September 23, 2008
Love - who understands it?
Looking at giant Rigel this morning - 40,000 times brighter than our Sun - I found myself pondering two questions: 1. Why do I love double stars so? 2. And why do I love this little 80mm Orion Eon telescope...
August 13, 2008
A flock of fiery visitors from outer space
We think we know them, of course, because we can name them – meteors. In fact, we can get more particular and call these the “Perseids,” meteors that appear near mid-August of each year and seem to stream out of...
May 15, 2008
Saturn through a 66AT
The above image of Saturn - complete with Cassini Division (a difficult target now) and the shadow of the planet on the rings, was taken by Steen Weichel and sent to me today with the following note. I think...
May 01, 2008
Seeing Red! UX Draco
May 1,2008 - 4 am - T5, S3 8-inch LX90 Take your average nuclear explosion, mix in a lot of carbon to absorb the blue light, and what you get is one unequivocally red star. The one I was looking...
April 03, 2008
More observations with 120ST and "Contellation View"
April 3, 2008 - 3:15 am - 5:30 am - T4-5, S3 This was a wonderful, refreshing session, though cold got to my hands once ina while. What I did most of the time was play with the Orion...
March 27, 2008
From Earth to the Virgo Cluster
March 26, 2008 - 8-11:30 pm - T3-4/S3 In the space of a few hours, Jim, Donna, and I went from observing one of our closest space objects - the International Space Station and its cargo vessel, Jules Verne...
March 24, 2008
Jupiter in the branches of a fast-moving tree
March 23/24 pm/am moonless/moonlight t4/3 s3 Jupiter, Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto - all playing a confused game of tag, tangled in the branches of a fast-moving tree - that was my main memory from two excellent observing sessions....
March 22, 2008
Birds in flight - right through the Engagement Ring!
There was a full moon rising over my right shoulder, but I wanted to see if the 100ED could actually work on the parallelogram mount and in straight-through mode. It can. I had put the 30mm ClearVue in, so I...
March 21, 2008
Rules are made to be broken, right?
The old saw is that "rules are made to be broken" and last night I enjoyed myself with a little piece of observing that broke every rule in the book. I report it here, simply because rules can become such...
March 15, 2008
Seeing the "Pup" - how can you be sure?
There's a lot of excitement this observing season about seeing Sirius "B" - known affectionately as "The Pup" since it is a white dwarf that orbits Sirius, the "Dog Star." It's especially hard to see because: The Pup is close...
March 13, 2008
Clouds, night vision. and light pollution - plus new binoculars
March 13, 2008 - T2S2 4:30 am DST The Astro Physics 15X70 binoculars arrived, but i have little to report except: Boy, when the clouds roll in you really appreciate the light pollution around you. Not "appreciate" as in...
March 11, 2008
Strange line on the Moon
March 10, 2008 - pm - T4S3 - 29 degrees Now what is that! I had been studying Mare Crisium by the light of the 3-day-old moon, having moved the 100ED to a temporary location where the trees didn't block...
Gem at the bottom of the falls
March 10, 2008 - pm - T4S3 - 29 degrees Kemble's Casecade is beautiful in itself, but at its bottom this stream of stars pour into a small, open cluster that is dominated by an absolute gem of a pair...
March 10, 2008
Extracting the essense - where less is just fine
March 9-10 pm/am T5S2, T5S3 I really can't pin this one down, but I keep getting attracted to the 66mm scope and leaving the 15-inch Obsession sitting idle right beside it. i think there might be two reasons -...
The color of stars in twilight
Some people see no color in stars. To others the differences are dramatic. But if you;re one of those who have difficulty seeing these color differences, I urge you to try this: Look at some of the brightest, most colorful...
March 09, 2008
Oh those wonderful power blackouts!
March 9, 2008 - 4-6 am- T4S2 Most people in Westport probably weren't up at 4 am this morning and if they were, they were probably cursing the high winds which apparently brought some branches down across powerlines, I...
March 08, 2008
Cascades, glistening locks, and more galaxies
March 8, 2008 - T5, S1 It's been raining all day, but a cold font is blowing in now on strong winds, clearing the skies, so about 10:30 I picked up the 12X36IS binoculars for a quick peak -...
March 07, 2008
20 million light years with just 36mm of glass!
I love image stabilized binoculars and have had Canon 15X45s for six years. But I just sold them to someone in Russia and took the money and bought new, 12X36 IS. Why? Weight and bulk, plain and simple. Maybe my...
Complex and simple in a single package
I've been on a KISS kick - Keep It Simple Stupid. Only it dawned on me this morning - unintentional pun- that you don't have to be simple to be simple - you can use the most complex go to...
Oh those refractor views - and good seeing to boot!
March 6, 2008, 8 pm - T3S4 Got to put the new (to me) 100mm Orion ED through its paces last night between periods of high clouds. Terrific. On Mars both Bren and I could immediately see Syrtis Major. I...
March 03, 2008
Galaxy Games II - to see more, use less - and tread in the footsteps of Messier
March 3, 2008 - 3:30 am - 5:30 am - 26F -T4S3 Where the heck have I been? I'm not sure. In the Virgo cluster, yes. Down Macharian's Chain? Probably. M87? Maybe. I have three pages of rough sketches...
March 02, 2008
Galaxy games
March 1, 2008 - three good hours of observing Here's the bottom line: With my skies (mag 5.5) and an 80mm ED refractor with a 24mm Hyperion eyepiece in it I can observe galaxies out to about 20 million light...
February 29, 2008
Pulling Markarian's chain - and mine!
February 28, 2008 - morning and evening sessions It isn't fair to even try to write about something like this. It's a puzzle to me why I haven't been here more often. This may be only my second visit in...
February 26, 2008
In search of M1 - what do YOU take into the cave?
Luke Skywalker looks into the dark cave and asks, "What will I find in there?" and Yoda replies, "Only what you take with you." Dom just sent me that quote by email, noting as he did that "Illumination sometimes...
February 24, 2008
Saturn tips his hat and dives into the west
So beautiful! Moonlight turning the snow that draped the horizonal junipers to a cool shade of blue . . . Saturn, like an old man glancing back over his shoulder, tips his hat and dives into the west with Regulus and the rest of his pride in tow . . . wrapped in the solitude of this Christmas card landscape, I perch high on my observing chair and suck in great gulps of deep, soothing tranquilty, that rarest of elixirs.
February 22, 2008
When good isn't good enough - but the seeing is fantastic
I was reading some stuff online yesterday about huge, inexpensive binoculars and it got me thinking about inexpensive refractors. Essentially the author, Ed Zarenski, seemed to be saying that while he would hold onto the large, inexpensive binoculars he was...
February 21, 2008
Red eye on Orion!
Well, it was hardly a clear night, but the moon fought off the clouds and haze to give us a wonderful show, as we watched the eclipse from a beautiful, dark-sky setting in South Dartmouth, MA. What a show!...
February 20, 2008
Rascal or Rasalgethi - I got you this time!
February 19-20, 2008 Rasalgethi, which had fooled me a few morning ago, didn't escape this morning. This is one of those very rare red supergiants - one of just ten we can see with the naked eye, but even more...
February 17, 2008
A special intimacy at 40 million light years or so
February 16-17 I just had a wonderful observing experience, despite the 19 degree temperatures which was really playing havoc with my hands. I think there's an intimacy - a very human scale - to using a small refractor and a...
February 11, 2008
M35? Of course. But NGC 2158 with a 66mm - that surprised me
Session: February 8, 2008 - I don't have notes, but I have one sterling memory from this session last Friday night which followed about an hour's frustration with the Cube - see this post. The memory was of the distant...
February 02, 2008
Flat tires, one star alignments, and daylight stars
February 2 -morning - First, here's how a flat-tire can enhance your observing experience . . . When I got to a local restaurant yesterday at noon I noticed one rear tire was dangerously flat, the other quite soft. After...
February 01, 2008
Grabbed and went . . . three times ;-)
January 31- February 1 - Does that sound obscene to you? I hope not. What I grabbed was my telescope and eyepieces and where I went was to the observing deck to take advantage of some not really predicted clear...
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...
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
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 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 15, 2008
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
Staying really warm while it’s really cold
Staying warm while observing is tricky, since it’s an essentially a sedentary activity. However, a few Christmas presents have come to my aid to keep me comfortable and I tried them out last night in 10-12 degree temperatures. They worked...
November 26, 2007
Comet Holmes, short refractors and wider video fields
I continue to experiment with wide field possibilities with the video camera. The true fov of view of a camera such as the MallinCam Color Hyper that I use is inherently small because of the size of the CCD chip...
November 24, 2007
MallinCam FOV tests
My test equipment: 8-inch Celestron NextStar SE SCT F10 2” WO diagonal Color Hyper MallinCam MFR-3 10mm, 10mm, 5mm extensions Philips PET 1002 10.2-inch DVD player Canon Digital Rebel – screen photographs at 1/6-second with image stabilized lens My target:...
