Planet Grouping Photo Page

Planet Grouping Photo Page May 9th & 10th, 2002

This photo was taken at 10:03 pm EDT. It shows the stars of the Little Dipper, also known as Ursa Minor. The Little Dipper is a good constellation to use for learning about star magnitudes. Magnitudes refer to the brightness of stars. The brighter the star the lower the magnitude number. It is said that the unaided eye can see stars as faint as 6th magnitude. This is not always the case. Due to light pollution, weather, moonlight and other things, we often can't see stars that faint. Use the stars of Ursa Minor to see how good the "seeing" is when you are star gazing. The Little Dipper has examples of 2nd to 6th magnitude stars within it.
little dipper

Here's the same photo of Ursa Minor. To the right of the photo, you can see the trail of a satellite passing by. According to Heavens-Above.com, it's the Okean O Rocket launched in 1999 from Baykonur, Kazakhstan.
satellite

This 8 second photo was taken at 9:58pm EDT on May 9th. Venus's magnitude was -3.9 and Mars was 1.7th magnitude. Jupiter was at -2.
Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury

This 8 second photo was taken at 9:57pm EDT on May 10th from a much darker observing site. Can you see more faint stars in this image?. Click on the images for high resolution versions.
Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury

Photos by:
John French
Planetarium Production Coordinator
Abrams Planetarium
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, USA

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