Planet low in east at 10pm?

As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very obvious
planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was wondering
which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve a planet
into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what its name
is.

Thanks.

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:21:07 +0100, neil f wrote:

As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very obvious
planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was wondering
which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve a planet
into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what its name
is.

It's Jupiter. Can you see any of the four large moons with binoculars?

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail rpont (at) gmail (dot) com

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:21:07 +0100, "neil f"
wrote:

As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very obvious
planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was wondering
which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve a planet
into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what its name
is.

Jupiter

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:48:38 +0100 (BST), Rodney Pont wrote:

As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very obvious
planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was wondering
which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve a planet
into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what its name
is.

It's Jupiter. Can you see any of the four large moons with binoculars?

p.s. The best view for the next 12 years should be on September 21st.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail rpont (at) gmail (dot) com

"neil f" wrote in message
...
As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very
obvious planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was
wondering which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve
a planet into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what
its name is.

Thanks.


Others have told you that it is Jupiter. If you look to the right, which is
a bit south, you will see two other much fainter points of light. They are
both seen together at the same time through my binoculars: I can't see them
without the glasses but just can with them. The right hand one, slightly
higher up, is Uranus. Not spectacular at all, but you might never see it
again in your life. It is 3 billion kilometres away and was only known to
be a planet after telescopes were in use.

In uk.sci.astronomy message , Fri, 27
Aug 2010 22:21:07, neil f posted:

As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very obvious
planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was wondering
which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve a planet
into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what its name
is.

For all such questions, after setting your own latitude & longitude,
http://www.heavens-above.com/skychar...=52.533&lng=-1.
462&loc=Home&alt=0&tz=GMT; much easier to read if you then choose black
and white.

For artificial satellites, now click the top left logo.

--
(c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

"neil f" wrote in message
...
As a non-astronomer, I was just looking through binoculars at a very
obvious planet near to the moon at about 10pm tonight (27/8/10) and was
wondering which one it was. It's the first time I've been able to resolve
a planet into a sharp round white sphere, so it would be nice to know what
its name is.

Thanks.



Uranus is very close in the sky to Jupiter at this time and the following
are positions for both planets shown in degrees at 11 pm BST over the next
few weeks. The Az is azimuth measured from North which is zero and increases
as you turn clockwise towards East. Alt is altitude above horizon. The date
is given in format dd/mm/yy. All these are for latitude 53.5 degrees so
adjust accordingly for further south or north of this latitude for the
altitude. It should be no problem as Jupiter is easily found as the
brightest object in the sky when the Moon is not up. If you wish to
photograph the movement of Jupiter and Uranus against the background stars
may I suggest that a field of about 2 degrees should be OK. Just let Jupiter
drift across the field of your telephoto lens and for 2 degrees it takes 8
minutes from one edge of the field to the opposite edge. Then fix Jupiter in
the lower left hand side of the field and Uranus should be at the upper
right of the field. Try to limit the shake in your binoculars by mounting
them on a tripod or sit the wrong way round on a chair and rest your elbows
on the chair back, or even rest your arms on a wall if you can to reduce
shake.

I cannot give help on exposure times to get to 8 th magnitude stars to show
the movement of both planets relative to the background stars or other
details as this is beyond my experience but perhaps others can help with
this. All I know is that I can identify Uranus with my 8x30 binoculars as
the brightest object at 5.7 mag just over a degree above and to the right of
Jupiter. It will be in line with Jupiter 18 th Sept. Beware if you look
later in the night for the given figures as the aspect of the planets in the
sky changes ever so slightly as the night progresses.

Date Jupiter at 11 pm BST Uranus at 11 pm BST
Alt Az
Alt Az
03/09/10 21.7 125.0 22.6
126.0
10/09/10 25.0 132.6 25.8
133.0
17/09/10 27.8 140.6 28.6
140.8
24/09/10 30.1 149.1 31.0
148.1

It can be seen from the above that Jupiter has "overtaken" Uranus over the
last week of the figures. Do not forget that the Moon will interfere with
observing Uranus when it is in the sky so look when the Moon will not hinder
you.