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Yep, Gamehaven with the scouts tonight.
AstroMom, you can head out and bring your scope out to Gamehaven and help with the outreach. 🙂
It usually doesn't last too late as the scouts/kids go to bed. We could hang around for a bit after they are done and do some observing.Jeff
The moon rises a little before 11:00 tonight. I am heading out to Keller with Josef. He is going to have a look at the skyscout and probably take it along with him on a boy scout outing this weekend. Head on out to Keller if you can. 🙂
Jeff
I went out to the Flatin Farm cornfield tonight. I had an old hay baling buddy from high school that ended up doing 26 years in the Army as a Green Beret medic. Paul lives in Texas now, but he came on out there and we saw boatloads of the obvious stuff. He enjoyed three and a half hours of it until he called it quits.
I stayed for another hour and recorded Rupes Recta near lunar sunset for my Lunar II observations, but that wasn't the coolest part of the whole night.
I saw part of Mare Oriental for the very first time in my life. It was awesome! Lacus Verdi and Lacus Autumni were very obvious and I had seen them before. What I hadn't seen were the bumps of the Rook Mountains on the Moon and the dark Mare behind them — Mare Oriental! What a thrill!
Check it out if you have the chance. A favorable libration like this doesn't come around very often.
AGNFA!
Dean, Thanks for the heads up. I set up the scope on the deck and saw Mare Orientale (Eastern Sea) which I believe was found and named by Patrick Moore. I then took a shot at Rupes Recta and found that around Purbach and also looked at Rima Birt between craters Birt E and Birt F. Will Rupes Recta look better tomorrow night when the terminator is closer to it? I wasn't able to see the shadow.
Saw Plato, rays of Kepler and Copernicus and Sinus Iridum – where did the other half of it go? Whispy clouds now covering the moon. SB
Out at Keller last night with Josef checking out the club's skyscout. Josef has the skyscout now and will take it with him on a scouting outing this weekend. We were identifying and locating various stars.
After that, we were checking out a few things in the scope. We led off with Jupiter and wow, Jupiter is really looking good. Last night had excellent seeing for Jupiter. It was pretty good when we started looking. When we left, about 11:00, it was very still, very sharp. Really no boiling of any kind. Quite sharp with many bands. Opposition is on the 14th and Jupiter will be as large as it has been since 1999, last century! 😉
Then we were just winging it here and there. Albireo, M57, M27, M22, M8, M13, M51, M51, M82, M15, M31, Perseus Double Cluster.
And, it was definitely Perseid time. We weren't really looking for meteors, but Josef estimates we saw 25-30 of them in the two hours we were out there. Some up around Jupiter brightness.When I got home, I set the scope up in the front of the house and had Gerarda come out and have a look at Jupiter, also did Albireo, M57, M13 again. While sighting the scope, we saw 3 more meteors. After that, we moved a cot and chair to the backyard and did lay back to watch the meteor shower. Gerarda stayed out for 20 minutes or so and I was out there for an hour. Counting the ones from the front walk, we saw 46 meteors total. Plus the 25-30 out at Keller. A pretty good night for the meteor shower.
All in all, AGNFA! 🙂Jeff
Anyone going anywhere tonight? I'm just to lazy to drive all the way to Eagle Bluff, perhaps Keller. Probably somewhat hazy and humid, but looking clear otherwise.
Jeff
My family and I laid our heads down Tuesday night to watch the meteor shower. Just a bit of a dud. 🙁 Counted only twelve in an hour. Wednesday night was far differnt. We saw may spectacular shooters and counted 60 in about an hour. We had alot of fun doing that. ;D I also had my scope out and hit some favorite targets because of the very transparent sky. Jupiter was a very nice target. Best I've seen yet this year.
Happy Trails
Rick
We are heading out to Keller tonight. Anyone want to join us, head on out.
Yes, Rick, there were some good meteors Wednesday. Quite a few getting in the Jupiter range of brightness. Speaking of Jupiter, boy, it was really nice on Wednesday night.
Jupiter hit opposition today. It shows as large as it has been since 1999.
Jeff
Hello astronomy fans! I hope you had a great night tonight. I had a good night.
I did an astronomy outreach event for Hidden Bluffs campground, and while I had a better place to set up, I was really bothered by light pollution from the camp's entrance and the dew from being down in a valley. I still had 20-30 folks show up and I heard lots of "oohs and ahhs, wow's and cool!", but all the good obvious stuff to the south in Sagittarius and Scorpius were either washed out by the light or too far south and hidden by the bluffs.
The northeastern sky and the zenith saved the day and I didn't get out of there until 11:30. I had several campers that had been there the year before and were very glad to see me again. That suprised me. I wish I could have shown them the Flatin Farm sky.
I know the folks really liked what they saw, but it could have been so much more!
P.S. Starbie, I am so happy you saw the Eastern Sea. There are not a lot of us amateur astronomers that have had that privilege. AGNFA!
Well, I finally got a good look at Jupiter – 4 moons and I could see the two bands. Tried a lot of different lens but it got very dewy toward
the end. I spent some time looking at the moon a few nights ago. Saw Shiller and Bayer. Am surprised at how fast the terminator
moves each night and what a difference it makes in seeing moon features. Wow, SBQ coming soon. BI was out yesterday morning (early 8/17) around 4AM. All I got to see was Jupiter before the fog descended. However, I did get to see one of the Moons in contact with the edge of the planet, as well as another small shadow transit in process. Seeing wasn't the greatest, and transparency went from pretty good to horrible (I could barely make out Cassiopeia naked eye) in a matter of minutes. But scope time is scope time…
Glad to see you using the scope Rebecca. Hope to see you at the Star-B-Q.
I went out about 10:30 last night to see Io transit Jupiter. The shaddow sat at about 7 o'clock (through my Dob reflector) below the Great Red Spot almost exactly in the middle of the two inner dark bans. They moved together through the evening like the shaddow was a permanent fixture of the planet. Transparency was good, and at times it was very good. I could easily make out definition of the dark bans and the storm. Best viewing I've had yet of the giant. It was very fun.Happy Trails
RickNot exactly observing "tonight" but mark your calendars for the evening of Sept 2nd around 11:30 PM to watch the moons of Jupiter
disappear either in front of Jupiter (shadows of Europa and Ganymede) while Callisto and Io will either be behind Jupiter or eclipsed by Jupiter's shadow.I believe these are the correct times for CDT:
06:28 PM (23:28 UT) Callisto enters occultation behind Jupiter
10:44 PM (03:44 UT) Io enters occultation behind Jupiter
11:00 PM Europa begins transit of Jupiter
11:46 PM Ganymede begins transit of Jupiter
11:56 PM Europa's shadow begins to cross Jupiter
01:32 AM Io exits eclipse by Jupiter's shadow
01:46 AM Ganymede's shadow begins to cross Jupiter
01:50 AM Europa ends transit of Jupiter
02:50 AM Europa's shadow leaves Jupiter's disk
03:24 AM Ganymede ends trasit of Jupiter
03:44 AM Callisto exits eclipse by Jupiter's shadow
05:24 AM Ganymede's shadow leaves Jupiter's disk
Hope you can catch some of this. B
Wow, Sept 2 already. See Rebecca's previous entry, but tonight, the four moons of Jupiter will all disappear. It looks like it may be clear enough to see, but also, the moon will be very close to Jupiter tonight as well.
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