Enjoyed your report Steve! We spend so much time trying to find detail in
other galaxies and forget that we are in one that we can see detail in with our
naked eyes!
Videmus Stellae!
Paul Knauth
________________________________
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Steve Coe <stevecoeaz@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2017 3:57 AM
To: az-observing
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Enjoying the night sky
I am back inside the RV and I just had to write this and document an
observing session with just my eyes and no equipment. I am located about
60 miles from the lights and traffic of Phoenix, Arizona, near the town of
Wickenburg. It is pretty dark and I have several friends in the RV park
who also view the sky.
My sleep pattern is now completely reversed, I slept from 8 PM to 2:30 AM
and I look forward to seeing the Wembledon tennis match in a hour or so.
After having something to eat I decided to go outside for a while and view
the night sky. There is a gibbous moon, about 60% illuminated that is high
in the sky. The stars Diphda and Formalhaut are below the moon over the
southern horizon. There is a gentle breeze and the clouds cover about half
the sky, all around the sky near the horizon. So those two bright stars
would come and go as the clouds covered them and the moon was continually
fuzzy from light clouds.
Turning the camp chair around to the north showed a somewhat clearer sky
with Polaris in the middle. Vega is setting to the west with Deneb above
it. The eastern horizon has a fascinating scene of the Pleiades rising
just above the cloud cover and Venus below them. Capella is off to the
north of that duo at about the same altitude. The "W" of Cassiopeia is
above the cloud cover and moving around Polaris. I sat for over 30 minutes
just watching the movement of the sky with the top of my RV as a reference
line. Of course, it is all the largest optical illusion. It is me and my
chair that are rotating, but it certainly does not look like it.
Realizing that all these bright stars I have mentioned are much larger and
brighter than the Sun allows me to really get it that they are very far
away. So far that these blazing balls of light are just that dot in the
sky.
Generally I would not spend much time under the stars on a night like
tonight, the moon and clouds usually would have me waiting for a better
night. But I recently spent three months in a hospital bed and my only
viewing was done in a book or magazine that friends were nice enough to
supply during a visit. Some time away from the sky has me enjoying it all
the more. We do live in a beautiful Universe. I love the Universe and it
loves me back.
Enjoy;
Steve Coe
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