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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 10/10/2008

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. 

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: 4: 42pm Transits: 10: 13pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 3: 55am Oct 11 Constellation:   Aquarius Phase:   83.00% illuminated (waxing gibbous) Distance:   0.00256544 AU = 383,784 km = 238,472 miles = 1.28 light-seconds Magnitude:   -11.4 Apparent size:   31.13 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   131.18 degrees (evening sky) Age:   11.65 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   Full Moon on Tuesday Oct 14, 2008 at 4:02pm Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 10/10/2008 at 7:51:30pm the Moon will be 28.3º above the southeast horizon and will look like this... (back to 'Quick Links')

Venus data   Rises: 10: 18am Transits: 3: 17pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 8: 16pm Constellation:   Libra Phase:   83.75% illuminated Distance:   1.3327061 AU = 199,369,995 km = 123,882,773 miles = 11.1 light-minutes Magnitude:   -4.0 (extremely bright, but difficult in the glare of the setting Sun) Apparent size:   12.52 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   32.52 degrees (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Evening:   Wednesday 1/14/2009 (47° 07' 21") Morning:   Friday 6/05/2009 (45° 51' 07") On 10/10/2008 at 7:51:30pm Venus will be 3º above the southwest horizon and will appear to be a featureless gibbous Moon something like this... Remember that we're not really seeing the surface of Venus, but rather the extremely dense clouds composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, which generates a surface pressure 90 times greater than that on Earth. This massive blanket of carbon dioxide is also responsible for a runaway greenhouse effect that heats the planet's surface to an average temperature of nearly 900°F - hot enough to melt lead. Venus' atmosphere consists almost entirely (97%) of carbon dioxide, with clouds containing sulfuric acid along with chlorine and fluorine. These clouds produce an acid rain which evaporates before it has a chance to reach the surface. In the upper part of the atmosphere, fierce winds drive clouds at nearly 200mph.  Not a very hospitable place.  Let's take care of our planet! (back to 'Quick Links')

Jupiter data   Rises: 2: 28pm Transits: 7: 07pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 11: 47pm Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.05% illuminated Distance:   5.11307305 AU = 764,904,841 km = 475,289,839 miles = 42.59 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.2 Apparent size:   38.56 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   86.16 degrees (evening sky) On 10/10/2008 at 7:51:30pm Jupiter will be 25º above the south horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: None before it sets GRS longitude: 125.9º Jupiter moons activity:        Callisto transit ends at 8:20pm        Europa transit starts at 10:31pm 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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