May 13, 2008

The light in the sky


Last week I spotted a brilliant object in the sky. At first I thought it was Venus but Venus rises at dawn, not at 7 something pm. Jupiter rises after midnight these days, so it wasn't Jupiter either. The brighter stars in the vecinity were Sirius and Canopus, higher in the sky at that moment--so what the hell was that? I still don't know. I went for my binoculars and I noticed the thing was double and it was just fixed in the sky. Later it started to rain and I didn't see it again--actually I haven't seen it again.

April 29, 2008

The sky on May

May 1: Watch Saturn's rings before they disappear from our view later this year.
May 5: Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower
May 6: The Moon and Mercury
May21-23: Mars travels through the Beehive cluster (M44) in Cancer.

April 25, 2008

Next viewing of the International Space Station

April 28
5:23-5:28am (SW-NE)
April 30
4:41-4:45am (NW-NE)

April 18, 2008

Lyrid Meteor Shower

The Lyrids peeks on the night of April 21/22, but you can still see meteorites several days before and several days after the peak.

April 14, 2008

International Space Station

The International Space Station will be seen again from Puerto Rico this week several times. The ISS will be brighter than the brightest star in the sky every evening: Sirius (αCMa) glowing
at -1.46.
April 15 @ 7:53pm (NW-NE) 30°
April 17 @ 7:05pm (NW-SE) 30°
April 18 @ 7:25pm (W-SE) 36°

March 31, 2008

Pleiades, Jupiter & Saturn

The moon passes the Pleiades star cluster (W) on April 8.

Jupiter dominates the morning sky early April shining at
magnitude -2.2 (SE).

Saturn, the lord of the rings, glows at magnitude 0.4 among the stars of Leo on the evening sky this month. Saturn's rings will disappear from our sight later this year as the planet tilts edge-on.

March 27, 2008

Saturn: Lord Of The Rings



It bothers me that I can't take pictures of everything I see, so in a desperate move to see if I can take a picture of Saturn, I tried to hook my videocamera to my telescope. It was not entirely good, but not bad either. What do you think?

March 22, 2008

Jupiter & Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Magnificent Jupiter rises at dawn in the southern sky every morning this month followed by Mercury and Venus. Use binoculars to spot Jupiter's 4 biggest satellites: Ganymede, Callisto, Io & Europa. You can find Jupiter in Sagittarius.


Comet Wirtanen will pass several deep-sky objects in constellation Auriga and glowing around 9th magnitud. On March 23 will be the next time the comet could be observed without the moon in sight. You may need binoculars to watch it. Auriga is in the western horizon at night, around 9pm this month.

March 19, 2008

Space Station & Endeavour


When to watch:

* Saturday (March 22) @ 5:47am (N->E-SE)
* Sunday (March 23) @ 6:08am (NW->S) & 7:14pm (S->E)
* Monday (March 24) @ 7:40pm (W-NW->N)
* Tuesday (March 25) @ 5:22am (SW->S-SE)
* Wednesday (March 26) @ 6:48pm (W->N)

March 17, 2008

March 18

Watch Saturn's rings before they disappear later this year when the Earth and Saturn's rings line up (edge-on view).


Asteroid Ceres is getting closer to the Pleiades star cluster.

March 15, 2008

MARS & THE MOON


The point of light in the upper left is Mars. It looked a lot better with binoculars, though.

March 4, 2008

VENUS, MERCURY, THE MOON & JUPITER





The pictures are not very good but this is what i saw this morning at 6am.

March 2, 2008

THE SKY ON MARCH

VENUS, MERCURY, JUPITER & THE MOON ON MARCH 4, 30 MINUES BEFORE SUNRISE.
ASTEROID CERES WILL BE PASSING NEAR PLEIADES STAR CLUSTER (M45).