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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 9/12/2008

Tonight's event will be somewhat limited by the nearly full Moon the entire night.  Despite the brightness of the moon, we will be able to see 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.  Jupiter, the King of the planets, is a beautiful sight.  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.  Uranus and Neptune are visible now as well and appear as small bluish-green 'large' stars in our telescopes.  And, for a special treat, we'll be able to watch the Moon occulting Neptune at 8:43:36pm tonight and reemerge from the bright side at 9:48:05pm.  How better to actually observe the solar system behaving as it has for eons?

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: 17pm Transits: 11: 37pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 5: 06am Sep 13 Constellation:   Capricornus Phase:   93.88% illuminated (waxing gibbous) Distance:   0.0025821 AU = 386,277 km = 240,021 miles = 1.29 light-seconds Magnitude:   -12.0 Apparent size:   30.92 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   151.28 degrees (evening sky) Age:   13.20 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   Full Moon on Monday Sept 15, 2008 at 5:13am Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT Unusual event!     The dark crescent (left) side of the Moon will occult the 7.8mag planet Neptune at 8:43:36pm tonight and reemerge from the bright (right) side at 9:48:05pm as the Moon moves eastward on its orbit around the earth.   On 9/12/2008 at 8:39:36pm the Moon will be 21.1º above the east-southeast horizon and will look like this. Computer-generated image on the left shows Neptune about to be occulted by the Moon.  The image on the right shows Neptune re-appearing from the bright side of the Moon a little over an hour later. (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 4: 12pm Transits: 8: 50pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 1: 29am Sep 13 Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.17% illuminated Distance:   4.6923188 AU = 701,960,901 km = 436,178,287 miles = 39.08 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.4 Apparent size:   42.01 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   111.96 degrees (evening sky) On 9/12/2008 at 8:39:36pm Jupiter will be 25.6º above the south-southeast horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: Tonight at 10:23pm GRS longitude: 125.3º Jupiter moons activity:      None tonight Jupiter and its four visible moons will look like this... (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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