Sep
12
—Wish I had time to put in here more facts and data that I have time to. However it seems to be a very hot topic lately. Are we as a species really warming up our environmnet? Or merely riding along on the roller coaster ride that is Earth’s own climate cycle. I find it hard to believe that we think we can trend the future climate temps based off of partially documented stats from only 150 of the last multi million plus years. We really are a haughty species if we think we can manipulate a planet that was here long before us, and will be here long after…
Jul
18
—It has been a long two weeks since the passing of my Dalmatian. Sorry that I have been scare, but I really haven’t felt like doing anything at all since she died. My dogs are part of my family, and I miss them a great deal when they are gone. I have another that currently has cancer, and don’t think he will be around much longer either. It has been 7 years since I lost my last, so I have to consider myself rather fortunate.
—I’ll definitely be back in the saddle next week when I get off work. Looking forward to rekindling the astronomy bug within. Sorry again for the period of absence.
—RIP Lucky Lou…
Jul
03
—Fresh off of my morning viewing session that bagged three new planets to my list of ’seen’ objects, I decided to beat the weather and try again last night. Cool night, and clear skies inspired another jaunt down the hill with my scope and goodies.
—First up for good measure was Saturn again. This time I got to show the wife and she replied by saying “Oh my God!” as she stared through the EP. Nothing feels quite so good when you can impress someone with your ability to find objects in the sky! She wants me to reset the scope several times so she can see it over and over again. The wife then runs off to watch the family of raccoons that have taken to visiting us in the early evening to raid the birdfeeders.
—I sit down with my completely inadequate star maps and start looking for a couple of targets. First one that really catches my eye is the Ring Nebula. I am a bit intimidated about finding my first Messier through my scope, but quite game for the challenge. First find Vega, do a little star hopping, and bam there it is! Not much more than a little fuzzy, but there it is! I use my 6mm to take a better look and can’t hardly see a thing. Yup there is that aperture fever that I knew I was going to get…
—Then I decide to look for the North American Nebula. After a long sky hunt I lose hope on finding it and strike it up to having to small a scope. Then before I know it the clouds are rolling in from the North. Curse my luck! Oh well there will always be another night.
—So up the hill I tote the goodies. My list of ‘have seens’ grew by one, and that makes a good night under any circumstances.
Jul
02
—I set the alarm for 03:30 this morning to do some sky watching at a different time. One of my first goals, early in my astronomical career, is to view all the other 7 planets as soon as possible. With only Saturn under my belt, there was much to accomplish!
—So the alarm went off and like any normal work morning, I drug my butt into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Then I put in my contacts, donned my shoes, and went out for an early morning stroll to my viewing area. To my delight, not only was Jupiter shining down from high above, but both Venus and Mars were up in the East! So off to the house I ran to grab my scope and case.
—There were some seriously disturbing sounds coming from further down the hill from my observation area that I have yet to determine what they were. It sounded like the noise upset squirrels make, on an amp, and echoing. AND there were two of them talking to one another. Fortunately for all involved, the noises did not come closer and I was left happily alone.
—Note on the weather. It was in the lower 60’s, low humidity (YAY!) and a slight breeze. It was cool enough, I put on a long sleeve shirt.
—Scope set up, lens cap off and eye piece in, what to look at first? I go with Jupiter which is high in the sky. Jupiter was spectacular through my 26 mm EP, seems like I could see two moons? Curious as I am I can’t linger and so I then point the scope over to the Eastern horizon and gander at Mars, which proves to be a disappointment overall. Then down a little a little to Venus which a: was plainly visible to me standing up, but was hiding amongst the tops of the 6 foot tall grass in my field, and B: had a huge diffraction spike. GGrrrr. I could see enough to tell there was a little more than half of it visible.
—So out with the 26mm and in with the 6mm and back to Jupiter. This time I could distinctly see two bands on Jupiter. I hovered over it quite a bit trying to fine tune the focuser (Which I have determined I hate). Truly a grand site Jupiter is!
—Then back to Mars which again even in the 6mm EP was nothing more than a tiny orange-ish disk. Wondering to myself if I will be able to make it bigger with a 12″ scope? Or is it because Mars is so far away right now? So many questions.
—Then back to Venus! The diffraction spikes were even worse in the 6mm EP, but at least it had cleared the grass and it was a sharp spiky object lol. I’d like to see it high in the sky. Unsure how long it will be until it is higher again.
—After Venus through the 6mm EP I wanted another peep at Jupiter. To my dismay it was now behind the tip top of a tree to the South even though I could see it clearly standing up. Dang it anyway! So now I know that the first concrete pad I poured is a bit to close to the tree to the South. Going to have to pour another pad soon…
—I then pulled out the 17mm EP and took a look at a blurry spot just to the east of Mars. Turned out to be a spectacular open star cluster. Anyone know what one I was looking at right before sunrise? While staring at that heavenly body, Sol decided to start peeping above the horizon. My my 90 mins went by fast! Then I noticed that Mercury had risen! Could I have first light on 4 planets in the same night? Nope, no way. It was way down in the grass, and I couldn’t begin to get to it with the scope. Going to go weed that grass today, wish me luck…
—I decided then to pack it up and head back to bed. I got first light on three planets and one star cluster. All in all a very productive 90 mins in the wee hours of the morning!
—Things I learned
1: I need my lap top there with me so I can have Stellarium at my finger tips. This is going to require a portable power supply or 200 feet of extention cords…
2: My focuser is awful. Anyone suggest a good 1.25 focuser?
3: To much tall grass around my viewing area. Can you say weedeater?
Jun
30
—Sorry folks, when I’m in the middle of my workweek, I have very little time to do anything online. I hardly have a chance to Tweet as well. There will be periods of time I’m just not able to make posts, so please forgive me.
—In the meantime, here’s a link to our soon to be website. Not much on it yet, but feel free to add it to your favorites!
http://eurekaspringsas.org/
