Observations 3

10/14/09
(Stargaze)
8:15 PM
The Saggitarius and the tail of Scorpius were low above the horizon to the southwest.
Arcturus was setting to the west-northwest.
Jupiter was visible to the south-southeast. Four of its moons could be seen through the telescope.
We looked at Polaris with the telescope and saw the two stars that actually make Polaris a double star. The dimmer one was at the 10:00 position from the brighter one.
We saw Sagitta, the Arrow, and the coat hanger formation of stars slightly north of it.
Hercules was to the west, around 12 degrees below Vega. We saw M13 and the keystone asterism.
Cassiopeia and Cepheus were visible to the north.

9:00 PM
At this time, four first magnitude stars were visible: Altair, Deneb, Vega, and Fomalhaut.
Pegasus was rising in the east.
M31, the Andromeda galaxy, was to the northeast; we looked at it through the telescope.
One of Jupiter's moons was making a transit across the planet. A small black dot was visible on Jupiter. As time passed, we could tell that the dot's position on the planet changed as the moon progressed through its transit, which may have lasted around two hours.