Darling Hill Will OPEN Tonight, 4 November (Friday) For Moon-Centric Observing

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

We’ll be opening the observatory tonight with the Moon past half-full, making for observing conditions that strongly favor the Moon (obviously), Jupiter, and brighter clusters. It will be quite cold (so dress for mid-winter temperatures) and is predicted to be quite clear.

According to heavens-above.com, we’ll be having TWO passes of the International Space Station tonight, although we’ll only likely be able to see one of them. The better-seen of the two, starting at 7:43 p.m., will be low in the horizon from West to South, just below or between the radars of Corona Borealis, Hercules, Ophiuchus, and Sagittarius.

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
4 Nov -3.3 18:06:50 10 NW 18:09:58 61 NNE 18:13:09 10 ESE
4 Nov -0.6 19:43:40 10 W 19:45:49 17 SW 19:47:56 10 S