Observing Report for July 27/10

Location: Irving Nature Park

Time Date: July 27/10 from 2230-0030hrs

Weather: 15 degrees Celsius, humid, light gusty winds, a few high level clouds

Equipment: 150mm reflector with EQ3 mount, 25mm eyepiece, C190 Kodak Easyshare with mount.

Planets Observed: Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.

Observing Report: The first thing we observed was the planet alignment of Venus, Mars, and Saturn in the western sky just after sundown. With the telescope, we observed Saturn. Its rings showed up at low power, but it was getting too low on the horizon to get a good picture. Note for future: Be set up at the observing site before the sun goes down, as the objects low in the western sky will go down fast after sundown.

After Sundown Venus was very bright low in the west. When looking at the picture of the three planets(in the following post) Venus is the lowest with Mars above and to the left and Saturn(fairly dim ) above Mars.


Cassiopeia was halfway up in the sky in the NE. I explained to Brandon that is a constellation of stars that form a slightly skewed W. It is an easily recognizable star formation which makes it useful when trying to find other sky objects.

Moon was about 95% full halfway up in the sky in the SE. Obtained pictures and video, as it was too bright to look at for long with the telescope.

Jupiter appeared low in the East, as we were packing up to leave around 0000hrs. Four of its Moons showed up very nice and spread out at low power. There were two fairly faint moons on the left with two bright ones on the right side of the planet. There appeared to be one line cutting across the middle of the planet which was probably a weather line as it was in line with the moons.

Obtained some pictures and a video of Jupiter and its moons. In the video, the moons appear as faint shimmering stars in a loose line with their home planet.