75°F -Low Humidity 8:00pm-8:30pm -It still amazes me how easily you can see Jupiter and it’s 3 (sometimes 4!) big moons with the smallest and cheapest binoculars. There’s no need for an expensive, large aperture scope… just grab an old pair of binoculars you got laying around -even your childs’ toy binoculars- and go check […]
70°F? 9:23pm Cool night. Clear. Half moon low in south west. Saw two meteors. One short, bright, slow in north east. Another longer, dim fast overhead. Jupiter looks great! Can see 4 very distinct cloud bands and 4 crisp moons. Saw the ‘double-double’ in Lyra. The colorful nose of the dolphin in Delphinus. 11:30pm […]
Some of my earliest childhood memories are playing on the playground during recess, throwing a football and running foot races, while the nuns watched over us making sure none of us did anything bad or potentially dangerous. I went to Catholic school and the nuns were also our teachers. Little did we know that they were the ones […]
73°F 9:00pm -1st ‘naked eye’ observing night. Why?… Persied Meteor Shower. Perfect weather. Clear skies, cool and calm. Jupiter is high in the south near the waxing moon, (which will set at 12:21am) and Mars low in the west. I’ll try to stay up as late as I can since peak observing time is early […]
70’s 10:00pm -Got scope out many times throughout the summer, though never logged any sightings/data. 1st cool night. Clear calm skies. (bright surrounding lights) :( (12.5mm eyepiece, then 6mm for some doubles, then 9mm) -M22 in Sagittarius. (1st globular clusters I’ve ever seen. Pretty cool!) 10,500 light years away… -M4 in Scorpius. Not nearly as […]
20°F 7:30pm TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE Last total lunar eclipse until Dec. 2010. My first attempt at astrophotography. -Not great circumstances. Taking photos through 2in. eyepiece, through telescope, inside through glass door. -Still looks OK and I’m NOT going outside and freezing. -Starts at 8:43- *CHANGE OF MIND* -Took scope OUTSIDE to get full eclipse!
58°F 7:00pm Moon position: Compass = ? Inclination = ? -NEED BETTER TRIPOD!- Clear, warm, and windy!
? 6:00pm Moon position: Compass = 90° Inclination = 50.5° Waxing Zero clouds, great visibility. 7:00pm Moon position: Compass = 99° Inclination = 61.5°
20°F? Cold! 8:00pm-8:40pm Awesome sunset. Really clear out. Slight wind which just makes it colder. REALLY wanna get the scope out but it’s just TOO COLD. Orion is HUGE rising directly in the east. Saw 2 satellites cross over Pleadies! Pretty cool. Supposed to be a meteor shower tonight.
Cold! Solstice -Watching the solstice sunrise… from inside of course. Woke up around 6am and have been up since. It’s 7:41am and can’t ‘see’ the sun but it’s probably up by now. Really cool sunrise, perfect amount of high wispy clouds. Lucky since the weather has been so poor lately. Have had few, if any, […]