Really good views of Jupiter and the 4 moons, in a straight line, almost directly overhead at the moment - and not a Waxwing to be seen

Jupiter was very bright at 10 pm this evening high in the east; I think the Earth is pretty much between the Sun and the planet presently.
Through the 'scope at x 60, three moons were visible in orbit around Jupiter and on its surface the two transverse bands were clearly seen. Despite its size (diameter about 88,000 miles) it manages a full spin evry 9.9 hours; no doubt resulting in pretty scary winds.

Last night's 'dirty stop-out' sighting 22-30 onwards.

Jupiter showing very well at the moment quite high in the east. It seems this month is a good one to see most of the planets, although most are low to the horizon around sunset or down.

Now is certainly a good time to look for Venus in the daytime. Morning apparitions are easier than evening apparitions because you can locate the planet before the sun rises and then keep an eye on it every few minutes as it gets lighter. It is interesting to time how long after sunrise you can still see it with the naked eye and then with binoculars. To see Venus in the middle of the day you need the Moon to be near it to act as a guide but even then it's difficult.

A rare sight of Venus in broad daylight this morning off Crowland Hill at 8.30am, definitely needed binoculars though!

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Sunday 14th of October 2012 11:05:57 AM

Brilliant scope views of the Moon at the moment (22.30) - lots of features easy to see

Martyn Jones wrote:

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Cracking moon (99% of full) for you to point your scope at tonight.

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Explains why the hilbre tides are good this weekend!

Martyn Jones wrote:

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Cracking moon (99% of full) for you to point your scope at tonight.

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In Folklaw its a Blue Moon, 2nd Full moon in a calender month, or alternatively the 3rd full moon of 4 in one season

Cracking moon (99% of full) for you to point your scope at tonight.

The ISS is showing particularly well at the moment.
Tonight's flyover will rise at 10.09 pm from the west, hopefully the sky will stay clear enough to get a good view.
For future views.... try this link.

A lifer for me at Pennington Flash this afternoon - Venus with the naked eye in full sunlight at 2.30pm! I happened to spot the crescent moon and, remembering last night's close approach to Venus mentioned by Dave Colton, I scanned around it with my 8 x 42 binoculars and quickly found Venus just out of the field of view when centred on the Moon. Then, with Venus in the field of view, it was a case of removing the binoculars whilst keeping my eyes on the same spot. After several goes I succeeded. It isn't difficult to see but you have to know exactly where to look.

PS. Be very careful not to scan too close to the Sun when doing this!!!

Saturn is looking great tonight with one of its moons, Titan, just off it.

Dave

Another lovely clear evening for Stargazing tonight.

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter all looking stunning in the same bit of sky, great views of them tonight.

Mars and Orions belt also looking good this evening.

A great night for stargazing - Venus is incredibly bright with Jupiter below it. Mars is glowing pinky red in the south east. Lots of constellations can be seen too.

-- Edited by Martyn Jones on Sunday 18th of March 2012 08:07:35 PM

Mars also visible tonight in the South East.

Just had a good look with the binoculars, fantastic clear night for stargazing. At least one of Jupiters many moons visible not sure which though.

Nice and clear at the moment to see both Jupiter and Venus.

Jupiter and Venus are at their closest tonight. Mercury is still viewable (~18.30 - 18.45 is perhaps optimum) but it is now quite low in the west.

Cheers, John


-- Edited by John Rayner on Tuesday 13th of March 2012 05:57:24 PM

Just a quick word of thanks for this thread,my grandkids think i,m a night sky
'jedi'

cheers geoff

Yeah the free Google Sky map for Android phones with built-in GPS is great - just hold it up to the sky and it tells you what everything is in real time. I believe the Star Walk and Starmap paid for apps do the same for the iPhone.

John many thanks, on to that already, also been told of an app for my phone which will help as well.

As long as I water down my whiskey I should be able to work out which one is the moon


Happy stargazing

Paul Heaton wrote:

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Paul, have managed to point out Venus and Jupiter to my kids, with my Kowa scope we even managed to see the moons of Jupiter.

Can you give us any pointers on the best way to see Saturn?

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Hi Paul,

I recommend you download Stellarium to your PC (free).

http://www.stellarium.org/

You can use this to 'fast forward' and see exactly what will be where at any given time.

I've just used this programme and Mars will be visible rising in the East approx 18.15 followed by Saturn rising in the SE approx 23.00. So, Saturn can be found approx 10 o'clock from (and quite close to) the Moon.

Hope this helps,

Cheers, John

Paul, have managed to point out Venus and Jupiter to my kids, with my Kowa scope we even managed to see the moons of Jupiter.

Can you give us any pointers on the best way to see Saturn?

5 planets on show tonight. mercury,venus,mars,jupiter and saturn

Mercury, Venus and Jupiter are all currently on show in the West.

Excellent views of tonight's evening lineup of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter from 6.15pm-6.27pm at Crowland Hill, Newall Green.

Mars is now currently on view in the East too making up this brilliant early March "Planet Fest"

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Friday 2nd of March 2012 08:02:08 PM

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Friday 2nd of March 2012 08:14:58 PM

after a particularly dazzling display from venus and jupiter this evening its now mars' turn. almost overhead sat right underneath the constellation of leo

I watched Mercury drop below the horizon this evening from Astley moss. A brilliant clear sky with plenty of visible satellites and a couple of meteors seen falling low in the sky between North and West.

