From Meteors to Planets and even Moon Rock on our Marella Celebration cruise

We had a wonderful time meeting everyone on our Marella Celebration cruise from Malaga to the Caribbean. What an amazing treat when David completed his talk about our Moon for one of the audience to come up and introduce herself - the only person in the world with the name Moon Rock!

Moon Rock with David after the talk in the Broadway Show Lounge

Moon Rock’s Dad was so excited by the Apollo 11 Moon landing that when his daughter was born shortly after - there was only one name on his mind - and what a very special name - unique in the whole world - Moon Rock. What an honour to meet such a lovely person. I’d love to meet her sister who is the only person in the world named Luna Surface. What a great Dad!

We all met on the Sun/Star Deck for the Leonid meteor shower peak. The Moon was due to rise before midnight so we were up on deck a little earlier than normal. We saw a bright meteor to our north almost immediately. The second very bright meteor brought cries of delight from everyone - and for quite a few people these were the first ‘shooting stars’ that they had ever seen. Excellent!

As we sailed out of the harbour at St John’s Antigua, Jupiter and Saturn were shining the brightest and clearest I had ever seen with the naked eye.

Jupiter below and Saturn above shining brightly above St John’s, Antigua

I went round the deck pointing out the two planets to everyone at our sailaway. How do you know they are the planets? How do you know where they are? WHAT - Jupiter and Saturn? Just a few of the comments as people grabbed their phones, cameras and tablets to get a photo. Cruise Director Katy (who we sailed to Australia aboard Astor a couple of years ago) announced it to the whole cruise ship - and hundreds came out to look. It was a terrific sight to see. The best comment I received was from a 79 year old mum. Daughter (the technology expert in the family) did not manage to get a clear image. Mum showed me the picture that she had taken with her tablet - a clear view of Jupiter and Saturn. As I zoomed in, the planets showed their disc shape. Mum even managed to get one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons in the view. Well done Mum!

Thank you to Katy and her team for a lovely cruise across the Atlantic to the Caribbean sunshine - (our photo with Katy as we disembark)