frogesque

A Peacock and a few Tortoishells were out on the candytuft today as well as some Whites flitting about. Normally the gardens would be a mass of movement but there's very few. Seem to be a good year for bumblebees though.

A couple of Ringlets were out and about yesterday but the prolonged overnight rainfall has turned the buddlieas into a soggy mush. Best hope will be for a later show of Red Admirals when the ivy comes into full blossom

Ours has just bloomed and right on cue this morning - a Red Admiral! A few Whites and some brown Ringlets also about.

Looked out just before midnight and it was shaping up for some very bright structures. We had a lot of low cloud to the North so regretably not worth trying to photograph. I think it's a conspiracy!

Just across the Forth at Kirkcaldy all we had was one small shower. We did have some intense rainfall today with hail, and thunder and lightning mixed in. Seems to be the pattern, almost cloudburst conditions one minute then bright sunshine and rainbows. Tipping down again as I write. At least it's not boring grey NE haar!

Super display from here last night but unfortunately I was working today so had to turn in just after midnight. Bit of cloud about here now and nothing showing as yet.

Lol! I always take my cue from Capella shining through the cloud

Definitely NC Shuggee! They are very bright for this early in the night with a lot of fine structure, spreading from NNW though N to NNE and up to 30 deg elevation. Could be developing the best display for a long time

Very early yet but there are the makings of a good display in the NNW - N sector. Up to about 20 deg elevation. More detail should show as the sky darkens.

Thanks for the confirmation Shuggee. A bit more contrast now it's getting darker but mostly lowish on the northern horizon and in bands. Not a great deal of fine structure.

Nice clear view to the northern horizon tonight and there is a hint of NLCs. They are weak but definately there. It's also still quite light and the display may well improve towards solar midnight (~1.00am) Unfortunatley the camera is packed up ready for going on holiday tomorrow. Hopefully someone will be able to get some pics.

Midsummer and the first of the froglets are emerging from the pond. The rest of the taddies are in various stages of development from quite small with no legs to to large ones with stumpy legs and shortening tails. A lot of activity from the goldfish as well with a lot of chasing and nuzzling so they will probably spawn soon. We desperately need some decent sunshine up here!

We had cloudless skies again last night but couldn't spot anything. Weird! Grey overcast easterly today so not looking good for tonight

Eclipse Map http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2011-Fig02.pdf

Had the best and clearest view of the northern horizon last night. Absoulutely cloudless - nothing! Not even a hint of NLCs. I gave up at midnight Quite a bit of low level cloud tonight and it's still early but will have another look before turning in.

Can we sue all the 'end of the world is nigh' merchants who keep getting it wrong?

But still no heavy lifter rocket finalised. Hmmm... sounds like a headline with no substance.

Clear skies help :lol: Very nice site here with good descriptions and pics of different types of NLCs http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Noctilucent%20Clouds.html As to their formation, there are theories but I have always found it best to simply look toward the northern horizon around true midnight (1.00 am +- 1 hour or so BST) Currently we have a clear view to the horizon here and it may well be worth a proper look before going to bed. I'll report back if there is any activity but it's still early in the year. Edit: I should add NLCs are very high polar region clouds so local weather conditions don't apply other than aforementioned clear skies.

Update: Most of the frogspawn has now turned into a seething mass of tiny black taddies this week and a few are begining to explore the further reachs of the pond. Dangerous place with all the sharks (aka goldfish) lurkng there :unsure:

Ours seem to be in for a marathon this year. They are still going strong. Even more encouraging, today I found two tiny frogs (last year's brood) under a stack of bricks so they had managed to hibernate through the winter OK. The goldfish are also getting much more lively as the pond warms up. Getting quite crowded out there :lol:

:lol:

Brilliant! Have a great trip :winky: . Seen a few from where I live and there's something about being under those dancing lights that make us and all our petinesses seem so small.

Hate FlashPlayer! Damned thing is always updating. Used to be you had to uninstall Flash AND Java, then reinstall the latest versions of both. Total pain just to get bombed with a load of useless adds. You would think after all the practice they've had they could issue at least one stable version

Beautiful clear sky and a superb gibbous moon shining tonight. Hope it's still clear on the 19th.

That's really sad SteveB. Hopefully things will recover in time but if we continue to get really hard winters you may have to consider deepening your pond. We now have loads of frogspawn and we had a little choir of 12 frogs poking their heads up into the sunshine this afternoon. Listening at the door they are still going under the very bright moon. B)