Sunday was about travel, gathering, introductions and anticipation. I have gathered in Phoenix with teachers from Arizona, Texas, Montana, Utah, Massachusetts, Mexico, California... with more to join the group on our official start. It's a diverse group of educators. Various stages of our carreers, varying degrees of experience, but everyone here to learn and network! That's my kind of group. One of the teachers shared her favorite quote with me:
"If at first you don't succeed. Don't try again. Identify the root cause of the failure first."
After sharing supper together, we all dispersed back to our hotel rooms to prepare for the trip. As I walked back to my hotel, I noticed Jupiter bright in the western sky. I scanned the sky. High in the southwest, the subject of our week, Mars, bright, yellow-orange. A bit further south, and nearly as high was Saturn, I went back to my room and grabbed the binoculars and the mini tripod I brought along. I found a small table in the hotel courtyard and pointed the binoculars to each of the three planets in turn for observation.
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| Celestron Cometron 12x70 |
This is the first time I've really used the new binoculars. They are lightweight for their size and have a very sharp, bright view. They are very comfortable to use. The tripod is essential for observing the planets. Hand held, any slight vibration induces an erratically dancing point of light, but the tripod mount greatly reduced the motion. Even with the street lights, I was able to just make out the rings of Saturn. With darker skies, who knows what I'll see.
This is also the "honey moon" season. Due to the opposition of the moon, it appears amber much larger than usual as it rises. Even though it is a couple days past full, the mood loomed large in the east. With the binoculars, sharp detail of the craters and mountains of the moon were visible.
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