Starry Starry night

[EternalOptimist]

I had a gap in the clouds tonight. The first chance to get my eight incher out.

There was a big bright star, smack band in centre field of the finder. BUT.. I havnt had a chance to calibrate the thing yet, so the chances of the main scope acidentally being aligned are a million to one.


But it didnt matter, there were a million stars to choose from and it was spectacular. I didnt get the big one I was after, but I got 999,999 of the other suckers

This is with a street full of lights ahead of me as well. Who knows what it will be like if I can get set up in the lakes or Scotland

[MarillionFan]

The biggest brightest star in the night sky at the moment is Jupiter. Had it lined up nicely last week.

Mars and Saturn were popping up on the horizon early morn a few weeks back as well.

[wobbegong]

The biggest brightest star in the night sky at the moment is Jupiter. Had it lined up nicely last week.

Mars and Saturn were popping up on the horizon early morn a few weeks back as well.

Go on then, I'll take the bait . . . can you see Uranus?

[TimberWolf]

The biggest brightest star in the night sky at the moment is Jupiter. Had it lined up nicely last week.

Mars and Saturn were popping up on the horizon early morn a few weeks back as well.

Aye, Jupiter is/was stellar. First 'star' to make an appearance come evening time and shine oh so brightly. How do you know these things? It's the one near the moon (currently) if anyone less expert is interested, about 30 or 40 degrees off? Presumably it will be getting closer to the Moon over the next few days as the Moon tracks East?

Naked eye astronomy is great, and as EO says, we've had some stellar clear nights recently. I went out gazing in wonderment myself, and saw a shooting star and also found it surprising how many dog owners are to be found wandering around in the pitch dark in the park at night.

Some interesting naked-eye astronomer factets: When the right hand side of the Moon is illuminated it points west and the moon is waxing (getting bigger each night), and of course when it's on the left it is waning. If you trace the line of the lit portion of the Moon to the horizon, that's south. When a planet or star (Sun included) passes through the meridian, it's at its highest (altitude) in the sky for the night. The altitude of Polaris (north pole star) is your latitude (around 51 degrees) and the celestial equator is 90 - that latitude; that's what the stars appear to rotate parallel to.