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/