Reports - 2015
Astronomy Benalla Viewing Report - Saturday 21st February 2015
Winton Wetlands Dark Sky Viewing Night - Rupe Cheetham
Potential cloud and the attraction of the Melbourne bright lights reduced our usual number of viewers to just three this
month. However the spasmodic cloud dissipated during dusk and we were rewarded with the Milky Way in all its glory
for the latter hours. Initially the two day crescent Moon low in the west shone brightly between the ruddy sun set
clouds accompanied by Venus and the red planet Mars for a neat conjunction. This was a great view, through
binoculars and to be photographed.
Bev set up her refractor and had Jupiter’s four Galilean moons aligned on one side. Rupe pointed his Newtonian to
the southern heavens of Centaurus, Crux and Tucana, doing the double stars and the best of the large globular
clusters, with changes of eyepieces to split the doubles.
Gwen sat back in her comfortable camp chair and perused with her binoculars the open clusters the Pleiades and
Jewel Box. A pleasant warm night, finished with us climbing into bed after midnight.
Winton Wetlands Skyline. 21st February 2015. The Moon and Venus. Picture: Gwen Cheetham.
month. However the spasmodic cloud dissipated during dusk and we were rewarded with the Milky Way in all its glory
for the latter hours. Initially the two day crescent Moon low in the west shone brightly between the ruddy sun set
clouds accompanied by Venus and the red planet Mars for a neat conjunction. This was a great view, through
binoculars and to be photographed.
Bev set up her refractor and had Jupiter’s four Galilean moons aligned on one side. Rupe pointed his Newtonian to
the southern heavens of Centaurus, Crux and Tucana, doing the double stars and the best of the large globular
clusters, with changes of eyepieces to split the doubles.
Gwen sat back in her comfortable camp chair and perused with her binoculars the open clusters the Pleiades and
Jewel Box. A pleasant warm night, finished with us climbing into bed after midnight.
Winton Wetlands Skyline. 21st February 2015. The Moon and Venus. Picture: Gwen Cheetham.
Pictures from the Hubble Site
