- This topic has 2,639 replies, 51 voices, and was last updated 3 months, 1 week ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Always interested Rick (if weather cooperates). Is it available? Root River park is a possible alternative.
Got out to image Jupiter tonight just before the Io transit (and before it went behind the trees).
Attachments:
I got out Monday night for two and a half hours. I actually got in some really dark sky observing because of the waning Moon and was the sky ever spectacular. I finally nabbed Antares and M4 (an easy fit for my FOV) and M6 and M7 in Scorpius. I can see why M6 is called "the Butterfly Cluster". Both open star clusters were very enjoyable. I 'climbed the ladder' of the Milky Way, M22, M8, M20, M24 the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (a real binocular treat) and M17 the Swan Nebula.
As wonderful as all of that was, what really tripped my trigger was all of the dark nebula I came across. They were very pronounced in my 25X100's.
I finished with a look at M31, the Andromeda Galaxy and its' companion, M32. What a Glorious Night For Astronomy!
P.S. The Moon came up just as I finished packing up to go home. Another time!
Wow what a great night Dean! Where were you observing from? Scorpio and Sagittarius have such great binocular highlights but it looks like I'll have to bend my Orion L-bracket a bit so I can see some of those objects in the lower 20 degrees of our southern sky.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot was prominent tonight while the moons were widely spread out. The image below shows 3 of the moons (from L to R Ganymede, Io and Europa).
Attachments:
Dean, sounds like you had a great time. Glad to see you back in business and doing good! Your binocs were great down at Root River park.
Bob, great Jupiter photo with the GRS.
So… Is Eagle Bluff available this weekend? Looks like moon rises a little after midnight on Friday and almost 1AM on Saturday.
Looks like it may be clear.Thanks Jeff. I have a birthday in the cities to attend this weekend so may not be able to observe with you all … but I'll see what I can do.
Also wanted to post this 'fix' for the Orion Paragon-Plus L-bracket mount:
After reading Dean's post above I was motivated to get a fix for my Orion Paragon-Plus binocular mount. The main problem with the L-bracket that comes with the mount was a limitation on how low to the horizon you could point the attached large binocular (about 20-25 degrees above horizontal). As the commercial machine shops in Rochester were not in the business of bending my L-bracket, I had to devise a fix of my own! The L-bracket was wider than the metal pivoting block it was attached to causing the limitation. As the bracket could be removed a simple solution presented itself. (see photos below). Inserting a small block of wood and using longer machine screws would allow the bracket to pivot to near horizontal. I cut out a one-half inch section of a hickory hammer handle ($3.49 at Menards) that was slightly less wide than the pivoting metal block and using longer machine screws (6MM X 30MM Metric Socket Head Cap Screw (2 @ .69 each) was able to make the fix. I am now ready to tackle those binocular highlights Dean mentions in Sagittarius and Scorpio!
Bob
Attachments:
I'm going to River tonight. Never been there before. I'm going to see if I can finally dial in Pluto. Hope light pollution is not too much.
Hope the sky was clear and dark enough for you Rick at Root River park last night.
I will go wherever the group is going tonight but cannot Saturday night. Hope the clouds don't get in the way!
BobHey Bob and everyone, how about Root River tonight? I'm game. I'm sure the skies will clear. 🙂
JeffTomorrow is looking like it might be cloudy. Tonight, Friday is looking good. I'm up for Root River!
The moon 2 days past first quarter on July 11th highlights the crater Copernicus (with its rays and secondary craters) and portions of the Apennine mountains. Imaged with my Meade 10 inch SCT and Orion 5 MP camera. Images stacked with Autostakker2 and Registax 6. (I had to learn to use these apps for surface videos before getting a reasonable stacked image!)
Attachments:
I called Eagle Bluff and they have absolutely nothing going on this weekend. I have the bathroom code as well.
Either EB or Root River Park are OK by me Fri. night. It will just be nice to hang out with all of you again.
I got out for 2 hours Thurs. morning (a week ago) and nabbed Kemble's Cascade, the Perseus Double Cluster, the Alpha Persei Association, Aldebaran and the Hyades, then finished with the Moon. 12:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. I hadn't been out at that time of night in a looooooogn time. 2 packs of coyotes, 1 hoot owl.
Oh, I also looked at Vega. Beautiful star with attendants. However, between Vega and Epsilon Lyra there was a patch of nebulosity that would not move. About the same location of XY Lyrae. (XY is the designation, I think. A variable star anyway. Is there a comet in that area? I'm a little rusty getting back into observing.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.