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Astronomical Observing at Fishcreek - Friday 05/01/2009

Tonight, we have a First Quarter Moon that will be with us until it sets at 2:57am, but don't despair.  This phase is perfect for viewing detail in the craters on or near the terminator - the line separating lunar night from day.  We'll also be able to see Saturn, colorful double stars, and open clusters made up of hundreds of stars.  The 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 will be somewhat difficult in the light of the Moon.  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.  Try to catch the rings now, or as soon as possible, because they'll continue to be more difficult to see as the year progresses becoming invisible to us by early September.

   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: 12: 25pm Transits: 7: 48pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 2: 57am May 2 Constellation:   Cancer Phase:   52.22% illuminated (waxing gibbous) Distance:   0.00245243 AU = 366,879 km = 227,968 miles = 1.23 light-seconds Magnitude:   -10.3 Apparent size:   32.56 arcminutes in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   92.40° (evening sky) Age:   6.92 days since last New Moon Next Phase:   Full Moon on Saturday May 9, 2009 at 12:01am Next Lunar eclipse:   Total eclipse (100%) on Sunday Sept 27, 2015 at 10:10pm EDT On 5/1/2009 at 9:29:59pm the Moon will be 56.2º above the southwest horizon and will look like this, but with an amazing amount of detail on the terminator... and this is the kind of detail we can see at the Terminator through our telescopes! Note: All graphics are correct-image representations.  A telescope will reverse this left-right and possibly invert up-down depending on type of equipment being used. (back to 'Quick Links')

Mercury data   Rises: 7: 04am Transits: 2: 37pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 10: 10pm Constellation:   Taurus Phase:   22.05% illuminated Distance:   0.73256434 AU = 109,590,065 km = 68,096,110 miles = 6.1 light-minutes Magnitude:   1.2 Apparent size:   9.18 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   18.95° (evening sky) Next maximum elongations... Morning:   Saturday, June 13, 2009 (23° 27' 17") Evening:   Monday, August 24, 2009 (27° 21' 57") On 5/1/2009 at 9:29:59pm Mercury will be 5.5º above the west-northwest horizon and will look like a featureless crescent moon: Note: All graphics are correct-image representations.  A telescope will reverse this left-right and possibly invert up-down depending on type of equipment being used. (back to 'Quick Links')

Saturn data   Rises: 3: 20pm Transits: 9: 53pm - Time of highest position in the sky, due South Sets: 4: 26am May 2 Constellation:   Leo Phase:   99.80% illuminated Distance:   8.81160902 AU = 1,318,197,946 km = 819,090,240 miles = 1.22 light-hours Magnitude:   0.8 Apparent size:   18.86 arcseconds in angular diameter Elongation from Sun:   123.28° (evening sky) On 5/1/2009 at 9:29:59pm Saturn will be 56.3º above the south-southeast horizon and will look like this... Close up of Saturn, Tethys, Rhea and Dione: Note: All graphics are correct-image representations.  A telescope will reverse this left-right and possibly invert up-down depending on type of equipment being used. (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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