A hint of winter skies

Having woken up at about 05:20 BST this morning I wandered outside with my first coffee of the day to see what the sky looked like. Although I was expecting Mars and the Moon to be riding pretty high up what I didn't expect to see — but should have expected had I been a little more awake — was to see the likes of Orion, Taurus and Gemini riding pretty high too. I could even see Leo poking up out of the gathering light on the eastern horizon.

It felt odd to be just a handful of days into Autnum but looking at the sort of skies I associate with the dead of Winter.

I did consider getting dressed and dragging the 'scope out but I was still far too sleepy and the sky was slowly getting brighter — by the time I'd have been ready and by the time the 'scope would have cooled down to be good enough to have a proper look at Mars the Sun would almost have been up.

I popped outside again at about 06:30 BST and, while the sky was now very light (it was about 20 minutes until sunrise), I could still easily see Mars, Betelgeuse and Sirius.

File Under: Winter Skies, Mars, Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Moon, Betelgeuse, Sirius.