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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 5/16/2008

Tonight's event will be somewhat limited by a nearly full Moon setting at 4:27am Saturday morning.  Planet-wise, we'll have a last chance to catch fleeting Mercury in the west before it gets lost in the glare of the Sun.  We'll also see beautiful planet Saturn, colorful double stars, open clusters made up of hundreds of stars, globular clusters comprised of hundreds of thousands of stars.  Unfortunately, the planetary nebula formed by dying stars, diffuse nebula and emission nebula where stars are being born, and galaxies will be rendered invisible to us by the brightness of the full Moon.  Saturn is beautiful beyond words!  If you've never seen Saturn through a telescope, you owe it to yourself to do so.  It's said that one picture is worth a thousand words, but no picture can match the majesty of the real thing!

for a list of DeepSky Objects that will be available to us this session.

We hope to see you here for a night under the stars - now in our fourteenth year!

For observing conditions at our site, please click on the link below: 
ClearSkyClock for Fishcreek Site  (the darker blue the squares are, the better)

Quick links:
    Inner Solar System     Outer Solar System    General Information about our events

Moon data   Rises: 5: 39pm Transits: 11: 07pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 4: 27am May 17 Constellation:   Virgo Phase:   91.97% illuminated (waxing gibbous) Distance:   0.00266578 AU = 398,795 km = 247,800 miles = 1.33 light-seconds Magnitude:   -11.8 Apparent size:   29.95 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   147.00 degrees (evening sky) Age:   11.56 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   Full Moon on Monday May 19, 2008 at 11:11pm Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT At 9:49:44pm the Moon will be 32.2º above the south-southeast horizon and will look like this... (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 12: 35am May 17 Transits: 5: 20am May 17 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 10: 05am May 17 Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.35% illuminated Distance:   4.56039988 AU = 682,226,112 km = 423,915,658 miles = 37.99 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.5 Apparent size:   43.23 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   124.27 degrees (morning sky) At 9:49:44pm Jupiter will be 31º below the east horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot:  Saturday May 17, 2008 at 5:14am GRS longitude: 122.4º Jupiter moons activity:      None tonight.  Positions of the moons will change very little during the course of the night.      Jupiter and its four visible moons will look like this at 4:00am Saturday. (back to 'Quick Links')

Inner Solar System - the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Earth
(Created using Software Bisque's TheSky software)

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Outer Solar System - the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
(Created using Software Bisque's TheSky software)

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General Information you should know about our events - Q&A of Where, When and What


Very sincerely yours,
Dave Jessie
"Time spent observing the heavens is not deducted from your life span"

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