Do you want a lovely astronomical viewing April 7-9?

ah i love you gail ^_^ i love these astronomical events but i never know when they are. Thanks for telling me about this one ill be sure to watch.

@Uber: I hope that you don’t live in a big city with a gazillion lights and highrises. I am really spoiled since I have dark skies and more land than houses around me. A nice trade-off for the tick problem.

Wow! Thanks!!!

Thanks—I assume this can also be seen in the West (as long as we don’t have cloud cover)?

Thanks.. I will check it out. I live in the burbs and we have relatively low light pollution. I love astronomy stuff.

@gail no i actually live near a lot of forests so im good. I’ll be looking out for it, thanks again. ^_^

Thanks gail! We have an observatory nearby, so we can go there and view this event. I used to love watching the Stargazer series with Jack Horkheimer on PBS. He was very good at explaining what we could see with the naked eye, and when. Keep looking up!

http://www.jackstargazer.com/

@all; this is not a once-in-a-lifetime-fall-over-with-awe-and-amazement. Just a pretty juxtaposition.

However, that said, my Sky & Telescope map simplifies the viewing. There will be a lot of dimmer stars all around as a distraction. Get a map online of the sky that night and print it out so you can find the landmarks. Moon’s location will help, of course.

Binoculars will be useful for the two star clusters. No need to bother with an observatory.(If you are using a large magnification =/>35, rest binocs on window sill, chair arm, top of car, etc. to avoid hand tremor.)

@scamp; which observatory are you near? And yes, Jack Horkheimer is still fun, but his airtime has been shortened.

It will be fine all over US (48). But clouds are always the issue. Snowing here again today. Raining now.

@gail I go to the Robinson Observatory, Vorhees State Park, High Bridge, NJ – They allow the public to come on Saturday nights from 8 to 10 for free. They are very friendly people who love to share information with anyone who wants to learn. The members are happy to let you look through their telescopes of all shapes and sizes. There is a large cassegrain telescope there inside the tower that they are also willing to share with the public. We’ve gone there several times, and it makes for a very nice evening.

I didn’t know Jack Horkhiemer was still on the air. I haven’t seen him on TV in years.