Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 9/19/2008 Sunset 7:30pm Civil twilight ends: 7:55pm ( When the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon ) Nautical twilight ends: 8:27pm ( When the Sun is 12 degrees below the horizon ) Astronomical twilight ends: 9:00pm ( When the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon ) On schedule for tonight, we have a nearly third-quarter Moon clearing the trees to the east of the observing field at around 11:00pm. But what makes this special, is that the Moon will be nestled in the arms of the Pleiades cluster - a beautiful sight! 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. We hope to see you here for a night under the stars - now in our thirteenth year! Summary data for 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm EDT (nautical twilight) for our location: Longitude: W 81°25' 37.4" Latitude: N 41°11'11.2" Altitude: 350m Above Horizon: Object Mag Const Rise Set Venus -3.9 Vir 09:27 20:34 Jupiter -2.4 Sgr 15:45 01:02 Uranus 5.7 Aqr 19:04 06:43 Neptune 7.8 Cap 17:52 04:19 Pluto 14.2 Sgr 14:20 00:24 Below Horizon: Object Mag Const Rise Set Sun -26.7 Vir 07:07 19:30 Mercury 0.5 Vir 09:20 20:08 Mars 1.7 Vir 09:06 20:23 Saturn 0.9 Leo 05:59 19:06 Luna -11.2 Tau 21:32 13:35 New moon: Aug 1 2008 6:13 Aug 30 2008 15:58 Sep 29 2008 4:12 First quarter: Aug 8 2008 16:20 Sep 7 2008 10:04 Oct 7 2008 5:04 Full moon: Aug 16 2008 17:17 Sep 15 2008 5:13 Oct 14 2008 16:02 Last quarter: Aug 23 2008 19:50 Sep 22 2008 1:05 Oct 21 2008 7:55 Sun data: Rise 7:07am Transit: 1:19pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Sets 7:30pm Constellation: Virgo Distance: 1.00425568 AU = 150,234,512 km = 93,351,399 miles = 8.36 light-minutes Magnitude: -26.7 Apparent size: 31.85 arcminutes in angular diameter Civil twilight ends at 7:55pm ( When the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon ) Nautical twilight ends at 8:27pm ( When the Sun is 12 degrees below the horizon ) Astronomical twilight ends at 9:00pm ( When the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon ) Fall Equinox: Monday Sept 22, 2008 at 11:45am (when Fall will officially be here) Next Solar Eclipse: Partial eclipse (>80%) on Monday August 21, 2017 2:30pm EDT Next TOTAL Solar Eclipse: Monday April 8, 2024 at 3:15pm On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm the Sun will be 12º below the west horizon Moon data: Rise: 9:32pm Transit: 5:29am Sep 20 (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Sets: 1:35pm Sep 20 Constellation: Taurus Phase: 74.08% illuminated (waning gibbous) 20.19 days since last New Moon Distance: 0.00247319 AU = 369,984 km = 229,897 miles = 1.24 light-seconds Magnitude: -11.2 Apparent size: 32.29 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 118.66 degrees (morning sky) Next Phase: Last Quarter on Monday Sept 22, 2008 at 1:05am Next Lunar eclipse: Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm the Moon will be 10.5º below the north-northeast horizon Mercury data: Rise: 9:20am Transit: 2:44pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Sets: 8:08pm Constellation: Virgo Phase: 39.08% illuminated Distance: 0.81819145 AU = 122,399,698 km = 76,055,647 miles = 6.82 light-minutes Magnitude: 0.5 Apparent size: 8.22 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 24.73 degrees (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Morning: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 (18° 19' 05") Evening: Sunday, January 04, 2009 (19° 20' 36") On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Mercury will be 4.6º below the west-southwest horizon Venus data: Rise: 9:27am Transit 3:01pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 8:34pm Constellation: Virgo Phase: 88.38% illuminated Distance: 1.44698713 AU = 216,466,193 km = 134,505,858 miles = 12.05 light-minutes Magnitude: -3.9 Bright, but difficult with the glare of the setting sun Apparent size: 11.53 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 27.57 degrees (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Evening: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 (47° 07' 21") Morning: Friday, June 05, 2009 (45° 51' 07") On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Venus will be 0.3º above the west-southwest horizon Mars data: Rise: 9:06am Transit 2:45pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 8:23pm Constellation: Virgo Phase: 98.44% illuminated Distance: 2.4616525 AU = 368,257,972 km = 228,824,898 miles = 20.5 light-minutes Magnitude: 1.7 Apparent size: 3.80 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 23.10 degrees (evening sky) Next close approach of Mars is on Friday, Jan 29, 2010 On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Mars will be 1.8º below the west-southwest horizon No, Mars was *not* "...as big as a Full Moon on August 27!" Please see the following links for more information about this annual 'Mars Hoax' http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/8708182.html http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp http://www.hoax-slayer.com/mars-earth-close.html http://www.universetoday.com/2007/07/25/will-the-mars-look-as-big-as-the-moon-on-august-27-nope/ Jupiter data: Rise: 3:45pm Transit 8:24pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 1:02am Sep 20 Constellation: Sagittarius Phase: 99.11% illuminated Distance: 4.79383329 AU = 717,147,253 km = 445,614,649 miles = 39.93 light-minutes Magnitude: -2.4 Apparent size: 41.12 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 105.33 degrees (evening sky) On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Jupiter will be 25.7º above the south horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: Tonight at 11:11pm GRS longitude: 125.4° Jupiter satellite events: None tonight Saturn data: Rise: 5:59am Transit 12:33pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 7:06pm Constellation: Leo Phase: 99.98% illuminated Distance: 10.31080285 AU = 1,542,474,151 km = 958,449,014 miles = 1.43 light-hours Magnitude: 0.9 Apparent size: 16.12 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 13.61 degrees (morning sky) On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Saturn will be 15.6º below the west-northwest horizon Uranus data: Rise: 7:04pm Transit 0:53am Sep 20 (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 6:42am Sep 20 Constellation: Aquarius Phase: 100.00% illuminated Distance: 19.10134812 AU = 2,857,521,006 km = 1,775,581,257 miles = 2.65 light-hours Magnitude: 5.7 Apparent size: 3.69 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 172.92 degrees (evening sky) On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Uranus will be 14º above the east horizon Neptune data: Rise: 5:52pm Transit: 11:05pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 4:19am Sep 20 Constellation: Capricornus Phase: 99.99% illuminated Distance: 29.21300932 AU = 4,370,203,990 km = 2,715,518,898 miles = 4.06 light-hours Magnitude: 7.8 Apparent size: 2.34 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 144.52 degrees (evening sky) On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Neptune will be 23.2º above the southeast horizon Pluto (Dwarf Planet aka Asteroid 134340) data: Rise: 2:20pm Transit 7:22pm (Time of highest position in the sky, due South) Set: 12:24am Sep 20 Constellation: Sagittarius Phase: 99.97% illuminated Distance: 31.48941792 AU = 4,710,749,870 km = 2,927,124,300 miles = 4.37 light-hours Magnitude: 14.2 Apparent size: 0.10 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun: 91.09 degrees (evening sky) On 9/19/2008 at 8:27:04pm Pluto will be 29.5º above the south horizon