All my years of nighttime surfcasting have really given me an appreciation of the nighttime sky. It has been great for the last month but March will be better - time to look up - especially just after dusk.

March 2012 guide to the five visible planets | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky (http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury)

DZ

For those of you with an iPhone or Droid, I highly recommend the Star Walk app. It will tell you what star, planet, and constellation that you are looking at when you put the phone up to the sky.

http://store.fishhardlivelong.com/merchant2/graphics/00000003/telescope_vertical_1_LG.jpg
How fortuitous - I got a very good telescope (http://store.fishhardlivelong.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=FHLL&Product_Code=MT312&Category_Code=SD) for sale - $150 if you pick it up, $200 if I have ship it. I'd be ok with traveling 50 miles or so to meet someone - no charge.

http://store.fishhardlivelong.com/merchant2/graphics/00000003/telescope_vertical_1_LG.jpg
How fortuitous - I got a very good telescope (http://store.fishhardlivelong.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=FHLL&Product_Code=MT312&Category_Code=SD) for sale - $150 if you pick it up, $200 if I have ship it. I'd be ok with traveling 50 miles or so to meet someone - no charge.

That's really nice Joe. Especially for blind guys like me. Wondering if it will fit in my surf bag? ;)

SteveK - that app sounds great. But I still use a flip phone from 10 years ago.

DZ

I agree, it is awesome looking up on those dark nights. I get a feeling of insignificance. My brother is really into the stars, has a killer motorized compensating telescope that his camera attaches directly to. Huge diameter. You look up in a book what it is you want to see, enter the code and the telescope moves itself and puts it dead center in the view-field and keeps it there. 99% of the time you can not even see it with your naked eye. I asked him to zoom in on the moon one time and it was ridiculously close, like looking at your hand close up. He loves when he comes to visit me because of the lack of ambient light, I have been asking him to bring it over when he visits and we could set it up on chappy some night, but this thing is a PIA to move around.

I like it pitch black in my back yard. After the summer people leave I walk around the few homes near me and unscrew all the light bulbs so they do not come on all winter. (For some reason, city people like lights, they leave them on all winter long even when they are not there)The sky is amazing when you eliminate extraneous light.

On Block Island, you can see the Milky Way on moonless nights. It literally gets so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face.

Yeah...overnighting in the Canyons the sky is so amazing it is hard to describe. I like to just lay down in the cockpit and look up with the sound of the water against the hull... I told my wife, when I go just put my ashes out there, will ya?

I have always been a recreational star-gazer.
I have a Celestron with a variety of lenses, two Barlow 2X magnifiers and a pretty good back yard.
I love showing my neices and nephews objects in the night sky.
Most kids have not seen Jupiter and its moons, Saturn's rings, or even the craters on the moon. My relative HAVE!
There was a comet that was visible back during one year in the early 90's that was visible withthe naked eye. With the telescope I could see the ice-ball that it was made of!

How many of us have seen objects in the night sky that we couldn't quickly identify?
I've seen the space station a few times, numerous satellites, and falling stars that looked more like fireworks that shooting stars.

There's not that many places where you can escape noise and light pollution. That's what I don't like about suburbia. There's always shadows from street lights or exterior lighting and I can always hear the highway. It never truly gets dark and quiet. I'm not a new age person, but there is something about an absolute quiet and dark night that is akin to a spiritual experience.

The outer beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore are about the best place I know of for the land lubber to get away from the background light and really get a good look at the Milky Way galaxy. More than once, I have been looking straight up at the stars or watching for Northern Lights, totally off-balance, not paying attention to reeling a plug and have a good fish hit.

Coastal areas can be good because of the dark sky over the ocean, but also the heat differential can disrupt the atmosphere making thinks not as sharp.

There are a lot of neat objects you can see naked eye if it's dark enough and know where to look. Even a few nebula that are big but very faint.

Last time Halley's comet came around I was really into astro photography. Hell I even attended a lecture by James Van Allen. I think the other kids were out chasing girls.

-spence

On Block Island, you can see the Milky Way on moonless nights.

Growing up in farm land in PA, I could never imagine living somewhere where it isn't visible. I miss it. :love: I am in the middle of an astronomy course through Penn State. We use a program called starry night. It is $80 or something, but if you are into this stuff, check it out on their website (starrynight.com). It is awesome.

I remember that when I was in the Navy....out at sea in the middle of the night.....amazing the stars you would see....the milky way is unbelievable

Last time in Hawaii I visited the Keck on Mauna Loa, now that was a sky.

Last night, it was absolutely awesome.

Jupiter and Venus in near-conjunction in the western sky at dusk. Mercury visible low on the NW horizon. Almost-full moon, and Mars rising behind it.

There is a chance to see the Aurora tonight. Massive solar flare happened yesterday.

PhotoBlog - Solar blast could have earthly impact (http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/07/10596987-solar-blast-could-have-earthly-impact?ocid=ansmsnbc11)

About 10 years ago or so in late October i was fishing the canal and there was an awesome Aurora display. It last for a few hours. I went to eat and came back and it was still dancing.

Worm moon!

The moon rising tonight was incredible...now it is surrounded by a soft haze

I enjoyed a good stogie as I watched it rise over my snow coverd boat while the woodcock "quacked" in my field. I'm ready for spring!

I posted this in another thread , but this seems more appropriate.

Tonight's full "Worm Moon"

Aurora Forecast | Geophysical Institute (http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/NorthAmerica/2012/03/09)

I was at Point Judith one night a few years ago and I walked past these people in the parking lot who looked like they were all just waiting there for something to happen. I walked past again a little while later and one of them was saying " alright here it comes" and straight ahead the full moon rose up over the pitch black ocean all huge and brilliant orange. I stopped and watched with them. It was really an awsome sight and it was so cool because it was like the guy had scheduled the moon to rise just for his friends, right on time and straight in front of his car. I always thought that would be cool to know if you were on a date and you could just pull into PJ parking lot and say " Hey I got something for you, look out there" and then the moon rises right on que. If anyone knows when that's going to happen again tell me and I'll go there and propose to my girl.

I think it is June 5th of this year... Venus will transit the sun. It happened last in 2004. My brother took the photo below back then. The next time this happens is in 2117. I can tell you most of us probably will not make it and those that are around probably won't have much eyesight left so this is your last chance.

You may want to get a sun filter for your scope.

Just marked it on my calendar. Full moon is the 4th according to my calendar.

Tonight, NASA is supposed to launch 5 satellites over the course of a few minutes, and create a vapor trail light show that should be visible over the whole east coast.

But, if it's anything like the last few nights, the Cape will be fogged in. :(

Moon, Venus and Jupiter forming a nice (love) triangle tonight.. Luckily Uranus decided not to show!:rotf2: