January 31, 2008
Less is OK, but more is better . . . much better
January 30-31 - Another "double" night - double stars, and observing on both the pm and am sides, but there was also some time for some more images through the AT66 with MallinCam video. My main focus was to test...Stickleback fish and life on other planets
Here’s an evolutionist’s dream: 10,000 planet Earths, starting from the same point at the same time, and left to their own devices for four and a half billion years. What would happen? Could you go on safari from one...January 29, 2008
Too bad you have to sleep . . . but oh what a night!
January 28-29, 2008 - This was one of those nights when I wish I had more energy and less need for sleep. Had a wonderful observing session with Jim in the early evening from about 7 to 10, went to...January 26, 2008
and now, risking the rath of the gods, back to high tech
OK - I've answered my own question, having spent the morning studying alt-az mount alternatives and revisiting the Ioptron SmartStar Cube and reading again the S&T review and reading again the manual - it's the Cube! Why? Because the decent...Is someone sending me a message?
Small? Check out the Astro-Tech AT66 on the left on one of the mounts I rejected. Big? How about the 15-inch Obsession with its currently non-functional Argo-Navis computer control. Just right?Or maybe the 80ED on its ultra-simple, ultra functional UniStar...Ryszard - enthusiasm plus!
I'm still wrestling with the best way to go about this public education business. I think the year-round class is working. But then I run into people such as Ryszard who are eager to learn now and wondering when the...January 25, 2008
AT66 takes on Izar, Saturn, a kissing double and the moon
I'm cold and happy - happy to have spent an hour and half, bathed in moonlight, and searching out double stars and stuff in the morning skies. And happy to be in, my frozen feet sitting on one of those...January 24, 2008
Clusters, Comet Tuttle, and NexStar mount
January 3, 2008 - evening - Transparency excellent, seeing average - 13 degrees - Started out by using the Orion 80EDon the NexStar mount. It has an altitude limit of about 60 degrees which I ste on th emount. If...January 19, 2008
First light for the Astro-Tech 66 - very impressive!
January 19, 2008 - AT66 - foreground- next to the Orion 80ED on the observing deck at Driftway Observatory. Maybe I get too enthusiastic too easily. Maybe I'm still able to be surprised and thrilled. Maybe my expectations are overly...January 16, 2008
Evening star, morning, star, fleeting star - at last you have a face!
Anyone else see this face on Mercury in the release of the first pictures of the hidden side? Anyone want to know what I saw in the pattern made by the maple syrup on my pancakes this morning ;-) Seriously...January 15, 2008
Big brains, small brains, no brains. . . it's your call!
“People are not prepared for this discussion,” Dr. Linde said. Now THAT I can agree with . . . but everything else in this fascinating article in today's New York Times leaves my head spinning. I don't know if...Beautiful morning for doubles
Very enjoyable couple of hours with the dawn stars and small scopes! I started out with the Orion 80 ED which I took out to the observing deck which was pure ice. It had rained, then frozen. Walking gingerly, I...January 10, 2008
Algieba, some Leo galaxies, and M101
5-inch NexStar, Hyperion eyepieces . . . morning observations - 5.5 skies, but some high clouds drifting through - at least average seeing, maybe better - using observatory - started at 2:22 am 3 am Algieba - light straw primary,...Less faint, but still fuzzy
Having had such good luck with M74 the other night, I decided to try some more galaxies this morning, though not so faint - and this time I was very careful about my dark adaption. The end result was that...January 08, 2008
Fat, dumb, and lucky - uncovering the ghost of a cosmic gem
“No object in the Messier catalog has proven more troublesome, more elusive, more provocative to amateur astronomers . . .” That’s how Stephen James O’Meara, one of the best, if not the best, visual observers alive today describes M74, a...January 04, 2008
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