Saturday Morning View

Greetings -
This morning I woke up at 5am and went out and saw the
Great Red Spot on Jupiter a little to the right of center.
It was clearly visible, and some scalloped areas were visible
on the edge of the northern belts. All four Galilean moons
were visible, not spread too far apart.
I used a Meade ETX 5 inch telescope.

NGC6960, The Western Veil Nebula in Cygnus / CelestronImages.com - astrophotography with optics from Celestron Telescopes.

Here is a beautiful nebula that is nicely placed high in the eastern July sky:
Near the lower (left ) arm of Cygnus - the Northern Cross:
NGC6960, The Western Veil Nebula in Cygnus / CelestronImages.com - astrophotography with optics from Celestron Telescopes.

Red Cellophane at Stellafane - August 5-8

The annual star party known as Stellafane will be held on Breezy Hill, outside of Springfield, Vermont on August 5-8 this year
Astronomer David Levy says:
“There are star parties… and then there’s Stellafane!”

The focus of this meeting is Amateur Telescope Makers,
and their equipment, not mainly observing, although there will be that.
There is a contest of homemade telescopes.
It is sponsored by Springfield Telescope Makers.
Springfield is a town west of the Connecticut River not far from
I-91 and US Route 5., not far from White River Junction.

Since white flashlights ruin night vision, they will be
handing out pieces of red cellophane to put over flashlights
so that will be "Stellafane Cellophane".
Enjoy the view if you go,and take many photos,
both of the telescopes in light,
and the sky when it gets dark.

Summer Milky Way - Southern Section

Southern Summer Milky Way - 50mm lens on Olympus

OM-10, 5 minute exposure, guided. Fujicolor 800 film.

Teapot of Sagittarius is on the bottom, with star clouds

to the right around the center of the Milky Way,

above that M8's red cloud (the Lagoon Nebula) is visible.

Shadow of Ganymede on Jupiter

Io and Ganymede, Shadow of Ganymede on Jupiter

July 1, 2010, 4am - simulated with Celestia software.

Ganymede is bigger than Io.

(p.s. I got up and looked at Jupiter this Thurs (July 1) with

the telescope and it wasn't this clear, but the moon's

shadow was clearly visible.)

Simulated view of Jupiter through a telescope

Click on this to see it bigger, then hit your back button to go back.
Callisto (4) , Ganymede (3), Jupiter, Europa (2), and Io (1) , from left to right.
Image made with Celestia software.
Ganymede is slightly larger than Mercury.
The Great Red Spot is in the South Equatorial Zone, centered.
Tilt your screen to see it more clearly, if it's not obvious.

Movement of Stars due to Rotation and Revolution, of the Earth

The earth's rotation rate is 15 degrees per hour.
This causes the stars to move left to right across
the southern sky.

The earth is also revolving in its orbit around the
sun, and this causes given stars to rise and set
4 minutes earlier each night.
This adds up to 28 minutes per week,
or two hours per month.
That is why we see different stars in the evening
at different seasons throughout the year. The night
sky faces outward from the sun in different directions
as the year progresses, at a given time of night.

Next Season's Preview in the Morning:

If you want to see what the stars will look like
three and a half months from now at 9pm in the evening,
then, just go out in the morning, at 4am, and there
they will be. The planets and moon will be different,
of course.
(The sidereal (star) time will be the same.)