Sept. 28th, Star Observations

On September 28th, I went to Dr. Percival and Mr. Dacey's star gazing session from 8-10 p.m. at Pine View. The instruments we used were Dr. Percival's binoculars and high power telescope. There were a few clouds present, but the stars were quite visible and identifiable once my eyes adjusted. I believe the moon's phase was a waning crescent. We saw Saturn through the high power telescope, and we were even able to see one of it's moons - I believe it was Titan. We observed constellations such as Scorpius, Sagittarius, Hercules, Corona Borealis/Australis, and Aquila (identified Altair). We also observed the Little and Big Dippers, which actually took up a lot more sky space than I'd previously thought. We looked at Job's Coffin in Delphinus. We also observed M 13 and M 11 in the high power telescope, which was breathtaking and a humbling experience. We also used the telescope to see Alberio and Beta Cygnis, one star was blue and the other was yellow. We also observed the summer triangle. My favorite part was finding Sagittarius and Aquila without the assistance of Dr. Percival -- score one for the girl back home!