New Year’s Day Moon

According to the Lunar Glow-in-the-dark calendar for 2018, that I got for a Christmas present, January 2018 brings us a month of extreme lunar phenomena. The Full Moon on New Year’s Day is the largest of the year, with the moon coming to it closest approach to Earth all year, when its distance will be 356,565 kilometres (221,559 miles) at perigee.
New Years Day Moon
The first picture shows the moon shining through cloud as viewed from St Helen’s Wharf.
New Years Day Moon
In the second picture taken from St Helen’s Churchyard, the moon is hidden by the central aisle of St Helen’s Church.
New Years Day Moon
As the skies cleared, the moon was clearly visible from Abingdon – as seen here above the Christmas Candles round the Market Place.
New Years Day Moon
I was amazed by the detail I could see using a compact camera with optical zoom. The image was even clearer than this in the camera screen as the camera rested on one of the Market Place bollards.

This evening, of the 2nd January, as the moon becomes ‘waning gibbous’ the skies are cloudy and rain is falling.

The moon will be the farthest from the earth all year on 15th January. There will be another full moon on 31st January (the first blue moon since July 2015). That full moon will be in total eclipse for 1 hour 16 minutes across Asia, Australia, and western North America.

13 thoughts on “New Year’s Day Moon

  1. Deedee

    Perhaps the light of the silvery moon can be used to highlight why we are being so poorly served?
    The owners of Fairacres have just announced their much heralded deal with M & S to build and open a new store there and then obtained planning permission to do so was little more than a trick to gain planning permission to build an Aldi instead!
    And if that’s not a case of hoodwinking planners and council alike then have a look at Cranbourne Homes planning application to renage on their payment obligations for the purchase of the old Gaol almost a decade ago!

    Reply
  2. Janet

    I do not mind having an Aldi in Abingdon. We need competition in the food market. People in Abingdon on low pay have to shop around. It is not everyone who can shop in Waitrose. I have found that in Abingdon there is not much sympathy from the well heeled for those who have a job to manage and sometimes have to choose between heating or food.

    Reply
  3. Steve E

    It’s surprising that Cranbourne can’t rent out a restaurant in a prime location on the Thames in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. It makes me wonder whether the price they are asking is simply too high, or perhaps they have other plans for the space.

    Reply
  4. ppjs

    Aldi would be a good option, but it ought to require a different planning application.

    The Cranbourne experience ought to have taught elected representatives and paid officials that the Council needs to keep a very firm hand on development and planning contracts with proper penalty clauses for failure to comply.

    Reply
  5. Unknownelement

    Hahaha… Firm hand, no elected representatives in this country have a firm hand.. I’ve seen playdoh that’s more firm.

    Reply
  6. Deedee

    Janet I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound snobby I merely wanted to suggest they got planning approval based on the promise of M& S moving in, not Aldi and dare I suggest it was a deliberate attempt to mislead us?
    As for CH, I’d only just moved here when the OG was the topic of conversation, the deal done in secret with the rubbish excuse of commercial confidentiality being used to fog what was really going on? Then CH the renegotiated they price and terms and now almost a decade on they’re still wriggling out of their commitments to us!
    I’ve just been reading their application, why are their company listed as being representative who are not on the original deal? Who are Silverdog for instance? they list their address as Jersey, ?
    They list one reason for not paying is because they can’t let the restaurants, are they serious? Look at the amount of eateries who have opened and made a go of it? Ask, Pizza Ex, Weatherspoon, wildWood, they could have easily let the space if they had the mind too
    This is not on and council need to call in the debt,

    Reply
  7. Unknownelement

    Well with wildwood closing after such a short tenure when in other localities it’s thriving… Surely that shows why CH haven’t been able to fill the slot.

    Oh well, soon I’ll be shot of the town completely, only having to pass through on my way to Oxford and that’ll be a fleeting moment of skirting it on the a34, and hopefully soon via our nice new bridge from the south to culham across the river. Shame really, Abingdon could have been so much more

    Viva lé Didcot

    Reply
  8. John Evans

    Blue moon?! My dictionary defines once in a blue moon as ‘rarely, hardly ever’. Two full moons in a calendar month does not meet this definition! The real blue moon is in fact due to smoke particles in the high atmosphere, usually I understand from forest fire smoke drifting over the country. I saw one as a young lad around 1950.

    Reply

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