Last Saturday Matt and I went star-gazing at the lake. As you might know, I love star-gazing, so the opportunity to peer through professionals' telescopes and see planets and constellations was not something I was going to miss for anything.Mars was a little disappointing - it was just a big red blob, a magnified version of what you can see with the naked eye. We missed Pleiades, but saw some wispy clouds in an Orion cluster instead. The brightest star in our sky, Sirius, lived up to its reputation as a piercing brightness when viewed through the telescope.
The highlight of the night was definitely Saturn. After Mars' somewhat bland appearance, I was expecting a planet even further away to be less distinct again. When it finally rose around 10.30pm, the enthusiasts eagerly spun their telescopes to see it. Matt was excited because he was allowed to play with the telescope and line up Saturn himself. After a bit of fine-tuning by the expert, we were gazing at a brilliant orange planet complete with rings. Miniature when compared with NASA imagery, but recognisable and breath-taking nonetheless.
1 comment:
That pictures you posted looks almost exactly how it looked in the telescope! I was so surprised to see the rings!
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