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Hello astronomy fans. Full Moon has passed. Lots of us have been Jonesing for some telescope time.
Tomorrow night (Fri. Apr. 26th) will be clear but with some breeze. Still, with about an hour of darkness, we can check out dark sky objects and then watch the Moon rise.
It will be a good way to get back into it.
Anyone going to Eagle Bluff tonight? Winds are supposed to subside late afternoon.
I think I've forgotten all my stars and constellations….
I'm pretty sure I'll head out to Keller tonight. Yeah, I hope the wind dies off a bit, does many days. Moon rises at 9:33PM or so in Rochester tonight, a little over an hour after sunset like Dean said. No Eagle Bluff tonight for me… tomorrow?
Jeff
Stuppo and I will head out to the Flatin Farm hayfield tonight.
The forecast looks OK to iffy, but the FFH is only 5 miles from Spring Grove.
As usual, anyone will be more than welcome. Good luck to others that try the skies tonight.
May it be a Glorious Night For Astronomy!
I guess I was planning to head out to Keller again tonight. I think I will get ready for it anyway figuring it will clear up some, a little cloudy now.
Last night wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I was looking out the kitchen window to the west and saw clear skies. We headed out last night and were driving down Bamber Valley road and looked east and south and what in the world are those clouds doing over there!
We hoped they'd stay away and at the beginning, seemed to drift more to the east and away from us and not over us, but later one some clouds did come in from the south and clouded things up. Sort of had a window to the west with Gemini, Auriga, and Jupiter. But otherwise clouded over. The moon came up and appeared to be in a clear spot, but not much else. Stayed about an extra 20 minutes just to see if it would clear up enough to see Saturn and we got a couple of looks at it peeking out of the clouds, mostly not peeking.
Jupiter had 3 moons out to one side. Right before we left the other moon came up. Not quite sure if it had disappeared in front of or behind the moon. Looking at Sky and telescope, looks like perhaps in front of Jupiter. Things weren't looking too good. Also, I guess too late Orion. Low in the SW. I didn't see M42, or but made out the trapezium. No nebulosity, but trapezium was there.
Found a few other things, Whirlpool, M51, Leo triplet, just barely made out NGC3628, the open clusters in Auriga and by Gemini (m35, m36, m37, m37) split Cor Caroli and Castor.
Not the greatest of nights, but great to be out and didn't get cold!Anyway, I think we'll plan for tonight at Keller, but have to see how it goes.
JeffYes, good luck down there Dean!
Not looking to bad out there right now. We'll definitely be heading out to Keller tonight. Come on out if you get time.
The moon will be up about 10:40PM tonight. We'll probably be heading home about that time anyway.Doesn't look quite as nice as 30 minutes ago, but not that bad.
We're heading out in a few minutes. See ya all there!Might be too late, but remembered. There is a bunch of glass in the parking lot at Keller, on the west side south of the driveway. You may want to watch out for that.
Driving out to Keller, started to wonder if it was a good idea or not. High up on 40th ST SW and could see quite a few clouds low in the west. Hoping they would stay away.. and they did!
It was a pretty good night. A little cooler than Friday, a little breeze, but not too bad.
We got there pretty early. Got started on Jupiter, using it to sight in the scope and finder. 3 moons again last night. One of the moons was transitting in front of Jupiter. From what I read and calculated, looks like there was a possibility of that moon casting a shadow starting at 9:22 or so. We would keep going back to Jupiter, but never did see any shadow.
Early on, sitting back and watching the stars come in, Sirius, Capella, Procyon, Arcturus, Betelguese, Castor and Pollux, Regulus.
Much clearer than Friday night. The Leo triplet was better, NGC3628 was much easier to see as well as M65 and M66. From there, went to a pair, M81 and M82 and then over to the Whirlpool, M51. Went over and look at glob M3. Another galaxy, went to the Sombrero, M104. Saw the open clusters from the night before, M37, M36, M38, and M35. I was able to pick up those Auriga clusters with the binoculars last night, not so much on Friday. Able pick up M45, Pleiades, before it got too low. Also, the Beehive, M44.
Went back for another view of the triplets and then went farther down the belly of the beast and got M105 and NGC3384, they're very close together. Looking at the description of them and it also had an NGC3389 there as well. Very faint, but we were able to pull that one out. From there, a very little jaunt and you have M96 and M95. You can get M96 and M105 in the same FOV and same with M96 and M95.
Finished off Messiers with M85, M98, M99, M100 off the tail of Leo. Have to go for more of the Virgo-Coma cluster the next time out.
Finished off the night with Saturn. It's looking good. A good angle on the rings, they show up very well. Seemed to be quite a few moons last night, 3 or 4 very dim moons there.
We left a little after 11:00. All in all a very good night. AGNFA!Jeff
Jeff, my MAN! You have to be so close to your Messier certificate! Let me know when you complete that task. It is considered a rite of passage among amateur astronomers.
Stuppo and I got out last night and Frenchy (David Coset) joined us for Moonrise. Steve and I observed Jupiter and Saturn, (his lovely little wife Lizzy joined us for that) and then got on the hunt for Leo's triplet. Since I have seen this so often, Steve wouldn't let me help him find it, (those darn stubborn Norwegians) so I showed David some of the Obvious Stuff (M 13 and Epsilon Lyrae) and tried to pick up a few more phrases in Francois. What a hoot!
Then our lovely planetary neighbor rose dramatically from the east. The Moon was absolutely beautiful. It was like seeing Miss America walk into the room, all eyes were locked on it and all we could do was wonder at its splendor. It didn't hurt that we had the Moonlight Sonata on classical radio at the time. It was cosmic.
AGNFA!
Hello astronomy fans! I am officially (from my lofty position of star party chair ::) ) calling a NO GO for a dark sky weekend at Eagle Bluff.
I can't ever remember a more dismal spring for astronomy. I have journals going back to 2002 and April has always been one of my best months. I got out once this last April.
I called Eagle Bluff and Sally told me that next weekend, May 10/11 that nothing is going on there and we can have at it, weather permitting. She actually laughed when I asked about stargazing.
This HAS to end sometime soon. I would have been planting trees today, but there is 3 inches of snow on the ground!
you mean there are still stars in the sky?! I gave up looking up a few weeks ago…
I put my light bucket on the curb with a sign "free" on it. I'm sick of hauling it out of the closet only to put it back when the clouds show up :'(
So what's on the horizon for stargazing this coming weekend?I don't know about Fri-Sat yet, usually Tuesday is too early to tell.
But tonight looks great! Stuppo and I are going out and the Flatin Farm is in good shape if anyone wants to join us. If you can't make that, then by all means, get to your favorite local spot and get some telescope time in.
Fri at EB, I'm not sure. I may have to work at the Legion. Saturday is the Syttende Mai Queen's dinner where they pick the royalty and my Little Princess is a candidate. Should I not attend that, you'd be dividing up my equipment at the next meeting and making plans to scatter my ashes at Eagle Bluff and the Flatin Farm.
If Sat is good, I might make it, but it would be late.
I'm going to cross my fingers, looking good right now. I'm planning to head out to Keller tonight. Come on out if you can make it for awhile.
Hoping the clouds will hold off until after midnight or close to it.
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