Back from a holiday in Dubai and Oman. I had a great time and most evenings I managed to get some stargazing in while there. I’ve a bundle of notes and sketches scribbled on hotel notepads. Over the next few days I’ll be writing my observations up and posting them here. I took my Celestron Skymaster 15×50 binoculars with me and a tripod so observing was with those or naked eye.
Location: Dubai, Souq Al-Bahhar, Mall of the Emirates hotel.
Weather: Hot.
Equipment: Naked eye, Celestron Skymaster 15×50 binoculars
Highlights: Summer Triangle, Vega, rotation, moon, Jupiter, Venus
23:00 Sitting eating our evening meal at the Souq Al-Bahhar opposite the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Just watched the Dubai Fountain show in front of a lit up Burj. With the naked eye to the left of the Burj I can see a star. It must be a bright one as there’s a huge amount of light pollution around here and it’s not easy to see any. A quick check on Sky Safari on my iPhone confirms my suspicion that it’s Vega.
So, that fainter one I can just make out to the left of it must be Altair, and so the one above must be Deneb. Once again I’ve found my familiar signpost – the Summer Triangle.
But now the strange thing. It’s all rotated about 30° clockwise to what I’ve become used to. I need to work out and understand why that is. I was used to Vega being at the top of the triangle through the Summer back home. Here it’s Deneb. Is that because we’re at a lower latitude or is it just because it’s a few months on from when I was observing it back home? I haven’t thought it through yet but that probably makes sense as we’re about 30° further south at 24°N (Home is 52°N.)
Incidentally, I was looking at the moon earlier, through the binoculars through the hotel window, while A was getting ready to go out to eat. It was almost full. Below Tycho I could make out some edges of craters along the terminator.
I was noticing that curve of the terminator is at a different angle to back home. I think this is for a different reason though. I seem to recall listening to an Astronomy Cast podcast that explained that.We were out by the Creek just before sunset, on the roof of the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House. The setting Sun was low, perhaps 15°, to West. Meanwhile the Moon was just becoming visible to the east, at about the same elevation.
Anyway, meanwhile back at Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountains. We left through the Palace Old Town hotel and whilst waiting for a taxi spotted Jupiter. It’s the brightest thing in this sky apart from the Moon, the planes, the crazy buildings….
Next morning was an early start to get a flight to Oman. From the taxi to the airport I caught a brief glipse (again naked eye) of Venus just before dawn and saw the Sun rise between the buildings to the East of Sheik Zayed Road.
Astro Ukenaut 