A night of meteors, planets and beauty

[jrkirkham]

I spent the night of June 23 in the observatory. The temperature was perfect. I had the company of an old friend until about 11:30. He had to get up early the next morning to go to work. Seeing was almost perfect. We were able to see all of the stars of the little dipper. He could even make out a few of the fainter stars that are near the asterism.

I didn't expect to see meteors. There are currently no major showers and I don't usually pay much attention to minor ones. Within a couple of hours we saw four earth burners, all slow and bright. Since their angle was so low they gave the impression of covering the sky from horizon to horizon. One broke up while we were watching.

I took a two-hour nap about midnight. When I went back out transparency was below average, causing the planets to dance around. This was a night when all the planets were in alignment in the early morning sky. That added beauty to the night. A week earlier I had been in the mountains near Phoenix to watch the parade of planets. This time I was in the countryside of West Central Illinois. That morning in Arizona I snapped a quick picture of Mercury and Venus. On this morning I took a shot of Saturn. While most of the country seems excited by the parade of planets, I am anticipating welcoming the planets back to the evening sky.

[turboscrew]

Sounded like a nice session.

[Juno16]

Definitely sounds like a super evening Rob!

Great writeup and wonderful Saturn image.

[Bigzmey]

Some quality time there. Nice shot of Saturn to.

[Makuser]

Hi Rob. A great observing report and a very nice Saturn image to go with it. Thanks for sharing this well written session report Rob and keep looking up.

[John Baars]

Well done Rob, like you said, the parade is impressive, but there's nothing like a good view ( and picture) of good old Saturn.