I took advantage of the good weather we had the other night and spent some time under the stars. I had originally planned to keep the observatory closed and just use my dobsonian to do some old-fashioned star hopping and maybe sketch some of the things I saw. It just turned out to be too nice of a night and I couldn’t resist capturing a few images to share!

I captured a video of Jupiter and after processing, came up with this image; probably the best image I’ve gotten of Jupiter so far. You can clearly see two moons, many cloud bands, and even the Great Red Spot near 8o’clock! You’re looking at a storm… on another planet… much bigger than the entire Earth…

Jupiter 2015-04-28

This is my first (real) attempt at Venus; Earth’s sizzling sister. Venus is our closest neighbor and is practically the same size as Earth. She’s experiencing a runaway greenhouse effect and is currently scorching hot, shrouded in thick clouds – as you can see. (From our perspective, Venus goes through ‘phases,’ just like the Moon.)

Venus 2015-04-28

Here is a close up shot of mountains, craters, and lava plains on the Moon. I could stare at this for hours, imagining what it would be like to stand at the base of some of those maintains gazing up in ‘awe.’ Like Buzz Aldrin said while standing on its surface, “Magnificent desolation.” –You said it Buzz…

2015-04-28 Moon Closeup

Here is probably my favorite shot of the night: The red giant star Betelguese. While the image itself is somewhat plain – just a bright red point of light – what that point of light is, is amazing. Betelguese is the star of Orion’s shoulder and shines brilliantly ruby red through binoculars (or telescope). Betelguese is dying of old age – and is HUGE. If you replaced the Sun with Betelguese, we’d be inside the star right now…

Betelguese 2015-04-28

Bonus shot:
I was waiting for some images to be captured and happen to look up. I noticed The Big Dipper perfectly framed by the dome of the observatory. I grabbed this happenstance picture while I could and tried to process it in a way to show what it really looked like… I think you just had to be there though…

Big Dipper 2015-04-28

(I actually got one more picture that night of a double star system, 54 Leonis, but somehow the files got lost in a transfer… I’m actually kind of bummed about that. Oh well, next time…)