovative and was more about developing thinking than learning facts. A lot of the ideas live on here

Kirkwall Power Station

 

I am always interested in how islands are powered. It turns out that this power station is now a back up. It is worth 16MW total. It is oil fired. 

Clouds form over islands

 

It was noticeable approaching Orkney, that in an otherwise cloudless sky, convection cumulus was forming over the islands. My guess is the differential heating of land and sea by the sun. Earth has a lower albedo and a lower specific heat capacity so should get warmer. The vapour later maritime air would get forced up by convection over the islands as a result and condense to form cumulus.

Up to 175kW

 

I've been interested in how quickly you can charge an electric car. This station was claiming up to 175kW. I looked up electric car battery capacities. This source suggests between 60 and 120kWh. Assuming all could be charged at the full rate, and that probably is a big assumption, then it would be between 20 and 40 minutes here.

Jupiter again

Jupiter is back in my evening skies. Two years ago it was prominent in September. Last year it was October. Each year it slips by a month. It has taken the Earth a year and a month to catch up with Jupiter again. Obviously in the mean time, Jupiter has also been moving along its orbit. One month forward every year. There are 12 months in an Earth-year so after 12 years, Jupiter would be back to the same place. The orbit of Jupiter round the Sun must be roughly 12 Earth-years.