Highland Road Park Observatory

THE EDGE OF NIGHT
(Fall Session)

Friday 15 November from 4:45 pm to 6:45 pm CST
No admission fee. For all ages.
Binoculars strongly encouraged.

It’s not light, it’s not dark. It’s that special time called twilight, and HRPO wants to introduce you to it!

*Which stars are seen first?
*Are Mercury☿ and Venus♀ or the Moon out?
*Is that moving object a plane, a satellite or space debris?
*How much actual darkness should I expect in a light-polluted city when twilight has passed?

There is no other time like twilight. Bring it into your life!

• 4:45 pm to 5:45 pm = Venus♀ viewing
• 5:00 pm to 6:15 pm = Jupiter♃ viewing
• 5:07 pm = “civil twilight” begins (search for crepuscular rays)
• 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm = Saturn♄ viewing
• 5:34 pm = “civil twilight” ends; “nautical twilight” begins
• 5:48 pm to 5:59 pm = magnitude 2.5 pass of the Cosmos 2227 rocket
• 5:48 pm to 5:59 pm = magnitude 2.4 pass of the Cosmos 2297 rocket
• 5:55 pm to 5:59 pm = magnitude 0.8 pass of a Chang Zheng 3 stage 3
• 6:03 pm = “nautical twilight” ends; “astronomical twilight” begins
• 6:18 pm to 6:25 pm = magnitude 2.4 pass of Cosmos 1633
• 6:24 pm to 6:38 pm = magnitude 2.4 pass of an Atlas V 401 rocket
• 6:29 pm to 6:32 pm = magnitude 2.1 pass of the GPS 2-04 rocket
• 6:15 pm = introduction to GLOBE at Night home exercise
• 6:30 pm = attempt to view Pleiades Star Cluster
• 6:31 pm = “astronomical twilight” ends

{The various twilights will be explained.}

Celestial Objects in Order of Appearance (with magnitudes):

Venus♀ [-3.9] / Jupiter♃ [-1.8] / Vega [0.0] / Saturn♄ [0.5] / Altair [0.7] / Deneb [1.2] / Polaris [2.0] / Albireo [3.2] / Andromeda Galaxy [4.5]

NOTE: The Natural Sky Conference (which takes place the following Friday) is an excellent followup to this session.

This program pre-empts the Friday Night Lecture Series on…
*the last Friday in spring before Daylight Time begins
*the Friday during the week of Independence Day
*the first Friday in fall after Daylight Time ends

Updated by Frederick J. Barnett on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 01:10 PM.