We met at 6:00 pm and took the scenic route to our starting point. We stopped along the way for birding opportunities. And, since our scenic route took us through Midway, we stopped with only five minutes before closing, to get the best ice cream in Utah. Aggie Ice Cream made at Utah State University. What a way to celebrate!
What was wonderful about this evening was that we were on the east side of the mountains, away from the Salt Lake valley, so there was little light pollution. As dusk fell we watched the skies as Jupiter, Venus and Mars showed up and became bright. Through our binos we were able to see four of Jupiter's moons.
The darker it got the more we saw:
- The summer triangle comprised of Deneb, Vega and Altair was in full view.
- So many constellations were easy to find such as Scorpio including his full tail. Ursa Major and Minor were bright enough to find the Piute constellation called the jack rabbit. Cassiopeia and the Teapot of Sagitarius. The Teapot is beside a gigantic black hole that is the center of the galaxy.
In addition, we watched the Space Station race over our heads. There were quite a few satellites including one that gave us an extremely bright Iridium flare as the sun hit one of the antennas and reflected that light back at us. Wow!
About 10:30 we started seeing parts of the Milky Way. Seriously, how often does anyone get to see that these days?
Our survey was also accompanied by many chorus frogs. and the almost constant tuk-a-tuk-a calls of Wilson's Snipes. To our complete delight we even found some fireflies. These are pretty rare in Utah. The Museum of Natural History has a team that documents sightings. We were able to catch one and it was taken to the Museum today and learned it was a pyractomena dispersa.
Our moon was absolutely brilliant in the sky. We probably could have had better views of the Milky Way with a little less moon. Nevertheless, it was a spectacular night. Here is the moon right after sunset.
And later at full dark.
What a fabulous way to welcome summer.
