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If anyone is interested in joining him, Luka is heading out to Keller to do some observing and imaging. He is heading out there now and is thinking he will be there for a couple of hours. Head on out and join him. I won't be able to head out. I'm sure he'll enjoy some company. Looks nice and clear.. and cold. 🙂
Thanks for posting Jeff. While the temperature was cold, the wind was quite calm and I really did a decent job dressing to make it a non-issue. Lots and lots of layers, like an onion. Breath and frost was still a problem though.
Anyway I observed mostly with binoculars and imaged with my scope. My binocular targets were from the binocular deep sky list. I'm mostly done with the Cassiopeia, Perseus and Orion ones. I still have a few in Puppis and Monoceros of the well placed winter ones. I couldn't get the sculptor dwarf galaxy. I might be too late, or I just need a little better time and horizon.
It certainly felt great to get out and observe after so much snow and clouds.
Also I would report that Keller is plowed, so a pretty good spot, even in winter. And the large snow bank can be use to keep the 1 streetlight completely out of view.
Good for you for getting out Luka. I was going to go out last night, but we had a brutally hard cold day in the woods. I couldn't even muster the energy to get a position of Mars observation from my deck. I spent the day on the steepest slope I've been on all winter and went to bed right after supper.
Tomorrow night, Feb. 12th, Eagle Bluff is open and will not have anything going on. I talked to Dawn from the staff this morning and we have complete reign of the place.
I don't know what the weather is going to do, but if it is clear, I'll be there. I might not make it early because I have to go to Madison WI VA hospital tomorrow for the pre-op stuff on my left eye cataract surgery on Feb. 17.
Luka, could you ramrod the mustering of the troops if Eagle Bluff is doable?
Hello all! I just made it back. I'm going to eat supper and pack up to head out. It looks good until at least 1, maybe 2 according to CSC.
Luka and Kirk, please reply here if you are going. I would go to Eagle Bluff if either one of you wants to go. Hopefully others may be interested as well.
Cool. See you there. I'll probably leave in an hour, so somewhere between one and a half to 2 hours from now, I'll be there.
It is really soupy in Rochester. I don't trust that it will be better down there. (I had thought the CSC looked like it would be decent in Rochester when I looked earlier today.)
Another time.
Kirk
While it was terrible around here, Eagle Bluff was very clear, for a while. We got clouded out at around 10 PM, I'd say. Still it was a good time, and we saw some nice things. I got to test out some new equipment, in the form of Maksutov-Cassegrain that arrived today. It delivered an amazing view of M42. It was really great to see Dean and do some observing with him again.
And I took just a few photos, but they're a good start, I'd say. See the images section.It must have been "new equipment day" — I received a new Stellarvue SVR80ED refractor this morning and was surprised to have clear skies here in Northfield at sunset (how often does a new scope arrive with clear skies?). Got polar aligned and looked at the Pleiades for 2 minutes, then Mars for 2 minutes, and then the fog rolled in; I could barely see across the street, but the resulting frost looks nice.
Glad to hear you had at least a few hours of good conditions at Eagle Bluff.
It was great while it lasted. I got a Mars position observation in on all three levels, naked eye, binocular and telescopic. I also was able to get a solid observation on asteroid 4 Vesta before Luka and I got clouded out.
I really liked checking out his new gear. WAY cool! It makes me want to get something new, but I am only six hours short of getting 1200 hours of observing with the scope I've got. What a conundrum!
At least I was able to touch base with another person from the RAC. I felt bad about missing the last meeting. The "northern" and the "southern" co-ordinators got to co-ordinate on at least a few objects tonight. It was extremely satisfying. But after we packed up after shooting the breeze for half an hour, I even saw a few snowflakes on the way out of Eagle Bluff!
Better luck next time!
Got the new Stellarvue 105 Apo out last night, unfortunately wasn't able to polar align as clouds kept me from locking this up but I just manually drove the scope around. In short time Roger Southwick stopped by with his new Stellarvue 80 and we spent a few hours taking in the sights such as Mars, the Beehive cluster, M42 & 45. The one thing I noticed with both scopes that the images we're extremely sharp and the stars perfect round points of light.
Can't wait until the skies improve as the new imager comes in Friday so I look forward to some great nights observing once the 120+ nights of lousy weather leave us.
John P.
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