Observation Session on September 28, 2011

Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Time: 8:00 pm EST to 10:00 pm EST
Temperature: low to mid 80s (degrees Fahrenheit); around 83 degrees
Location: Parking Lot across the street from Casey Key Fish House; Osprey, FL
Clear skies

Because it was so clear, we were able to spot many constellations, satellites, a planet, a few M objects, and even a meteor.
We saw Sagittarius, Scorpius, Delphinus (Job's Coffin), Corona Australis, Aquila, "The Big Dipper," "The Little Dipper," and Hercules (Keystone).  We were able to see stars such as Antares, Altair, Vega, Deneb, and Polaris.  Because we saw Altair, Vega, and Deneb we were able to locate the Summer Triangle.
We observed M8, M13, and Jupiter through a telescope at 80 power.  M8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula, and it was a collection of stars and dust that had gray-ish tint to it.  M13 is what is called a globular cluster of stars.  The two brightest stars in the cluster were a yellow and a blue color.  When viewing Jupiter, we could see some of its moons, and faint lines that are the iconic Jupiter coloring (brown, yellow, orange, white, etc).
I was able to observe the movement of two satellites; one was moving down the celestial sphere toward the north, and the other toward the west.
The thing that impressed me the most was the scale of the constellations; when looking at a star chart, one is not able to comprehend the magnitude of the constellations.  I was surprised to see how big the Teapot of Sagittarius was.
Throughout the night, we were able to observe the gradual movement of the celestial sphere.  When we arrived, Antares was visible; when we left, it was not.