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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 7/25/2008

Tonight's event will feature a Third Quarter Moon rising after midnight.  Until then, we'll be able to see the beautiful planets Saturn and Jupiter, colorful double stars, open clusters made up of hundreds of stars, globular clusters comprised of hundreds of thousands of stars, planetary nebula formed by dying stars, diffuse nebula and emission nebula where stars are being born, and galaxies.  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!  Jupiter, the King of the planets, is also a beautiful sight and now rises early enough for everyone to see.  This is an ideal time to view Jupiter.  It reached opposition on July 9th and is still nearly as close to us as it gets.  With a high-power view through the telescopes, details in the cloud bands is possible, and the four Galilean moons actually appear as disks instead of just point light sources.  Saturn won't be visible to us much longer...the Earth orbiting around the Sun on a more inside track is causing it to set earlier each night.  See the Outer Solar System to see why this is so.

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: 12: 13am July 26 Transits: 7: 43am July 26 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 3: 27am July 26 Constellation:   Aries Phase:   46.51% illuminated (waning crescent) Distance:   0.00264498 AU = 395,683 km = 245,866 miles = 1.32 light-seconds Magnitude:   -10.0 Apparent size:   31.94 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   185.86 degrees (morning sky) Age:   22.99 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   New Moon on Friday Aug 1, 2008 at 6:13am Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 7/25/2008 at 9:59:48pm the Moon will be 20.7º below the north-northeast horizon but will look like this when it clears the trees to the east of the observing field... (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 7: 35pm Transits: 0: 15am July 26 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 4: 55am July 26 Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.91% illuminated Distance:   4.19664318 AU = 627,808,884 km = 390,102,360 miles = 34.96 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.7 Apparent size:   46.98 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   161.91 degrees (evening sky) On 7/25/2008 at 9:59:48pm Jupiter will be 18.7º above the southeast horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: Saturday July 26, 2008 at 2:52am GRS longitude: 124.2º Jupiter moons activity:       None tonight Jupiter and its four visible moons will look like this at 9:58:39pm tonight... (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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