Hello astronomy fans! I got out last night for four hours. A sun observation, one nice sunspot visible, Venus is now a fat waning cresent, I'm pretty sure I saw the ISS pass over at 8:22 p.m., and was looking at Epsilon Lyra when Christian Myrah and his son Noah rolled in.
They have a beautiful four inch Celestron refractor. Noah is 12 or 13 years old and is a whiz at math. He is also VERY interested in astronomy. We spent the rest of the evening training him in on how to polar align and use their scope and he recorded his first three Messier object last night. M6, M7 and M8.
Then the Moon came up and we looked at Jupiter and the Moon to finish off the evening. It was a terrific night, but seemed way too short. Noah was very reluctant to leave the Flatin Farm hayfield. You will all get to meet him at the third annual Star B-Q, and you'll find that he is a very sharp, enthusiastic young kid.
The Flatin Farm, now that it is mowed, is just simply beautiful. Ed left a few patches of goldenrod here and there and the strip along the north side of the driveway is postcard pretty perfect.
If the weather co-operates, it will be a fabulous weekend for astronomy.
Clear skies to all!