Another Great Night Of Viewing - August 26, 2008

After last nights disappointment (battery was dead in my focuser) tonight turned out GREAT!!!
Last night's only excitement was an Iridium flare which I happen to see while waiting for Polaris to appear.

I was able to image Jupiter (stay tuned for the final image), but I'm not too pleased. I find it difficult to focus, let alone find it in the camera image. Then, the contrast never seems to good. But here is a sample:

Then, I decided to just go viewing different objects when my daughter came outside.

We saw some really great things:

1st: Dumbbell Nebula - I tried to view with my Nebula Filter, but found it better without. We could actually see some detail. Very impressive

2nd: Wild Duck Cluster - In my opinion, better than the Dumbbell Nebula. Even my daughter agreed.

3rd: Andromeda Galaxy - This is always a great site to see. Some day I want to image that, but I won't attempt any DSO (Deep Sky Objects) until I can at least get better images of planets.

While packing everything up and bringing it inside, I did also see a shooting star. I didn't, but maybe I should have made a wish. :)

So that was my evening. This week is looking good for more viewing, and imaging if I'm up to it, but we'll see. I'll post a link soon (I hope) of the final image of jupiter after post processing.

Until next time, Good night.

Oh, forgot to mention the coyotes!! They sounded pretty good last night while I was out there. Just thought I would throw that in there. You never know what you're going to see/hear when you're out, huh?

A Night of Viewing

Wow, what I night!

My father-in-law stopped by, so I mentioned the possibility of looking at Jupiter and he was all for it. My plan really was to try and image it, but like many say, looking is just as good.

So we had a really nice view of Jupiter and 4 moons. Truly fantastic. Jen (my wife was there - and surprisingly she looked too), and Lauren, my oldest daughter too.

Once we viewed Jupiter it was time to take a look at some other stuff, and we tried the guided tour. But I was being very selective as to what we were going to look at.
Gee....I really can't remember what we were going to look at, but I do remember what we did look at.

While trying to find the Swan Nebula, we found a great cluster of stars. Really nice, never did see the nebula, but the cluster was a great unexpected bonus.

While we were looking for things to view, my daughter pointed out a couple of things:
1) A random satellite....but turned out to be an iridium flare!! Really neat, but unfortunately, my father in law was looking at Jupiter and missed the flare part.
2) The ISS (International Space Station), that's always fun to watch fly over.

We didn't give up there, we went looking for the Ring Nebula. Having seen that before, I knew what I was looking for.

Now the scope just wasn't pointing the way I would like it, so I used it's spiral search function, and ta da!!! There she is!!! What a beauty! I am just so impressed by the ring nebula. I mean, you can only think to your self: How? and Why?

This was the first my daughter has seen it, and even she thought it was "cool".

So, no images tonight. But really a nice night of viewing. Any time I can see more than 1 thing other than my primary target, I am pleased.

Good Night,
/steven/