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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 8/01/2008

The Moon is nowhere to be seen tonight - a tiny crescent Moon sets at 9:02pm this evening and rises after the Sun tomorrow.  No Moon means EVERYTHING will be available to us - 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!  Tonight will probably be the very last chance to see Saturn until next year since it will soon be lost in the glare of the Sun due to the Earth's rotation around the Sun.  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.

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: 6: 22am Transits: 1: 49pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 9: 02pm Constellation:   Cancer Phase:   0.53% illuminated (waxing crescent) Distance:   0.00248292 AU = 371,439 km = 230,801 miles = 1.24 light-seconds Magnitude:   -4.5 Apparent size:   32.16 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   8.30 degrees (evening sky) Age:   0.65 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   First Quarter on Friday Aug 8, 2008 at 4:20pm Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 8/01/2008 at 9:50:44pm the Moon will be 9.4º below the west-northwest horizon but will look like this prior to setting at 9:02pm... (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 7: 05pm Transits: 11: 44pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 4: 24am Aug 2 Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.82% illuminated Distance:   4.23496992 AU = 633,542,482 km = 393,665,052 miles = 35.27 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.7 Apparent size:   46.55 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   154.44 degrees (evening sky) On 8/01/2008 at 9:50:44pm Jupiter will be 20.7º above the southeast horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: Saturday August 2, 2008 at 3:38am GRS longitude: 124.3º Jupiter moons activity:       None tonight Jupiter and its four visible moons will look like this at 9:50:44pm 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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