Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsI got up Sunday morning to do some Mars observing and afterward decided to leave the 'scope set up. At around noon I noticed that crescent Moon was almost over head and the sky was a very dark blue so I attached the my home-made encoder interface to the laptop fired up Earth Centered Universe and aligned the system on the Moon and the Sun. The computer showed that Saturn wasn't far from the Moon so I moved the 'scope until the computer showed that it should be in the eyepiece and there it was ! A pale yellow ghostly image of Saturn floating in a light blue sky. The next object was Venus which is only a few degrees from the Sun. I carefully position the 'scope and there is was. It looked to be 100% illuminated disk of pure white. Jupiter was near by and on the other side of Sun and there it was ! It had with three bands showing. I then started hunting for stars. I easily found Sirus,Capella, Castor, and Aldeberan. So if you have a GOTO 'scope there is alot more to see in the daytime then just the Sun and the Moon. Dave |