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February 19, 2007
Scoping Out Saturn
Star parties are totally and completely the coolest things ever.
That birthday party was also extremely awesome.
It was truly a gorgeous and clear night. I heard many say that it was also chilly, but I think the excitement was keeping me warm - which is saying a lot because I am pretty much always the coldest person in any group of people I'm with. Apparently that night was a good night for seeing Saturn, so many of the JSCAS people had their telescopes on Saturn which I think is great for young kids - they really seemed to get a kick out of seeing Saturn! There were also several people checking out the Orion Nebula. One very excellent lady from the JSCAS had a telescope as well as a pair of binoculars - she was really great with the kids and kept helping them find things with the binoculars. I viewed the Orion Nebula and Betelgeuse through the binoculars. 
This is the closest image I could find to how Saturn looked on Saturday, but actually the rings were tilted even more straight up and down and were almost entirely vertical. And instead of being all fuzzy like that, it was very clear and crisp. I even saw Titan!!
This is the closest I could find of what we saw when we looked at the Orion Nebula. It was really cool being able to see this with just a pair of binoculars!
Click the image to see a bigger picture. This is cool because this is a lot like what we saw - Betelgeuse is just very orange and huge.
I am definitely hooked on this whole star party thing now. I will be going to more ... and I might even take the kids with me too :P
Pearls of "wisdom" by Jamie at February 19, 2007 12:21 PM