stargazing last night, long time since

I went out naked eye and binoc stargazing last night, had not done so
for some time. pretty cool, drove out to a soccer field few miles out
of town with red flashlight, binocs, star chart. located a few major
constellations (big dipper, little dipper, draco, casseopea, cignus,
bootes), great square of pegasus.

in the southern sky just above the horizon i thought i was looking at
mars and above it jupiter, and I saw some moons of jupiter with
binocs; well, here i am on my laptop this morning, using kstars
software and i see it was not mars at all! it was the red giant star
Antares! lesson learned,not all red bodies at dusk are mars!

Also saw a few meteors, two orbiting satellites, a few jetliners, the
milky way. Not bad for a first night out in a long long time.

Nice report, enjoyed reading about the few meteors and satellites. I
need to get out there and battle the mosquitos (fog the yard) so I can
get in more ep time, looking forward to the meteor showers this
month. Keep at it,

ko

On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:41:58 -0000, "
wrote:

in the southern sky just above the horizon i thought i was looking at
mars and above it jupiter, and I saw some moons of jupiter with
binocs; well, here i am on my laptop this morning, using kstars
software and i see it was not mars at all! it was the red giant star
Antares! lesson learned,not all red bodies at dusk are mars!

Some ancient history there. The name "Antares" comes from the Greek for
"against Mars", a reference to the comparison (and possible confusion)
between the two objects, which are of similar color and brightness, and
which can appear in the same part of the sky. You're not the first to
make this mistake!

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote:

Some ancient history there. The name "Antares" comes from the Greek for
"against Mars", a reference to the comparison (and possible confusion)
between the two objects, which are of similar color and brightness, and
which can appear in the same part of the sky. You're not the first to
make this mistake!


Yes, and maybe one could also translate "Antares" as "rival of Mars,"
indeed descriptive.

It's curious that when I started systematic binocular observations
maybe about two and a half months ago, Antares was my first landmark,
and my recognition of the binocular asterisk I saw around it as what
I might call the "Antares-Rho Ophiuchi pentagon" as an initial
reference point for finding where I was and using a star atlas to
good effect.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter

Lat. 38.566 Long. -121.430

On Aug 8, 9:36 am, ko57 wrote:
Nice report, enjoyed reading about the few meteors and satellites. I
need to get out there and battle the mosquitos (fog the yard) so I can
get in more ep time, looking forward to the meteor showers this
month. Keep at it,
..

100% DEET repellent will keep anything off, I just put a few drops of
that on my skin and rub it around. Most of the repellent in stores is
so watered down it is has minimal effect. We here in Minnesota USA
know about mosquitos, trust me.

wrote:

in the southern sky just above the horizon i thought i was looking at
mars and above it jupiter, and I saw some moons of jupiter with
binocs; well, here i am on my laptop this morning, using kstars
software and i see it was not mars at all! it was the red giant star
Antares! lesson learned,not all red bodies at dusk are mars!

Also saw a few meteors, two orbiting satellites, a few jetliners, the
milky way. Not bad for a first night out in a long long time.

Hi, there, and please let me lend my encouragement also!

If you can see the Milky Way, then there should be lots of fun in
Sagittarius for you -- with a number of star clusters and star clouds
of the kind that Marty and I were discussing in a recent thread.

You might look up on the Web, for example, M8, M20, M21, M24, M25,
and the globular cluster M22 -- as well as M4, quite close to Antares,
which I saw from darker skies at a place called Cronan Ranch in the
Sierra Foothills of California. These are just a few of the 110 or
so Messier objects, which the astronomer Charles Messier catalogued
in the 18th century in part to avoid confusing them with the comets
he was seeking out -- but also with an evident admiration for the
striking beauty of many of these objects.

While I typically do urban viewing with a telescope, good binoculars
in dark skies where the Milky Way is easily visible can in many ways
be at least as satisfying.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter

Lat. 38.566 Long. -121.430