Blog de Puree

Last night was a great night for doing a little stargazing. It wasn’t too cold and it was relatively clear. Despite the street lights and the lights from a few nearby houses, the visibility was pretty darn good. So, I pulled out the old Dobsonian telescope, set her up and had a look at what’s in our neck of the solar system…and beyond.

There were two highlights of my astronomical observations. The moon and Saturn.

The moon was incredible. After a lunar eclipse earlier this month on the 3rd and 4th, which could be enjoyed just by craning your neck and looking into the night sky, the celestial master of the earth’s tides is magnificent to look at in March. With our telescope and a 10mm lens inserted into the lens chamber, the moon is larger than the entire field of vision. While it is interesting to see the craters and craters within craters, what’s really cool is looking at the edges of the moon because the contours, or bumps of crater-induced skyline, are clearly visible and it’s like looking at mountain ranges off in the distance here on earth.

Saturn was the show-stopper though. To find it, I looked due south and then up into the sky roughly 60 to 70 degrees from the tree line behind our house. Saturn looked like it was straight west of where the moon was visible and was well lit. With the naked eye, it looks like one of the brighter stars in the night sky.

(Photo courtesy of solarviews.com)

Saturn and its rings were clearly visible. (And will be until July this summer before it is in conjunction with the sun and will return into our field of vision in September). Last night, I could very, very faintly make out the Cassini Division, which is a black ring that separates the inner and outer rings. However, I did not observe Titan or any other of the planet’s moons. Another interesting observation I made was that Saturn’s rings appeared to go from top to bottom as I viewed the plant, rather than side to side. I suspect this is due to the planet’s axis of rotation in relation to earth and the sun.

Interesting Saturn facts:

• It orbits the sun every 29.5 years.
• Its diameter is 74, 900 miles and 9.5 times the size of Earth. Its mass is 95 times the Earth’s
• The planet rotates every 10 hours and 39 minutes
• It’s 9.6 times farther from the sun than Earth.

Tonight, I’ll be out again tonight watching for asteroid VV2 and is one of the closest asteroids to pass near earth in recent times (4 million kilometers on March 31, 2007). Reports say I should be able to find it as it makes it’s way through the constellation Leo. I’ll be out there with my star chart and I’ll most likely have Holst’s The planets playing in my iPod. Can you think of better music to stargaze with?