Author: John

Noctilucent Clouds

We got off a train at Cradley Heath having been for a night out in Birmingham and this was how the sky looked from the railway bridge.

Noctilucent clouds after arriving at Cradley Heath railway station. 21st June 2019 about 23:00 hours

These clouds are rarely seen as they are mostly gathered around the poles of Earth, but this night they were seen as far south as Paris and Italy.
When we got home these were 2 pictures I took with my phone.

The noctilucent clouds slowly faded although they were still visible 3 hours later at 02:00 on 22nd June
This image was taken at 23:06 on the summer solstice 2019

The origin of noctilucent clouds is very much a matter of study. They are known to be over 80km (50 miles) above the surface of the Earth. They have been studied from the International Space Station. More information on Wikipedia.

Stunning photo below includes the Eiffel Tower:

View from Paris, courtesy of spaceweather.com and Kulik Bertrand

Noctilucent Clouds on the solstice

I was awake at about 02:30 and decided to look out and see how dark it really is on the shortest night of the year. I was very pleased to see these clouds which I first of all photographed and took a short video using my mobile phone.
This is the video from the phone:

I soon decided they were not good enough pictures, so I grabbed my Nikon D40X but it wouldn’t take a picture! That was because the SD card was not in the camera, so after rectifying that I took a few more images:

The clouds were due North and the sun was about 12 degrees below the horizon in Astronomical twilight.

To find out more about Noctilucent Clouds see Wikipedia.

Building a pergola for shade

When we have family around in the summer we struggle to find shade and we obviously don’t want to get burnt. Our garden faces towards the South West so we decided to install a pergola.
I’m not brilliant at carpentry but I’m perfectly capable of using a kit, and mixing up some concrete! So Jane looked around and found a good deal on Amazon, where we found a 3.6 x 2.0 metre pergola at a decent price. Buying just the timber would have been a bit cheaper at about £2 per metre in Wickes, but then there would be the design and cutting.
I also needed an electric screwdriver to easily complete the job and I got a Bosch from Amazon to help me out with that.
I didn’t follow the instructions to the letter for the pergola, as I decided to carefully measure out the ground, then put in the 2.4 metre support posts set in concrete in the ground. I then built the two long lengths (sides) onto the support posts, before putting the top rafters in position, all using 100mm screws. The 45 degree supports are fixed into place with 70mm screws.

This photo shows the finished article, which we painted with green Cuprinol prior to assembly. When installing a pergola for shade, remember that the shaded area does not fall directly below as the sun is never higher than about 60 degrees in the sky in England. So the shade will always be to the North and East sides of the structure during the afternoons when that shade is to be sought.