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Old 24-March-2002, 09:12 AM
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GrapesOfWrath GrapesOfWrath is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: NC, USA
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I went out this morning at 5am, took the dog and binoculars to the top of a small hill at the top of the street. At 5:15, the haze on the horizon was noticeable--and I could even see some darker low clouds in the coming morning light. Also, there were a myriad of streetlights shining down below, but the one closest was nearly flickered out. Not good conditions at all, for seeing planets that had just risen.

Still, it took me only a couple seconds to find Beta Capricorni in the 7x50 binoculars, with the triangle of Rho Capricorni right beneath it. I moved to the left till I could see Theta Capricorni. I knew Neptune would be about centered. By eye, I followed the string of three evenly spaced mag-six stars in to the center. A mag-seven star just to the right of the last one was easily visible; on the other side, about twice as far away, I could just make out Neptune.

Uranus (mag six) was already six degrees in alt (maybe four degrees above the trees) and I could make out the delta capricorni and gamma capricorni pair (both about mag three) just to the right of Uranus, but the haze was thick. And it was cold, so I went home.
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