Florida Star Gazing

[Guest Justinshaw]

Hi

Im in Florida in December, any one know what can be seen from there at that time of year?

Cheers

Justin

[Tweedledee]

The latitude of Florida is up to 25 degrees less than the UK, say 28 degrees as compared to the our 53.

You will see the same winter sky as in th UK, but in the south all the constellations will be about 25 degrees higher in the sky. Therefore you will see numerous southern constellations that would remain below the UKs horizon and would never be seen from home, and the ones seen low down in the south from the UK will be much higher in the sky.

[Rusty Strings]

Those hard to see messiers would be far easier to bag as well

[Guest Justinshaw]

Fantastic, sounds like I have a lot to see,

I will also be traveling up to Georgia for xmas, I guess that would be pretty much the same?

[Perkil8r]

I'll be there again in Nov/Dec this year too. Last year I wasn't into all of this stargazing, but I did notice that the street lighting is a lot dimmer than in the UK, and even in the middle of big cities (we would call them towns, but they insist on calling them cities) the upward light polution seemed to be far less.

Depending on which part ofFlorida you go to, I would highly reccomend going on a tour of Kennedy Space Centre, pay the bit extra if they are still doing it and go inside the VAB, it blew my mind and got me interested in stargazing I want to go round again, but not this year, I think it would be a bit boring 2 years on the trot, but give it a few years and I will go again. I'd probably get more out of it now.

[Guest Justinshaw]

Will be hopefuly going to Kenedy,

we are going to stay with my brother he lives in Tampa, and I think he knows someone who works at NASA, or at least has dealt with though his job.

Very excited not been for a few years, and not been to Florida before, he lived in Georgia before that so have seen a lot from Georgia up to Wissconsin.

[cosmic dave]

Cool, sounds great Justin

[Guest Justinshaw]

think it will be, my son is goinf crazy about going to see Mickey Mouse

And my wife hasnt been so be nice to take them over

[Brantuk]

If you go right down to the end of the Florida Keys and look south you should be able to just make out some communists in Cuba lol

[Guest Justinshaw]

That is true lol

[Perkil8r]

We visited Tampa last year allbeit at night time for some racing. I would say Kennedy is a good 3 hour drive from Tampa, so allow plenty of time. Had we not gone on the extended tour I feel we may have been a little disappointed, but we spent the whole day there. I would say it is aimed at kids more so than adults, which is possibly why I enjoyed it so much

Your ticket will allow entry into the Astonaught's hall of fame (or words to that effect) whilst not the most exciting of places it has an awsome planet room where they project planets onto a massive sphere which you can walk around. That is truely fantastic. There is also a cetrefuge that you can go on too, and of course the obligatory gift shop. There are some really good books in there, so take plenty of cash

I'm not sure, but by the time you go the shuttle may be open to the public again, it was closed when we went as they were moving it to New York I think, to be replaced with another later on, I think it was for this season. The food is pretty reasonable there too, and be carefull what you take with you as they will search your bags and send you through a metal detector before allowing you onto the site. Certainly take a tour though, it is well worth it, and if possible upgrade to the extended tour to include the VAB if they are still doing it.

[Guest Justinshaw]

Sounds amazing, just need to convince everyone else its a good idea.

would love to see the shuttle