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It was a lovely evening at Keller – not too many bugs, not too humid but the trees are getting bigger. We were waiting for the tail of
Scorpius to come up to see the Jewel Box – just barely saw it as I left at 12:30. Also saw Jupiter as it was rising in the east.
I have taken the liberty of renaming the Lagoon Nebula – it really looks like it should be the Pea Pod Nebula.Thanks to Luka and Alan Cameron for the help and sharing this evening. BYes, it certainly was a great evening. It was great to observe the "pea pod" nebula and other Sagittarius objects in much more detail than I have in the past. It was also great to finally see Jupiter in a scope. Even though it was low in the sky, I did see 2 darker bands on it, and all 4 moons. It was great to have Rebecca and Alan there to enjoy the sky with.
I thought I would add this here as well. The ISS (International Space Station) is visible quite a bit right now. It looks to be visible 4 to 6 times a day! Evenings and mornings! Check it out.
Here is link for ISS visible passes over Rochester:
http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=44.022&lng=-92.47&loc=Rochester&alt=0&tz=CSTI caught the ISS twice last night, 9:42 and 11:16. The 11:16 was advertised as -3.0 mag and it must have been very close to that. It was very bright, much brighter than Arcturus. The Big Dipper paled in comparison to it.
Many times to view the ISS in the next 10 days, evening and morning.
Another -3.0 mag at 10:05 PM tonight, try and catch it if it is clear and you are still up. Other chances tonight are at 11:41, 1:17, 2:53, and 4:28. The 4:28 is also listed as mag -3.0.
Jeff
ISS at 9:19 tonight, another -3.0 mag. Partly cloudy now, hopefully will still be that way in another hour. It will start in the SW and end in the ENE. It'll be visible another 3 times tonight.
Went out to see the ISS and the clouds were already in the SW and S. It was still pretty bright out. The ISS popped out of the clouds a little W of S and quite high in the sky. Very bright, brighter that the fireflies. 🙂
Now the clouds are here.Hello astronomy fans! I got out last night for two and a half hours. I started off with Antares and M4 in my binocs (for focus) and then tried to see if I could spot M80. I spied what I thought would be M80 and then checked that spot out with my Celestron G8. Sure enough, there it was – a nice compact little globular cluster. I didn't have that one on my Binocular Messier list, but I can spot it now. 🙂
I got 2 Herschel 400 objects before the Moon came up. NGC's 5005 and 5033, spiral galaxies in Canes Venatici. They are an easy starhop from Cor Caroli (Alpha Canum Venaticorum), both edge on and both can just barely be seen in the same starfield. 8)
Jupiter was next while the Moon was climbing in the east. All four Galilean moons spread out widely from the planet, three to the west and one to the east. The middle one of the three had a faint background star near it.
For the Moon, I observed and drew the crater Julius Caesar for my Lunar II list. Then clouds rolled back in. ???
It was wonderful to be out there again, between weather and work and family committments, I hadn't gotten out in a long time. I'm going again tonight, weather permitting. 😉
See you Tuesday!http://scottysmightymini.com/PR/20090719Pretoria_pr.htm
Great opportunity this Sunday morning (~1:00 am) to see an occultation. Lets hope its clear!
jimI am going to head out to Keller for a little while. Still looking ok out there. ISS/Shuttle visible starting at 10:15 tonight.
Hello astronomy fans! I hit the Flatin Farm cornfield for four and a half hours tonight. I got two Herschel 400 objects, NGC's 4800 and 4866, both spiral galaxies in Canes Venatici and Virgo respectively. Very nice objects.
I had some dew problems, so I let the van heater do its work and gave the binoculars some excersise. M6, M7, M8, M20, M22, M31, the Perseus Double Cluster, M15 and a nice long look at the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). All wonderful binocular objects.
Jupiter was grand as always with a nice spread of all four Galilean moons, and I took in 61 Cygni (one of my very favorite double stars) and Albireo until the dew and fatigue brought me home.
AGNFA!
Hello astronomy fans! I got out for four hours tonight. I thought that I was going to get a lot of progress done towards observing goals, but something wonderful happened instead.
One of my best buddies in the Universe and his fifteen year old son from Michigan arrived and I showed them, Polaris, Alcor and Mizar, M81/82, M13, Antares and M4, M6/M7,
M8, M20, M22, M24, M17, Jupiter, Neptune, M31, M57 among other things. Bascially The Obvious Stuff.But it was great. Vance Bartell and I planted trees and shared grub during my second year of planting down south. He slept in the back of my pickup and I slept in my trailer and we shared groceries, hardship and friendship. Vance is a very talented guitar player, and after we had supper together at night, I would read books in my trailer and he would practice his guitar in the back of my pickup only a few feet away from the trailer. That might have been the nicest winter I ever spent in Dixie. In the piney woods of the Deep South, it is one of the nicest memories I have of that time.
His boy Brody is a very nice young man, a lot like his father. He said, "I wish we had skies like this in Michigan!". I take it that they have very light polluted skies, but I gave them tips on binocular observing (they have 10X50's) and how to journal and get a simple star atlas. They are two amateur astronomy enthusiasts!
There was also a spectacular pass of the ISS and Endeavour overhead at 9:57 p.m.
I was just checking to see if there were plans. Nothing mentioned when I checked, took a gander at ClearSky, not encouraging. 🙁
Poor starts about 18:00, and goes until sunrise.
I would go if the skies clear, but right now things don't look good.
CSC doesn't give Eagle Bluff much hope till about 11 p.m. or midnight, and yet it shows Decorah looking pretty good tonight!
That doesn't make much sense seeing as how the weather has been moving down from the northwest.I'm going to keep checking the forum every hour from now till 10 p.m. If anyone is interested and it starts looking good, please post here.
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