10/22/15 6:53 PM

This is the first time I've seen four planets in the same sky.

The big 3 are up before me, Mercury rises about an hour before sunrise.

From Sky and Telescope

10/22/15 8:13 PM

I have not seen Mercury (it's pretty tough through the horizon haze here), but I saw the other three a couple times last week. I missed the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter last weekend, unfortunately.

10/23/15 12:55 AM

I remember reading about Springfield and Stellafane in my telescope making youth - Russell W Porter was a famous name in ATM circles.

https://stellafane.org/

10/23/15 8:10 AM

I'll have to look for them tomorrow when I get up at 4:15 AM for speed skating practice. :-)

David

10/23/15 9:04 AM

Venus and Jupiter were prominent this morning, but it was just before sunrise and the sky had brightened too much for me to see Mars.

10/23/15 5:25 PM

I will give it a peek tomorrow if the weather holds. I am taking 5 customers to hunting stands at 0430, if there are no clouds I should get a great view. It is DARK where I will be. I showed Jeannie the Milky Way last weekend, viewable naked eye where we were.

10/24/15 11:15 AM

I was out this AM as I stated. My view was pretty good at times as I drove through the woods. With Binos, I was able to see all of them except Venus, because it was too low and never above any of the trees.

I could see some of Jupiter's moons, they can be seen with a steady hands and good glass. I used my hunting glass, Zeiss 8x32 and they worked well. It is cool right now because three can be seen at once.

Orion is fabulous where I was, It was high and in clear air around 0400, you could see it with your naked eyes, no glass needed to see the nebula. With glass it had depth and a touch of color. All of this is because I was 25 miles from city lights and car headlights.

10/28/15 12:56 PM

Very nice, Jupiter's moons, the Milky Way, lucky you and you take advantage of it. Yeah, Mercury is really tough, you need to be persistent. I thought when I lived in San Diego I'd see it during a sunset, but there was always an ocean layer at the horizon. Maybe a trip to the Appalachians is in store, when the barometer is high.

10/28/15 5:08 PM

I may go to my daughter's farm Saturday evening if the weather is clear. This fall the sky has been nonstop rain as you may have seen on the news. Just a couple of clear nights so far.

10/29/15 7:40 AM

http://www.heavens-above.com/

I just came across this, satellite, ISS tracking and other astronomical views.

10/29/15 10:59 AM

"astronomic tracking website "


Stellarium fan myself..

http://www.stellarium.org/

10/29/15 12:46 PM

That's a program, this is a website.

I didn't install Stellarium but it looks to be great.

At heavens-above you can pinpoint your location with a Google map and it coordinates the star charts.

The area that caught my eye is where it tracks thousands of satellites including of course the ISS but also Iridium. There's a phenomenon called Iridium flare where the Sun reflects off the satellite shortly after dark. It is bright, maybe more than Venus, but if you're not looking it isn't obvious. That's part of the website's tracking.

10/29/15 1:08 PM

"At heavens-above you can pinpoint your location with a Google map and it coordinates the star charts. "


Stellarium; you enter your viewpoint with your LAT/LONG/ALT in the cfg.

And you can turn on and off terrain so you can easily see behind earth as one example of ease of view etc. Track, and fast forward including what you might be tracking, etc.

The add ons for things is pretty cool too. I won't go into detail, or try to. ;)

10/30/15 9:51 AM

The three were nice this morning, Mars much dimmer than Jupiter, Venus really impressively bright, even in a sky dominated by the just-past-full moon.