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Well, I got out there after the Twins/Yankees game. I should have just skipped that, but I was really hoping they'd have beaten the damn Yankees.
I'd have been with Davy Crockett at the Alamo, too.
At any rate, I got out tonight for three and a half hours and that was really fun. Observations on Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Mars. (Neptune and Uranus were very easy to find.)
Mars didn't show much detail, maybe a hint of white at the top, but no matter, after I record its retrograde motion this winter, I'll have enough observations to apply for my Solar System/Planetary Observers certificate.I got a polar crater for the Lunar II search. I did crater Malapert. I was going to do Cabeus, but by tonight it was in shadow. Navigating my way through the southern highland crater fields is VERY challenging. You have to use your atlas and then turn it mirror image in your mind to make sense of it all if you are using a star diagnol.
Once I recognized crater Clavius, (from the Lunar 100 search) it was no problem. Great job by Randy and Kirk for getting the RAC some TV time!
Hello astronomy fans! I have Sat. night off from bartending and it looks like Sat. night will be good for us.
I think I can get Fritz to come with. I hope we can get a lot of us from the RAC there too.
Who's in?
Based on the current weather Saturday looks like a winner for Eagle Bluff. I plan on getting out there at a decent hour and doing some imaging.
Unfortunately, Jillissa and I won't be able to make it tonight. Clear Skies to you all! I'll be anxiously waiting to hear whether you were able to visualize VY Canis Majoris… visually or with John's Meade and camera rig.
I just got off my bartending shift. I have to check Sky&Telescope, Heaven's Above and pack up.
I'll be there about 7:30 p.m.
Starbie, if you show up, I've still got your RV keys in my parka.
Hey folks, Comet C/2008 O2 McNaught is only a few degrees from Polaris in the constellation Camelopardalis.
Magnitude 7.5!
I don't have all the attendee info from Saturday (will leave that to Dean) but my diving/photography/astronomy buddy Roger Southwick and I showed up at Eagle Bluff well before dark to take advantage of getting setup early (unlike the last time I was there). We made quick work of our setups and waited for darkness. I believe the first person after us was Allen? I'm terrible with names but later we had Luka and then Dean, and Jerome & Jillissa showed up. I know I forgot someone but was so involved on imaging etc.
Visibility was questionable early on as clouds sneaked into the skies above us but before long we had some pretty decent viewing. I only did B&W pics for the night and was trying to learn more about locations of items in the heavens but went back to some of the more familiar items I've imaged before. I was using my new Milburn wedge and it was so smooth and stable I was able to do 30 second exposures with little to no drifting, on top of that I switched capture software. I was using the Meade Envisage and recently bought the Nebulosity. I wondered if I threw too much on my plate with all the changes but the Neb software was wonderful and it didn't have all the quirks of the Envisage. The only obvious bad pictures came from the wind or if someone was walking heavy near the scope, and of course frost.
Here are a couple pictures from that night. The first is M57 at wide aspect, I've done this in color before but just wanted to practice with everything and once I got home and processed I was able to see a very faint galaxy to the right of the nebula (won't show up on the posted pics), so that was a nice surprise. Also a zoomed in picture of M57 for detail.
Also the Bowtie nebula under some harsh conditions (frost was forming on the optics) and Cleopatra's Eye, can't wait to do that in color! Also M2 star cluster and tried to capture part of M42, by this time my telescope was all frosted up and the image came out fuzzy but I can say I seen it. M42 will be one of those images that will require hours upon hours to get all the details and because of the size several mosaic pictures.
I also tried to see some of the Horsehead nebula and after 2 minutes of exposure could faintly see some nebula detail… I do mean faintly. This one will be a few hours of imaging down the road before I take this one on.
I was nearly 4:30am that Roger mentioned the time and I thought how fast the night went, we packed up and was at my house in Rochester by 6am. It was a great night under the stars.
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Very nice pics John! It looks like the new wedge is working well for you. Were these all taken at the same focal length?
Hello astronomy fans! It was a good night and another nicely attended session at Eagle Bluff last Saturday. We had myself, John Preston, Roger Southwick, Luka, Alan Cameron, Jerome and Jillissa, Orrest Zasadney, and also a gal named Crystal who is a staff member for Eagle Bluff.
Like John said, transparency was so-so early on, but got better. Jerome spotted a nice fireball that ended in a bolide at 9:16 p.m., and we looked at many, many different objects.
About 1-1:30 a.m. I packed up my scope because of icing problems and was content to just watch John image. He's good! I lit out of there about 3:30 a.m. I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.
Everyone was a lot of fun, it was AGNFA!
[quote author=Luka link=topic=233.msg3486#msg3486 date=1256130876]
Very nice pics John! It looks like the new wedge is working well for you. Were these all taken at the same focal length?
[/quote]Yes, all at a 6.3
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