Stargazing

Tonight it was very clear so we went into the garden at about 8:30 PM with the telescope to stargaze. I also took my binoculars and my camera. The moon was very bright but not full. I had a go at getting a photo of the moon with my digital camera. I played around with the settings and got the photo below.

Jason got the telescope set up and we looked at Jupiter. Jase could see some bands around Jupiter but I wasn't able to see it that clearly but I could see Jupiter's four Gallilean moons Io, Gannymead, Calista and Europa. It's amazing to think that bright dot of Io that I could see through the telescope is the most geologically active object in the solar system. Io has 400 active volcanoes probably ly some we're erupting as we looked at it! We also looked at Rigel and Betlegeuse the red star in Orion and the 1999 diffuse nebular in Orion. 

We then had a look at the moon. I really need to get a filter for the eye piece for viewing the moon as it's so bright. But we could still see the moon very well. The best bit were the craters on the edge of dark and light on the moon. I could really see the structure of the craters. 

Once we'd been out for over an hour we got quite cold and came in for hot chocolate with marshmallows. It was great!