I used KStars 1.0 and it somewhat agrees with your anonymous source. I chose Freiburg, Germany as my location (which according to wikipedia.com is next to the Black Forrest). The Moon phase is given as 67% waxing gibbous, rises at 15:41, sets at 01:55, and at 10:30 PM was at an altitude of only 18 degrees, so it may not have been visible in a valley. Jupiter rises at 23:10, but only passes an altitude of 20 degrees at about 1:25 AM. I wonder if the difference in my numbers from the numbers you forwarded are due to the different location or innacuracy in my software... Chuck Hards wrote:

I'm on the digest currently, so if someone else has posted similar information, I apologize for the redundancy. This was sent to me privately by a list member, who can come forward if desired, for now I'm posting it anonymously (thanks!):

Chuck One of my other hobbies is backpacking. It is really fly-fishing but sometimes I go to extreme measures to get there. Anyway I find hiking after dark or before sunrise is nice in the summer to beat the heat. I often turn off my flashlight if I am hiking on a dirt road. I can’t say that I have ever noticed anything except the moon as aiding me in seeing the path. Unless maybe, if I were hiking east and I used a low bright star as a directional aid or something. I like to frequent the Uintahs, Boulder Mountain and the back country of Yellowstone. They are all good and dark at night. I have fished until 10 o’clock at night using what is left of sky glow on the water to see the fish rise, then very delicately drop a gray-wolf or caddis fly imitation in the rise-ring. Astronomy has added some extra weight to my backpack. I love to take my 15X70 Galileo binos now. After lugging those “buggers” ten miles they are going to get used. Jim Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:I'm on the digest currently, so if someone else has posted similar information, I apologize for the redundancy. This was sent to me privately by a list member, who can come forward if desired, for now I'm posting it anonymously (thanks!):

I've been away from my desk most of the day, but I just sat down for a few minutes and read your question and Guy's response. I think Guy is still wrong. I am also using Sky Map Pro, v. 7, and I find the following:

Not knowing where the escapees were located at the time, I entered Bern, Switzerland for the location (1 hour ahead of UT) and the date as 14 October, 1918. Jupiter is in Gemini and just rising above the "ideal" horizon at 10:30 local time. However, the Moon, in Aquarius, is still 20 degrees above the horizon. The program gives the phase as 0.679. So, I wonder if the Moon had set from their location and they were able to see from the light of a rising Jupiter, perhaps closer to 11:30 or midnight local time? Saturn wouldn't have risen until about 2:00 local time, but of course Jupiter was much higher by then.

This sounds much better to me, intuitively. Willis does write that the valley was oriented north-south, and the rivers were located at the bottom of gorges, so the eastern and western horizons were probably obstructed. If Saturn didn't rise until 2:00 am, it could not have been the planet in question. Some small towns passed that night were listed as: Dittishausen, Rotenbach, and Loffingen. We have scant information on the weather; perhaps the moon was obscured by clouds if not terrain. Willis states that the sun did shine during that day, apparently for most of the day as he writes of shadows moving while they were hiding in a pine thicket during daylight hours, and luxuriating in it's warmth. Of the night of the escape itself, (the night before the planet notation), he wrote: "A thin layer of clouds over the stars produced a dim, luminous light everywhere, and the way across country we had so carefully memorized on our walks was easy to follow." So it seems that Jupiter is now the best candidate. It would certainly throw more light on the countryside than Saturn. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we.