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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 10/17/2008

Tonight's event will be somewhat limited by the nearly full Moon rising at 8:16pm.  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: 8: 16pm Transits: 4: 22am Oct 18 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 12: 32pm Oct 18 Constellation:   Taurus Phase:   86.16% illuminated (waning gibbous) Distance:   0.00243866 AU = 364,819 km = 226,688 miles = 1.22 light-seconds Magnitude:   -11.7 Apparent size:   32.74 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   136.22 degrees (morning sky) Age:   18.64 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   Last Quarter on Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 at 7:55am Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 10/17/2008 at 7:41:00pm the Moon will be 6.4º below the northeast horizon but will look like this at 9:00pm when it's 5° above the horizon... (back to 'Quick Links')

Venus data   Rises: 10: 35am Transits: 3: 24pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 8: 13pm Constellation:   Libra Phase:   82.07% illuminated Distance:   1.29181811 AU = 193,253,238 km = 120,081,996 miles = 10.76 light-minutes Magnitude:   -4.0 (extremely bright, but difficult in the glare of the setting Sun) Apparent size:   12.92 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   34.09 degrees (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Evening:   Wednesday 1/14/2009 (47° 07' 21") Morning:   Friday 6/05/2009 (45° 51' 07") On 10/17/2008 at 7:41:00pm Venus will be 4.1º 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: 04pm Transits: 6: 43pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 11: 23pm Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.08% illuminated Distance:   5.21969905 AU = 780,855,863 km = 485,201,345 miles = 43.48 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.2 Apparent size:   37.77 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   79.99 degrees (evening sky) On 10/17/2008 at 7:41:00pm Jupiter will be 24.5º above the south horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: None before it sets GRS longitude: 126.0º 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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