Star Log 2022-09-10 22:30 AKDT (Fairbanks, AK, US)

After the failure last night, I was feeling rather discouraged. But I continued to pray, and I noticed the forecast predicting lighter cloud cover around 10pm. So, I stayed up a bit later than usual, and was blessed with a great hour of star gazing, mainly toward the southern sky.

I had done a little research before hand, and so I was hoping to see Jupiter a little to the left of the moon tonight. I was not disappointed — Jupiter was brilliant. My binoculars are not powerful enough to actually view the disc, but the brightness of it certainly was attention-getting. The brightness is not well-captured in Stellarium, but this gives you an idea of the position of it:

=> Jupiter next to the moon

I was trying to avoid looking at the moon itself, wanting to preserve my night vision.

In the southern sky, the first thing I noticed was bright Vega, although I didn't know it was Vega right away. I took notes and clearly remember the two stars to the left of it, and four bucket-shaped stars a little more to the left. There is an interesting trail of stars coming off the bottom right star of the bucket.

=> Vega and nearby stars

Vega is part of the Lyra constellation — the celestial harp:

=> Lyra constellation

Soon, the skies became a little clearer, and I was able to see the four center stars of Cygnus, up higher and to the left.

=> Cygnus next to Lyra

I noticed Deneb and the four moderately bright stars that make a sort of half-circle to the left of it.

=> Deneb and nearby stars

I had also noticed the beautiful trail of stars that come down and right of Sadr.

=> Sadr and nearby stars

Around the same Azimuth as Cygnus, but much lower on the horizon, I was able see bright Altair. I noticed it with the two stars just above it, which make a triangle shape.

=> Altair

I took a brief look toward the north, wanting to further cement my mental image of the celestial sphere. Something which struck me is how dim Polaris is compared to the other stars I had looked at that night. It is actually somewhat difficult to find, if you don't already know which direction is north, or have a good view of the constellations that surround it.

=> The North Star

Lastly, I took a good look at the moon. I haven't learned too much yet about the landmarks and the libration and such, but I had a clear view, and it was an attractive full moon.

=> Full moon