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Had the pleasure of being accompanied by Jeff Newland last night at Keller. Cool, wind speed = 0 mph. Mosquitos struggling to get into my ears with the temps falling. Predicted to be clear, but it was like someone over the horizon had a cloud gun shooting random pesky little puffs right wherever we were pointing. Jeff had his new Zhumell 10" dob and I brought the WallE.
It was glob night! Jeff found M3,5,13, 22, 28 and more. Also excellent views of Dumbbell, Ring, Lagoon, and Omega nebs. Nice contrast demonstrated on his scope. It's got a real good mirror.
Since the southern skies are lousy from my home, I stayed mostly around Sagittarius/Scorpios. Nice view of combos:
Antares/M4. The vertical stacks of M16/M17/M18/M25, and Lagoon/Trifid/M21. I have to move WallE slightly to get these together but it's a delight to see them all connected.Then the two of us concentrated on the neighborhood of Kaus Borealis – the star on top of the teapot. To its right (west) sits pretty little M28, a glob. But to its east sits even a smaller glob, NGC 6638, and to its northeast sits planetary nebula 6644, which is more of a planetary speck than a nebula, only 3 arc seconds across! It's not on the Herschel 400 list, but I now see it's on my AL Planetary Neb list. Booyah! Low flying moisture muffins were constantly challenging our view. But Jeff, see attached pic from my Sky Tools program which confirms. Having never seen it before, we were unsure if it was just another star or the nebula. It was right where we thought it was, by those 2 other brighter stars.
Ended with a quick look at the North America Nebula with WallE. The edges were so obvious. Very AGNFA!
Will be out this weekend at a family reunion. :-\Randy
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Randy, did you check the sky when you got home? I left right after you. When I got home, I checked the sky from the backyard and I didn't see any clouds or if they were there, they were very faint. Probably for the best or would have stayed too late. 🙂
Nice night, just needed fewer clouds. Very nice sky between the clouds. Here's hoping for at least one clear evening Friday or Saturday.
Randy, yes, for sure, that pic looks like what we saw. Looking through various books, they mostly skip over 6644, but good old Burnham's had it and listed it as stellar. Indeed, very stellar in appearance.
I will be on vacation just south of Grand Rapids, MN with the family, but the scope is goin with (I may have to tie my wife to the roof rack if she protests). Hopefully I can find an open field within a mile or so of the cabin we are staying at…
Clear skies to all who find their way out this weekend 🙂I assume we will be waiting until Saturday to go to Eagle Bluff? Right now, things are pointing to it being better than tonight.
Sun is coming out here in Roch. Is it going to stay this way or cloud back up? Satellite images still show clouds here in Roch and like a county or two to the west, so not sure where this clear sky is coming from. Hopefully it will keep it up and we can get out there tonight. 🙂
I'm going to head down to Eagle Bluff tonight if Dean give the "GO" signal. Clear Sky Clock looks OK after midnight.
Definitely be heading to Eagle Bluff if Dean give a "GO". Way things look in Roch, will definitely be out somewhere tonight. 🙂
Hello astronomy fans! It is a definite "GO!!!" for Eagle Bluff tonight.
It sounds like a lot of astronomy fans will be there. Hooray! It's about time. I have the bathroom code and Vidal will be in the parking lot if there are dew problems.
See you there!
What a wonderful night. Lots of RAC members there at Eagle Bluff, Steve, Jeff, Jerome, Ellenvega, Dave and Aaron, Jim and Kevin Blackwell, Chris, Julie, Joe and Hannah.
We played "pocket astronomy", although the overall night was pretty good. LOTS of meteors, mostly moderately bright to faint fast movers. One brilliant satellite crossed from S to N at 10:25 p.m. and an ISS pass at 2:50 a.m.
We were running out of steam by then, but had a nice time sitting together, enjoying the light show from the lightning storm that passed earlier, the meteors and comradery with each other. Plans for Okie-Tex were discussed and we all agreed that it was simply AGNFA to get out together at Eagle Bluff once again.
I hope Jerome had a great night at Keller. We put in 50 hrs. this week at the plant and they are working today and possibly tomorrow. I didn't work because my daughters family is coming up from Florida and I haven't seen them in 2 years.
There is an astronomy outreach event tonight in Houston, MN., hosted by the LCAAS. I'm not going because of company.
Best wishes to all for AGNFA.
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