Little Big Dippers

 

The moon was out, bright above the tree tops when my niece asked if we could look at it through my spotting scope.  Its a Bushnell 15-45x 60mm on a mediocre tripod.  It takes time to focus as the tripod is a bit wobbly.  Someday I’ll replace that wobbly tripod.  Our best viewing was on the road at the end of the drive looking towards the east.  Always fun to see the moon in fine detail. 

Just to the left of the moon we could see Jupiter.  A large white orb of light in the spotting scope viewfinder. Void of detail as its too far away.  But a thrill to see none the less.  Up and to the right we focused on Saturn.  Though, we could not make out it’s rings, it had an oval appearance rather than being round like Jupiter.  We took turns looking through the scope in wonder at our night sky.  We also took turns swatting the squadrons of biting mosquitos in the hot July night air.

I pointed out Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Big and Little Dippers high overhead.  We tried to trace the stars that make up the constellation of Draco, but the bright moon faded the stars in that constellation.

Looking to the western sky, my niece asked if the moving light was a plane.  No, not a plane.  It was a bright fast moving white light.  Too fast for a plane.  It was too large and bright to be a satellite. It showed up on my iPhone SkyView Lite app as the International Space Station.  We watched it for a minute transversing the sky eastward.  We lost it under the close horizon of treetops down the road.

The hungry mosquitos chased us indoors.  This cut our star gazing and satellite hunting short.  We’ll pick it up again in September when its not so hot and the mini vampires are gone.