As life plays—there one is, on holiday, takes the telescope along, and of course the days are wonderfully sunny, dawn to dusk. And as soon as the sun, on the way to the west, slowly approaches the horizon, the clouds come up. So of course I am quite happy during a stopover at a camping site near Porthtowan (which, by the way, is highly recommended; affordable, clean and well-kept) to actually get an afternoon that is clear and cloud-free enough to at least take a shot at the moon.

The local guide who accompanied me during my holiday stands by and fascinatedly films me while I put together my optical monstrosity (thank you, Astrokat, for the pictures!). The moon shows a thin crescent with a lot of shadow border and is very well viewable despite bright sunshine. A family camping a few lots down is interested and uses the opportunity to take a few peeks of Earth’s satellite. I had originally hoped to go for the sun and check it for spots, but had rendered my solar filter unusable through careless transportation.

A short view at my smartphone shows that Saturn should be showing itself, but unfortunately it is right in the clouds that are coming up to greet the going of the day. So, no Saturn, no stars, and because of the worsening weather, this turns out to be the only time during my holiday that I use the telescope.

For scale: the person shown in the pictures is 6’3″ tall.