SUBLIME & RIDICULOUS

There was a lot of interest generated by the close (very close!) fly-by of Asteroid 2012 da14 on Friday night - apparently it came within 27,000 kms of earth (inside the orbit of Geostationary communication satellites) before speeding off again on its own journey around the sun.  We learned that it would be visible through binoculars, so we set off into the garden to scan the right bit of sky... to no avail.   It started clouding over just at the wrong time, blotting out the stars one by one until the whole north eastern sky was covered.  

Luckily there was lovely bright sky a couple of hours earlier, with this beautiful crescent moon going down in the west:

At the other end of the spectrum, we have had an invasion of spectacularly coloured Ornate Grasshoppers for the last few weeks.  They're playing hell with Jules' radishes, but as a fashion statement they're something else!