Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 10/5/2007

Tonight's event will feature a Moonless sky until it rises at 2:42am.  We'll have the planet 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, will all be available to us until after 3:00am.  Many amateur astronomers feel that late fall is the best time to observe since there are beautiful objects of all categories available and the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we live, is directly overhead.

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 thirteenth 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: 1: 33am Oct 5 Transits: 9: 14am Oct 5 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 4: 43pm Oct 5 Constellation:   Cancer Phase:   24.11% illuminated (waning crescent) Distance:   0.00262418 AU = 392,572 km = 243,933 miles = 1.31 light-seconds Magnitude:   -8.7 Apparent size:   30.43 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   58.68 degrees (morning sky) Age:   24.47 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   New Moon on Thursday Oct 11, 2007 at 1:01am Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Wednesday Feb 20, 2008 at 9:58pm EST At 8:01pm the Moon will be 27.1° below the northwest horizon but will look like this at 4:15am Saturday after clearing the trees to the east: (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 12: 41pm Transits: 5: 23pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 10: 06pm Constellation:   Ophiuchus (pronounced oh-fee-oo'-cuss) Phase:   99.29% illuminated Distance:   5.66311258 AU = 847,189,583 km = 526,419,208 miles = 47.17 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.0 Apparent size:   34.81 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   62.62 degrees (evening sky) At 8:01pm Jupiter will be 16.8º above the south-southwest horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot:  Friday Oct 5, 2007 at 11:16pm GRS longitude: 117.4º Jupiter satellite events tonight:      Io Transit ends at 8:23pm      Io Shadow Transit ends at 9:32pm This animated GIF of Jupiter and its four moons begins at 7:30pm EDT and runs until Jupiter is below the horizon.  You can read the altitude and azimuth in the caption below Jupiter. This image is neither inverted nor reversed and will look like this in binoculars or a non-inverting telescope.  Frames are 15 minutes apart. 'Alt' is degrees above the horizon, 'Az' is degrees of azimuth: 0 is north, 90 is east, 180 is south and 270 is west The apparent eastward (left) motion of Jupiter and its moons relative to the background stars is due to the combined motion of Jupiter and Earth in their orbits around the Sun. (back to 'Quick Links')

 

Inner Solar System - the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Earth

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Outer Solar System - the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

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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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