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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 10/31/2008

Tonight, the Moon will set at 7:43pm so we'll have a wonderful dark sky the entire night.  We'll 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: 10: 45am Transits: 3: 15pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 7: 43pm Constellation:   Scorpius Phase:   8.24% illuminated (waxing crescent) Distance:   0.00270579 AU = 404,780 km = 251,519 miles = 1.35 light-seconds Magnitude:   -7.0 Apparent size:   29.51 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   33.27 degrees (evening sky) Age:   3.01 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   First quarter on Thursday Nov 6, 2008 at 12:03am Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 10/31/2008 at 7:23:00pm the Moon will be 1.9º above the southwest horizon and will look like this just prior to setting... (back to 'Quick Links')

Venus data   Rises: 11: 06am Transits: 3: 41pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 8: 15pm Constellation:   Ophiuchus Phase:   78.48% illuminated Distance:   1.20648438 AU = 180,487,494 km = 112,149,731 miles = 10.05 light-minutes Magnitude:   -4.0 (extremely bright, but difficult in the glare of the setting Sun) Apparent size:   13.83 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   37.09 degrees (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Evening:   Wednesday 1/14/2009 (47° 07' 21") Morning:   Friday 6/05/2009 (45° 51' 07") On 10/31/2008 at 7:23:00pm Venus will be 6.8º above the southwest horizon and will appear to be a featureless gibbous Moon 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: 1: 16pm Transits: 5: 56pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 10: 36pm Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   99.19% illuminated Distance:   5.42597823 AU = 811,714,789 km = 504,376,192 miles = 45.19 light-minutes Magnitude:   -2.1 Apparent size:   36.33 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   67.92 degrees (evening sky) On 10/31/2008 at 7:23:00pm Jupiter will be 23º above the south horizon Next transit of the Great Red Spot: None before it sets GRS longitude: 126.3º Jupiter moons activity:        Io comes out of eclipse at 10:02pm with Jupiter 4.4° above the west horizon Jupiter and its four visible moons will look like this.  Note that Io is shown in a different color and in the position it will reappear out of eclipse at 10:02pm... (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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