A good night for counting stars

A good time was had by all. That would probably be the best way to describe the experience of those who gathered in front of the high school grandstand to participate in the annual Great Worldwide Star Count on Thursday evening, Oct. 30.

They couldn't have asked for a better evening. The air temperature was in the lower 60s with no wind and the sky was just about as clear as it can get. Even though we were gathered in an area where there were several outside light fixtures on the surrounding streets and the school building itself, the sky could be described as relatively dark.

There was no problem at all in seeing the glowing expanse of the Milky Way as it stretched from Cassiopeia in the north to Sagittarius in the south. The star-spattered band showed up well against the black of the night sky.

The normal indicator of sky clarity, the Little Dipper, showed five of its seven stars which was great for sky clearness and viewing.

We started the evening with a telescopic viewing of Jupiter and its four visible moons. Afterward, there was a sky tour of the constellations starting in the north the traveling to the west then to the south, and then overhead to the Summer Triangle and then to the star, so to speak, of the evening, the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.

It was the target constellation for the star count. It was not so much that we were going to count the stars as it was to see what could actually be seen and then compare that number to what could be seen under perfect conditions.

Under perfect conditions the human eye should be able to see down to the seventh magnitude without any optical aid. At seventh magnitude, about 14,000 stars can be seen. If we place our limiting magnitude for the evening at the sixth magnitude (4,900 stars seen) that would mean we are missing 9,100 stars from our sky (14,000-4,900).

All things considered it was a good evening for viewing especially for October.

SKY WATCH: Jupiter and Venus are the two celestial bright spots in the early November evening skies. Look to the southwest for Venus hanging just above the horizon at about 6 p.m. local time. Up and high to its left is the other bright spot, the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. If you will watch the two planets during November they will be drawing closer to each other with each passing day until they have a very close meeting on Sunday evening, Nov. 30. Tonight, go out about 7 p.m. local time and look in the south for an eight-day old moon, which will be about three degrees above and to the left of Neptune. They both will be in the same field of view in a pair of binoculars. If you can, keep the moon out of the field of view so as not to drown out the small dot of a planet. On Saturday, go out at about the same time and look in the southeast when the moon will again show us where to find another dim planet, this time Uranus. The moon will be above and to the left about the same distance it was from Neptune two days previous. Again, try to keep the moon out of the field of view so as not to blot out the planet.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering.