Great Photo of the Moon

Saturday October 24th, 2009
My friends and I went to the Michigan / Penn State football game and on our way home I had the opportunity to get this photo of the moon. It was located at about 200 degrees azimuth and about 30 degree altitude, and looked to be almost at the complete 3rd quarter phase (zoom in on the photo to get a better look!) It was so pretty!

On November 13th I took another photo of the moon and when I came home to post it to my blog site, I realized it was the same phase as the first moon I had sighted! I had wrote down in my notes almost the same information according to it's locations as the first one also. Sorry I don't have anything more intersting to write about.

On November 30th I was able to see a nice full moon right outside my front door. It was about 6:30pm an was at an altitude of about 45 degrees and around northeast at about 300 degrees azimuth. It was a perfect night for viewing it as there was not a cloud in the sky. I found myself going outside quite a few times just to star at it again and again.

For my last posting of the phases of the moon, I tried to take a picture of a phase I haven't seen, but the weather was not cooprerating with me and I was not able to get a good view of one.

Another Iridium Flare

Tuesday October 13, 2009

My daughter and I decided to try and see another Iridium Flare, just to make sure the one I saw last week was in fact what it was supposed to be. As we were sitting in the school parking lot observing what I later found out to be Jupiter (see blog on Jupiter :), a pefect flare revealed itself directly in front of us. It was seen at 19:37, 50 degrees Altitude and 181 degrees Azimuth. It just appeared in the sky, got really bright, and then faded away. It kind of looked like the left over spark from a firework. I tried to take a picture but it happened to fast. My son wants to see one, so I think we will go again tomorrow night and I will have my camera at the ready.

Jupiter Outside My Door!

I went to pick my daughter up from a friends house tonight around 19:30 and saw this beautiful bright star in the sky at about 45 degree altitude and 180 degree azimuth. The more I thought about it and looked at it, the more I realized this wasn't an ordinary star. Luckily for me I had my camera in my car so I took a couple of pictures(which unfortunately didn't turn out great) and when I got home I used my star and planet locator to figure out it was Jupiter! I went out again at 20:10 when it was darker and took another picture (still not a good picture). If you click on the pictures you should be able to see a faint star (about in the middle). It was much brighter in person, so the pictures don't do it justice at all. Still it was very cool to not only see but know what we were looking at.

Iridium Flare

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to observe an Iridium Flare in the sky and have been unsuccessful until today! I decided last night that I would try getting up early (6am) and see if that would be a better time to observe since going out at night has brought me nothing but clouds and dissappointment. The flare was supposed to be viewable at 6:23am, 7* N and at 30* altitude. I had the perfect spot to view it, which was at the end of my subdivision where no trees would be in my way. As I was looking at the Big Dipper this morning, I noticed a small "star" moving in between the line of view from the pointer stars to the North Star. As I watched this star move, it got really bright for only a few seconds and then faded until it disappeared. The whole even took less than one minute. I must say, I was slightly dissappointed. I was expecting to see some sort of flash or large object/star in the sky. This flare looked like an ordinary satelite that I probably wouldn't have been noticed if I wasn't looking at exactly the right spot at the right time.

Viewing An ISS!

September 8, 2009

For three nights now I have tried to go outside and view an ISS in the evening sky. For various reasons I have been unsuccessful, mostly due to a lack of timing or fogetfulness. I am happy to say that I was finally able to get myself organized and view not one but two ISS's last evening. At 9:15pm Tuesday Sept 8, 2009 I, along with my husband, daughter, mom and dad, stood in my parents hay field and eagerly looked towards the SW portion of the sky. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to see or know what I was looking for, but when they appeared, exactly on time, we were all truly amazed. It was like seeing two stars perfectly spaced apart from each other that were moving very swiftly in an arch across the sky. They started in the SW and ended in the ENE, which took a total time of about 3 minutes, and at one point were almost directly over our heads. During their movement, they became very bright, brighter than anything I've ever seen in the night sky before. We were awestruck! As they continued to move on, their brigtness flickered off and on, I'm guessing mostly due to the cloud cover in the sky rather than the reflection from the sun. Whatever the reason, we were all dissappointed to see them go away and we are eagerly awaiting the next time we can see some again.

Photo reference:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/ISS/ISS_S5flight.jpg