(no subject)

[wolffyluna]

One of the classes I'm in went to the local observatory to go star-gazing. It was good fun, even if it was cold and also after a really long day for me. I got to see Saturn and Titan (the Cassini division and Rea and Daphnis were also visible, but I couldn't quite get my eye to see those), Jupiter (plus stripes and the Galilean moons. The spot was on the wrong side to us though), the Jewelboc Cluster (pretty, blue, shiny!), the Omega Centauri cluster (which looks like a grey blob, really) and Alpha Centauri (some people could actually see the binary system, but my eyes had given up at the point.)

I've also now gotta a better idea of what the plane of the ecliptic is, which was the official purpose of that exercise. (The plane of the ecliptic: the plane that all the planets and moons more or less orbit the Sun around. Also why the Sun, Moon, and planets all take the same path across the sky.)

I can also, at least for the next little while, find Jupiter and Saturn in the sky. Also maaaaaaybe Alpha Centauri. Maybe.

Comments

[lb_lee]

Did you have a telescope? Did you get to see Saturn's rings? *_*

--Sneak

[wolffyluna]

We all took turns looking through a telescope. (Apparently the local observatory has multiple telescopes purely for outreach purposes.)

I got to see Saturn's rings. Some people managed to see the dark band in the middle of the rings, but I couldn't quite get my eye in for that.

[lb_lee]

Cool! 8D There's a wandering group of astronomers here who set up telescopes and let folks look through it and it's super neat! Cool to see other places like that.

Sneak