[AZ-Observing] Cherry Road 8/25-26 Observations Sans Scope

I spent all of Saturday in Flagstaff, and decided to come back to Phoenix
via Cherry Road, figuring that some folks from Phoenix would be there.
Thad Robosson, Rick Tejera and Joe Macke (and daughter, the gateperson)
were set up when I arrived at 9:00, awaiting moonset.

After getting a few hours of sleep, I had a couple hours of views through
the three telescopes, and went back to sleep, vowing to rise just before
morning twilight began.  Earlier that evening at dinner in Flagstaff, Brian
Skiff was commenting to me about the striking beauty of the eastern sky
from Anderson Mesa in the morning twilight.  After enduring a couple months
of humidity and clouds, I looked forward to this view myself.

My eyes opened at 4:00.  It would have been difficult to emerge from the
sleeping bag, but for a plain-as-day sight of M33, only a few degrees away
from the zenith.  I walked to a part of the field that had the best view of
the eastern horizon.  This is the first view of the season of the giant "X"
formed by the Milky Way and the Zodiacal light, which intersected above
Jupiter.  Halfway to the zenith along the Zodiacal band was Saturn nearly
between the horns of the Bull of Taurus.  Projecting a line downward from
Saturn through Jupiter brought my gaze to Venus.  At 13" in size, it was
the only one of the three planets that was twinkling.

Moving along the horizon to the south at Venus' elevation brought both Dog
Stars, Procyon and Sirius, into view.  Both of these stars that you'd
associate with March are up in a dark sky in August!  As time went on, the
base of the Zodiacal light broadened into the subtle blue glow of twilight.
 I held out for another ten minutes, drinking in a gorgeous view.  With all
the thousands of dollars we spend on astronomy gear, naked-eye observations
such as these are always my most precious astronomical memories.

Tom

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Tom Polakis
Tempe, AZ
Arizona Sky Pages
http://www.psiaz.com/polakis/
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