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It was indeed AGNFA at Eagle Bluff. Wow. We started off with observing Sirius B, then glommed on to Jupiter which was experiencing a Europa shadow transit.
Besides myself, JLManatee was there (he beat me by 15 minutes), then Mike Corrillo, Jeff Newland, Mike Rowlands, Ellenvega and Randy. What a spectacular night! The Europa shadow transit was followed by Callisto crossing Jupiter's disc. (I swore it was a double shadow transit, but the smart phone ap geeks proved me wrong. It was Callisto itself and I had never seen a Gallilean Moon cross Jupiter. One more off the Astronomical Bucket List.) Callisto's disc was HUGE and crossed just below the North Equatorial Belt. I followed it until it exited Jupiter's disc when it went from a huge black spot to a brilliant white companion of the King of Planets. We saw so many things this post does not have room to record them all.
We cruised through boatloads of objects, Hind's Crimson Star (Ellenvega got this along with another 10 Herschel 400's), Mike Corrillo had a fabulous night with his little starter scope, he found M78 in Orion and then was the first to pick up Comet Lovejoy!) That was fantastic. It is still big, bright and showy. Nearly everyone had a crack at this cosmic interloper near Delta Casseopia. It was below it and the tail points nearly straight back at the star.
3 of the staff came out and were thrilled by everything we saw. We also saw at least a few "March randomids", had a nice break in Randy's trailer for a popcorn break about 1 o'clock. It was one of the best nights ever at Eagle Bluff. Too bad Jerome missed it, it was kind of like the meteor Randy missed that on night in July.
What a great night at EB! I spent the night futzing with new equipment, but was finally able to do some imaging. I imaged the rosette nebula and Bode's Galaxy. I left EB at 3 am and got home to Rochester at 4 am. I've completed processing of the rosette nebula: http://www.astrobin.com/164632/ and Bode's galaxy: http://www.astrobin.com/164390/ I also caught the cigar galaxy in the same image.
Tonight does not look the best. Clear sky, but white boxes on the wind.
Tomorrow looks better early, but clouds after midnight.
I am going to clean at the plant in the morning, so a no-go for me tonight. I would get out for observing tomorrow night.
Hello astronomy fans! Eagle Bluff will be available tonight. The quilters are there and we have entertained them a couple of times. The parking lot lights will be off.
CSC looks great until 1 a.m. then it looks like everything shuts down. I would recommend no Messier Marathon tonight because it will only be a half session, but we had a WONDERFUL night last Saturday (too bad Jerome couldn't make it) and tonight looks to be a repeat.Anyone interested? Ellenvega is sitting on the fence. It all depends on how many people are up for it. Stuppo just went through a week of chemo and doesn't want to be around people and Randy is down in Des Moines. I would definately go to EB, but if there is not much interest, it will be the Flatin Farm for me.
I hope people want to go. The first part of the night looks great.
Hi Dean, I plan on heading out to EB tonight as well.
Maybe I'll stumble across another comet!
Thanks
Mike C:\Looks like the CSC has it clouding up before midnight at Eagle Bluff, but Rochester is earlier. Clouds coming this way, depends on how soon they get here. Looks like a few good hours at EB. Not sure if I'll head out to EB or not, but EB looks like a better bet than Rochester.
I am going to pack up and head to Eagle Bluff. Not sure how long it will last, but it will beat the hell out of watching TV. A safe trip to all!
Looks like a good day to spend at home tomorrow with the weather moving in.
No Eagle Bluff tonight. They have "Dinner on the Bluff". Next weekend will be perfect.
I couldn't bring up Roger Southwick's images from Faribault Airport, but I did really like the Moonrise shot over the lake.
Tonight will be "Local observing only".
Stup and I got out Sat. night, joined later by David Coset, our 'French Connection' for astronomy. It was a nice clear night, though breezy and hazy on the horizons. I could spot Sirius B after staring for it a long while and then only when the wind would drop. I would love to have a calm night and be set up at dusk to try it now. I'll bet it would be easy to spot. Venus is still waning gibbous (65%?) but it is very near the Pleadies. They both fit easily into the same FOV in my finderscope. Steve searched for and found the M94 and M64 galaxies. He is doggedly pursuing his Messier certificate and wants my help less and less. Now about the only thing I can do is confirm if what he has is the correct object and it very nearly is over 90% of the time.
I drew Jupiter w/3 moons, all to the east and then found the Carbon star R Canis Minoris in less than 10 mns. after I started to search for it. Beta Canis Minoris is a three star asterism, but has 2 tiny stars midway between them that point directly to R. That was fun! Even David noticed the color of it with my asking only "What's the difference of the star in the middle of the FOV among all the other stars?"
We can't make the meeting tomorrow night at Randy's. Stup is undergoing another round of chemo and I have to put the Bloodmobile Drive to bed tomorrow night.
Sorry to miss it. It looks to be a memorable night. I'll see you hopefully this weekend.What does Randy's address have to do with Observing tonight? I thought this thread was about where/when we're going to be observing. Seems lately that there have been some posts that do not directly relate to when/where to observe (or what was observed).
Not to sound critical, but discussions germane to other topics should be in other threads.
Actually, the monthly meeting was held at Randy's house. Afterward the club spent several hours observing. We saw lots of good objects with his 30 inch: Polaris multiple system, Betelgeuse (ablaze in amber light), Orion nebula ("eggs in a nest"), and Jupiter with Callisto's shadow transiting. Before the meeting we observed filaments on the suns equatorial limb and sunspots.
Hello astronomy fans! Is anyone up for Eagle Bluff tonight? The parking lot will be dark and empty for us. The bathroom code is 7175. The CSC doesn't look too bad (and a heckofalot better than tomorrow night)!
I have some carbon stars to fry in Hydra with my base of operations being NGC 3242 'The Ghost of Jupiter'.
I'm itching to get some telescope time!
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