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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 03/20/2009

Tonight, the Moon won't rise until nearly daybreak so we'll have a wonderful dark sky the entire night.  We'll be able to see 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.  Saturn, the ringed planet, is a beautiful sight.  With a high-power view through the telescopes, the cloud bands are now visible since the rings are nearly edge-on this entire year.

   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: 18am Transits: 8: 58am - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 1: 43pm Constellation:   Sagittarius Phase:   29.32% illuminated (waning crescent) Distance:   0.00273301 AU = 408,852 km = 254,049 miles = 1.37 light-seconds Magnitude:   -8.9 Apparent size:   29.22 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   65.43° (morning sky) Age:   23.96 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   New Moon on Thursday Mar 26, 2009 at 12:06pm Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 3/20/2009 at 8:37:52pm the Moon will be 69.3º below the northwest horizon but will look like this when it rises... (back to 'Quick Links')

Venus data   Rises: 7: 12am Transits: 2: 00pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 8: 49pm Constellation:   Pisces Phase:   2.74% illuminated Distance:   0.28762244 AU = 43,027,704 km = 26,736,176 miles = 2.4 light-minutes Magnitude:   -4.2 (extremely bright, but difficult in the glare of the setting Sun) Apparent size:   58.01 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   13.64° (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Morning:   Friday, June 05, 2009 (45° 51' 07") Evening:   Friday, August 20, 2010 (45° 57' 59") On 3/20/2009 at 8:37:52pm Venus will be 0.9º above the west horizon and will appear to be a featureless very thin crescent 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')

Saturn data   Rises: 6: 17pm Transits: 12: 47am Mar 21 - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 7: 17am Mar 21 Constellation:   Leo Phase:   99.99% illuminated Distance:   8.41791237 AU = 1,259,301,766 km = 782,493,850 miles = 1.17 light-hours Magnitude:   0.5 Apparent size:   19.74 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   166.69° (evening sky) On 3/20/2009 at 8:37:52pm Saturn will be 25.1º above the east horizon and 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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