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Hi Dean, did you catch any Orionids while you were out there? Where were you at, Eagle Bluff or Flatin Farm?
Thanks for the heads up. Looks like we are in another set of ISS evening passes. 🙂
Sorry Jeff. No Orionids. The sky was great until about midnight, then clouded up.
That was the same time that the Moon set. Stuppo with his brand new 20X80 Zhumells and Ellenvega looked at Moonset thru my 15X70 Celestron Skymasters.
I had seen this quite a few times before, so I just held back and watched them. It was so fun! Neither one left the occulars of the binoculars until the very last vestiges of the Moon had disappeared below the horizon. That was pretty cool. They are both die hards.
That was when the clouds came in and covered everything completely.
Logan Deschler (the young kid who came on out and had observed with us before), came out right when the clouds covered everything. Oh well. It was still AGNFA!
Hi everybody. I called Eagle Bluff and they have two groups of tenth graders there tonight and tomorrow, but we are welcome to show up and the parking lot lights can be off.
The forecast doesn't look too good, especially for tonight. If the weather co-operates Sat. nite, I'd be willing to show up and I know Steve would too.
If not, then it's the good old Flatin Farm. Did anybody catch the Moon and its close proximity to Jupiter last night? A great naked eye spectacal.
Wondering if it is going to stay clear this evening? Just might head out to Keller for a couple of hours if it stays this way. CSC is suggesting it should stay clear into the evening. Anybody else thinking to head out?
Jeff
I think that Steve and I are going to the Flatin Farm hayfield tonight.
I called Sally at Eagle Bluff and she said that EB would work either Fri or Sat. However, I don't think the weather is going to co-operate.
It is November, after all and from now until mid-Feb, observing is going to be tough to come by.Good luck if you go!
Sorry, I couldn't make it. Steve is deep into delivering corn from harvest, and I needed to get my lovely wife Betty home from kindergarten conferences at 8:30 p.m.
There will be another time! 🙂
Sorry you couldn't get out last night Dean. It was a wonderful night. We got there a little before 7:30. Objects were popping out. Started off sighting my finder by using Vega. Since I was there, I moved over a little a started the night with the Ring Nebula, M57. Really looked nice and figure then it would be a good night. I then decided to head over to look at the Dumbbell. While heading there, stopped off in Sagitta and hit M71, a glob, and then pointed the finder over in the Dumbbell area. From the finder, I saw a smudge and said, no, can't be the Dumbbell, can it? Sure enough it was.
Besides Gerarda and myself, Mr. jlmanatee, Jack, came out. It was his first time to Keller, I'm sure not the last. He has an 8 inch Celestron CPC that he recently(?) picked up and hasn't used too many times. A nice scope and nice views, I'm sure he'll be using it a lot.
Mainly looked at a few Messiers, Double cluster, Albireo, Mesarthim and Jupiter once it got above the trees. Jupiter had 3 moons. Looking at the magazines to see where the other was at and determined that Io was behind Jupiter. Looks like it might start to come out by 10PM? We kept an eye out for it. And that was probably the highlight of the evening. Gerarda was the first to see it edging out the side of Jupiter a little before 9:30. We left at 10:00 and it had gained quite a bit of separation from Jupiter by then. Jack was still there when we left, I don't know how long he stayed.
Yes, it was AGNFA!
Jeff
A BIG thank you to Jeff and his wife for giving me a personal mini-star-tour. It was my first-ever view of Jupiter. Very cool. I didn't know those "stars" were moons till Jeff pointed them out. What was really nice was having Jeff confirm the identity of the faint fuzzys I was seeing. "OH! So THAT's a nebula!" Thanks again, Jeff.
My first scope was a 60mm Celestron Nexstar (for sale!) and was pretty useless. My new scope, a Celestron CPC-800, is awesome and this was the very first night with a clear dark sky.
I should have taken the opportunity to look through Jeff's 12" Dob, but was too into my new scope and all its fancy doodads and new eyepieces. Maybe next time Jeff?Good for you three to have a really great night!
It sounds like Jeff is seriously finding his way around the sky. Great for you, buddy! It also sounds like Jack is starting to recognize "object awareness". That is a great thing for any astronomer to aquire.
Cross your fingers for next weekend. I'll keep you posted for Eagle Bluff, and sometime by God, I'll get a session in at Keller! ;D
Looks like it may be clear tonight. Anyone else thinking of Keller? Not sure if I will or not. This evening, forecast has clear in the upper 30s with around a 10-13 mph wind. So a little windy, wind chill in the upper 20s then. Just might go out for a couple of hours. I'll post if I do.
Jeff
Dean's computer is down, so he called to let me know Eagle Bluff is wide open tonight. We'll have their parking lot all to ourselves.
So we're both planning on being there. I will have the EVO and a heated trailer with some hot cider.
Dress warm. Hope to see you there!
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