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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 6/27/2008

Tonight's event will feature a moonless sky for us since it doesn't rise until 1:41am Saturday.  We'll be able to see the beautiful planet Saturn, 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 galore will be available to us until the Moon rises above the trees around 2:15am.  Saturn is beautiful beyond words!  If you've never seen Saturn through a telescope, you owe it to yourself to do so.  See it now while the rings are still visible - it is heading into the west earlier and earlier in the evening and in 2009, the rings will be edge-on and almost totally invisible.  It's said that one picture is worth a thousand words, but no picture can match the majesty of the real thing!  Jupiter will be visible, if you stay after 11:30pm or so when it will be high enough to clear the trees to our east.

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)

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    Inner Solar System     Outer Solar System    General Information about our events

Moon data   Rises: 1: 41am June 28 Transits: 8: 56am June 28 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 4: 25pm June 28 Constellation:   Pisces Phase:   32.58% illuminated (waning gibbous) Distance:   0.00249378 AU = 373,064 km = 231,811 miles = 1.25 light-seconds Magnitude:   -9.3 Apparent size:   32.02 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   69.48 degrees (morning sky) Age:   24.29 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   New Moon on Wednesday July 2, 2008 at 10:19pm Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 6/27/2008 at 10:19:24pm the Moon will be 29.6º below the north-northeast horizon but will look like this at 3:13am when it clears the trees to the east... (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 9: 38pm Transits: 2: 20am June 28 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 7: 02am June 28 Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.96% illuminated Distance:   4.1836396 AU = 625,863,576 km = 388,893,601 miles = 34.85 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.7 Apparent size:   47.12 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   167.88 degrees (morning sky) On 6/27/2008 at 10:19:24pm Jupiter will be 5.4º above the east-southeast horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: Friday June 27, 2008 11:51pm GRS longitude: 123.6º Jupiter moons activity:       Io goes into eclipse on Saturday June 28, 2008 at 3:46am       Europa goes into eclipse on Saturday June 28, 2008 at 5:01am Jupiter and its four visible moons will look like this at 11:51pm when the GRS transits... (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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