Missed Mercury earlier on this evening, but Venus, Jupiter and the Moon in alignment look stunning tonight.

As I type Mercury is visible low in the western sky (06.15)

Find Jupiter and 5 o'clock from it is Venus. Draw an imaginary line through these 2 planets and, about 2x the distance from Jupiter to Venus, there it is - a perfect little disc. But it's setting fast.

Cheers, John

At 18.25 tonight my wife and I were admiring the early evening very clear sky to the south.
Jupiter, Venus, the Moon and Mercury were all on show and just about in roughly the same plane.
Mercury was just above the horizon to the West/South West, and through the 'scope was perceptibly moving below the hills following the sunset, and vanished at 18.40.
It appears very tiny and reddish, but can be seen as a disc at x60.

Cheers,
Mike

briliant thread

i remember about this time of year 1999 venus and jupiter almost merged together (obviously not literally physically) they looked like a double yolked egg in the sky. keep your eyes upwards in the next few weeks(weather permitting) they are edging closer daily. fascinating stuff:

-- Edited by paul burke on Saturday 25th of February 2012 12:38:27 AM

Splendid views of Jupiter and moons tonight from the western end of the Mersey and the fullish Moon looking good too.Also several Redwings heard calling overhead.

-- Edited by Pete Kinsella on Monday 9th of January 2012 08:14:00 PM

We had the Macclesfield Astrology Society out at RSPB Dovestone a few weeks ago doing a public drop in event.
We very interesting to meet the guys with there scopes and some very advanced photography equipment!
Would have thought a few of you would have been their, given the interest around this thread!

very interesting to hear them explain about Jupiter and its moons as well as other interesting and 'scopeable' objects in the night sky.

Jupiter and at least two moons visible below left of the Moon early evenings at the moment (16.54 this evening): also Venus very bright in the SW.

Really crisp views of Jupiter and 4 moons at the moment.

Good ISS flyover due @ 18 47 . Apologies for late post

-- Edited by Tony Darby on Friday 28th of October 2011 06:25:49 PM

Clear view of 4 moons and the 2 rings around jupiter at the moment

Great views of Jupiter tonight. I could only see 3 of it's moons though.

Many times when I have been looking at the night sky I have often seen a Satellite fly overhead. I have started to use the Satellite AR app for the android market. It gives the name and position of any visible satellites overhead and works very similar to the Google sky maps.
Try it, you will not believe how much hardware is flying about up there

A nice clear night for looking at Jupiter and four moons, one very close to Jupiter itself. The moons and two diagonal belts are visible with a spotting scope.

Our moon is also pretty good tonight being 88% full in its waning gibbous phase. Sounds good don't it? But I just looked it up here!

P.S. Does anyone know if it's dangerous to look at the moon through a spotting scope when it's so bright?

-- Edited by Martyn Jones on Saturday 15th of October 2011 10:07:34 PM

J and the 4 moons showing really well just now in the east - on a cloudless night for a change

still looking good tonight at 9.30pm,4 visible moons but the clouds have arrived

Thanks for the heads up,very nice,it,s in the north east sky 45degree ish ,quick before it clouds over.

cheers geoff

Jupiter is crackin' tonight. Two diagonal bands and at least three moons easily seen through a spotting scope.

P.S. If you haven't tried the free Google Sky Map on an Android Phone with built GPS (or Star Map for you iPhone users) you really should tonight - it's pretty clear.

another decent website for astronomy things is a site called
http://www.heavens-above.com/
its free to enrol ( I think. Its years since I signed up).
you can enter your geographical position and it will give predictions of irridium flares and when the international space station is visible.
Irridium flares are the reflection off the solar panels on satellites, they are quite stunning to see, like someone is shining a bright torch into your eye from outer space. they only last a few seconds, but amazingly their appearance can be mathematically predicted.
something to do when you cant see birds!

Slightly off topic but under the general heading of "things to look at in the sky other than birds" you might be interested in watching a total eclipse of the moon on Wednesday evening this week (15th June) - weather permitting! The eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in an exact line at full moon causing the shadow of the Earth to fall on the Moon. A person standing on the Moon's surface would see the black disc of Earth completely obscuring the Sun in the sky.

This particular eclipse is unusual in that from Greater Manchester the Moon will be in the middle of its total phase when it rises. Moonrise will be at 2134 roughly in a south easterly direction. The total phase ends at 2203 and you will then see the Earth's shadow move away and the Moon will gradually resume its normal brightness. At this stage you should see that the shadow is curved - a simple proof that the Earth is round. The eclipse ends at 2302 when the Moon will still be quite low in the south eastern sky.

You don't need optical aid to enjoy the eclipse but if you train your scope or binoculars on the Moon during the total phase you should still be able to make out some of its craters and other features. This is because some sunlight reaches the Moon by refraction through the Earth's atmosphere. This causes the Moon to appear a dark reddish colour, the exact shade depending upon the amount of volcanic dust in the atmosphere.

for anyone suffering from needle in a haystack syndrome mentioned earlier,

there is an absolutely brilliant free download program for astronomers, it's called

stellarium.

just down load it and run it on a pc, it will show you where absolutely everything is with the exception of man made stuff.

this really simplifies tracking down planets and nebulea.

The ISS is showing well at the moment (clear skies permitting).
For those who don't already know, for M/c sightings:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_Kingdom&region=England&city=Manchester

Saturn is still visible and should be showing in the SE. A good tip to remember is that unlike stars, Planets don't twinkle and appear almost like a floodlight in the night sky.