Our
observation yesterday December the 5th. We gather students, parents and teachers of the San José School and Nuestra Señora de la Merced School, 25 people in total.
Despite the
traffic jam, we managed to reach the observation area at 7:30 pm. It was cold
but we were looking forward to watch the autumn and winter constellations.
Firstly we
located the Big Bear galaxy ( Ursa Major ) and the Polaris star, the first step to get oriented into the night sky.
Then the Ursa Minor constellation.
We observed
Venus ( waxing crescent like the Moon, it was like a little Moon ). After that
we observe the 2-3 days old Moon, and the Mare Crisium on it .
Then we
moved to the summer constellations which
were disappearing : Northern Cross ( where were Denef and Albireo stars) , Lira
( where is Vega, a green star ), and the Eagle ( where is Altair star ).
It was very
difficult to observe Capricorn, an Aquarius because of the Madrid light
pollution. However we where able to observe Pisces and we watched perfectly
Pegasus and Andromeda constellations. All of us were delighted when we watched
the Andromeda galaxy on the telescope.
As Jupiter
was just appearing on the horizon we observed it and its four main moons ( Io,
Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto).
To continue
with the observation we moved to Taurus by identifying the Pleiades ( or seven
Sisters, it was like a little Ursa Major ) and its main star Aldebaran ( a big
red star).
At that
moment, most of us were already frozen.
To finishing the star tour we observed the constellations Perseus, Auriga ( autumn-winter constellations), Casiopea,
Cepheus, and Draco ( circumpolar constellations ), and M15, a globular cluster
in the Pegasus constellation.
In
conclusion, there was a clear and clean
sky night. It was great in spite of the freezing cold weather and we had a lot of
fun and enjoyed it.
Join us for the next Spring star tour. We will review some of those constellations and to observe a lot of new ones.
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