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It was pretty nice out there again last night. Less wind, but some dew starting to come in. Jerome and van full of people showed up and Jerome was giving an astronomy class. 🙂
I set up a little further north so that I could look for some of the low hanging fruit in Scorpius and Sagittarius that was in the trees on Friday. Looking at a few more Messiers. M80, M19, M6, M7, maybe M62, still somewhat in the trees. Then a bunch of globs in Sagittarius, M69, M70, M54, M55, M75. That was the low fruit, then started elsewhere. M9, M107. and finally M14. I've looked for that before, but just never found it. Finally, M2, M72, and M73. Another great night! AGNFA!
Jeff
Hello everyone, Eagle Bluff will have a quilters group there this weekend, but they will be inside and Dawn thought that the parking lot lights could be off, no problem. They will overnight, so no impact on us except that they may take the time to come on up and look through the scopes. I remember one other year where this happened.
The staff will be inside with the quilters and the door to the restroom will be open, so we won't even need an entrance code.
Friday and Saturday both look good. I have to work (Sat. night, I think?) so I can't make both nights. I have to generate some bongo bucks to pay for the Heart of America Star Party trip! ;D
Sounds great, Dean! Jillissa and I are definately planning to be at Eagle Bluff tomorrow (Friday) night. The quilters were a great outreach group, if I recall. I'll also probably have a couple of the visitors along that I had out at Keller. We can't make Saturday night, though. Jed was considering coming up to EB from Winona on Friday, too.
Have Jed bring a few of his friends along!
We were planning to go to the Jeffers Petroglyphs' Astro Night, (near Comfrey, MN) but plans have changed. 🙁
See you at Eagle Bluff.
Wow! What a response! I hope Jed shows, it would be so nice to see him again.
Steve and I will be there tomorrow night. I'm not sure if I can be there at sunset, us forestry workers will be in NE Iowa tomorrow, but I should be there by 8 p.m.
The CSC looks really good.
Let's hope for AGNFA! 🙂
I got off at a decent time. I should be there about sunset. Jeff Boland is going to have "Elllllvissss" put on a show.
The CSC looks real good. Lots of dark blue.
See you there!
Saturday night possibly looks good. Is there anyone interested in a 1st quarter moonset and late night observing somewhere?
Steve and I are definately going out if conditions warrant.
Steve is all fired up. We'll be out at the Flatin Farm by 8 p.m.
Tonight looks a little windy, tomorrow night looks really good.
"Get your booties on campers, 'cause it's COLD outside!" ;D (Groundhog Day movie)
Hello astronomy fans! Steve and I got out on Saturday night, and the first thing he asked was "What's that bright spot on the dark part of the Moon?" I took a look, but misunderstood him. He was looking at a mountaintop just west of the terminator that was being lit up.
I looked to the west of the lunar limb and noticed a bright star (mag. 4 or 5) with 2 8th mag. companions equidistant by about 2 arcminutes on either side. It was going to be occulted by the Moon!
I just had time to set up and caught the last five minutes of when the bright star and it's upper companion disappeared within 5 seconds of each other. The lower companion star was clipped 50 seconds after that. The time was 8:20:00 for the bright star, 8:20:05 and 8:20:50. This was the 2d occultation of the year for us and by far was the best event of that type.
We also observed Uranus and its close approach to 44 Piscium (1.4') Absolutely wonderful. Steve nailed M34, M36, M38 and M37 for his Messier tally. He now stands at 30. AGNFA!
Looks like the clouds are scheduled to roll in about 10:30pm. Anyone interested in making an early run out to Keller until they do?
Hello astronomy fans! We had an awesome night, although quite unexpected as to how it would turn out.
The Moon dominated the sky early in the evening, but we did not expect it to play the dominant role that it did tonight.
We saw an ISS pass about 7:20, but did not see another pass another hour and a half later on.
Ellenvega nailed NGC's 1444 and 457, but the biggest thrill of the night was seeing the Moon occult 5 stars in eastern Sagittarius. That just absolutely had our attention down tight. I personally had never seen more than two occultations previously, so this was a new record.
Steve had his new 20X80 Zhumell binoculars out, they were great! No comet 168P Hurgenrother, though. Did that object subside? I think that "Heavens Above" star maps are very substandard.
We have two pretty darn good astronomers coming up through the ranks. AGNFA!
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