March 9, 2009
Sunrise (Ft.Lauderdale), Florida, United States Of America

Saturn Night # 2 Fox Observatory, Sunrise, (Ft. Lauderale, Fl.) Saturday, Mar. 7, 2009

The evening started out somewhat cloudy, but as the clock struck 9:00 p.m., the clouds cleared allowing the now ever growing group of people the opportunity to see the heavens above them. By now, Saturn is rising earlier and earlier into the evening sky, thus permitting an earlier view, rather than having to wait until 10:00 or 11:00 p.m.

The sunshine state lived up to its motto earlier in the day, and sort of during the evening, from the perspective of "tourist" state as well. Among the visitors to Fox Observatory on this Saturday evening were visitors from Canada, the Middle East, and Munich, Germany.

Once the telescope was aimed at Saturn, you could hear the persistent chatter of the various descriptions of what people were seeing through the eyepiece! Many until they were told didn't even know that several of Saturn's moons were visible along with Saturn, including Tethys, Dione, and the solar system's most mysterious moon, Titan.

Ironically, the larger than usual crowd was brought out by the previous night's launch from Cape Canaveral of NASA's planet hunter, Kepler. Kepler's launch treated central Florida to a spectacular light show as the spaccraft soared high out over the Atlantic Ocean enroute to its mission.

Saturn, the solar system's celestial jewel, kept visitors in awe until well after 11:00 p.m. Again, many young visitors, especially elementary and middle high school students, had never seen Saturn before through a telescope, nor even knew Cassini was out there orbiting the ringed planet, furthering our knowledge of how Saturn came to be, along with its rings and many moons.