November 18, 2007
Comet images and an education
I've decided to create a summary of my Comet Holmes images in chronological order in this posting with the plan of adding to them here as time goes on. I'm not particularly proud of them, but they have taught me...
November 16, 2007
Mystery, awe, and a comet
Update: My apologies. Comet Holmes has gotten a lot more attention by the media than I thought. So ignore my rants about the media. The rest of this update on the status is - I believe - on target. (See...
November 08, 2007
Holmes, Mirfak, color and questions
OK - educate me. First, Comet Holmes certainly shows distinctive, straw-like, color in this 30-second shot taken last night with the Canon Digital Rebel piggybacked on the LX90 and a 75mm lens. But once I finished staring at the...
November 05, 2007
Comet Holmes -bigger and better and a bit fainter
Donna and Jim and Ben and Martha were out tonight to enjoy the continuing Holmes show. It was great anyway you looked at it. To the naked eye it now makes a new, but perfect triangle with Mirfak and Delta...
November 04, 2007
Zooming in on Holmes in the morning
Another beautiful morning, so I tried my first shots with the Canon Digital Rebel mounted on the LX90. I then combined three different views through a wide angle lens and zoom to show how the comet appears to the naked...
November 03, 2007
A thousand words indeed . . .
Here's an extraordinary photo of Comet Holmes. Spaceweather.com describes this as "one of the strangest and most beautiful photos of a comet ... ever." I sense in the editor's comment the feeling of desperation many of us who haveviewd Comet...
November 02, 2007
Comet Holmes- 2 arc minute tail - comet within comet
This morning was wonderfully clear and using the 8-inch and the MallinCam and a 12-second integration I was able to easily observe an apprent dust tail on Comet Holmes of about 2-arc minutes. made the comet look like a speeding,...
October 31, 2007
Comet Holmes- Perseus will never look the same!
I'm used to seeing Perseus as a gentle arc of three fairly bright stars and a few more dmmer ones - with Algol hanging way out there at the end of his arm. Now we have THE PERSEUS TRIANGLE. Comet...
October 26, 2007
Comet Holmes shocks, intrigues and awes
UPDATE; 10.28.07 - 7 am - Here's a pencil sketch I made about 5:45 am this morning using the 8-inch LX90 and a 5 mm Hyperion eyepiece which gives about a 10' fov. It was bigger and maybe brighter and...
October 20, 2007
Seeing a comet and a comet ghost
UPDATE - 9 am Tuesday - Got a minor shock this morning. I was out about 4:30 am using the LX90 8-inch on Mars. Have to admit I don't have much patience with planetary observing and the dew was heavy...
September 29, 2007
A new visual intimacy – with the universe and others
To understand my enthusiastic reaction to a new, tiny, and inexpensive 2.5-inch LCD video monitor, you have to understand my fundamental goal – helping people connect with the universe. In doing that I have been very suspicious of putting too...
September 19, 2007
Video, sketching, observing and education
My focus of late has been on how to best integrate video astronomy into my educational programs - and personal observing - so I retain the sense of intimacy - the connections - with the night sky. I'm skeptical of...
September 18, 2007
This morning's planets
Let's hear it for Venus! (not to mention Mars and Staurn ;-) I've been following Venus carefully this year since February, but for some reason it seems much brighter in our morning sky - what a beacon! Yet the cold...
September 11, 2007
Constellations, myths, myth busters and myth making
“They must have been invented by a bunch of drunks at the end of a long night!” That’s all-too-typical of comments on the classical constellations that I hear from people to whom I’m introducing the night sky – and...
August 31, 2007
Do you see what I see?
Do you see what I see? That's not a rhetorical question. I really wish someone could give me an answer, but at the same time I'm not sure there is an answer. What I have experienced feels like an extraordinary...
August 15, 2007
It's a blinking Vesta!
One of the task for the Prime Timers this month is to observe the bright asteroid Vesta as it approaches Jupiter. It's not that easy, for it's in a rich star field. As one person searched for it last night,...
August 05, 2007
Half an eclipse for early risers
OK - this one is for those viewing the total eclipse of the moon August 28 locally. Times and conditions are geared to Westport, MA - or very generally, the East Coast. There can be a big gap between total...
July 17, 2007
You can't believe your eyes! Honest.
Take a look at this Astronomy Picture of the Day and see if you don't agree. Then come back and read the comments that follow. The first thing that came to mind after I absorbed the shock of this illusion...
June 26, 2007
A symbiotic southern exposure, new gigs, and some sidewalk astronomy
I've spent a little time lately exploring nearby sites that would give me the good southern exposure I lack at Driftway Observatory. Yesterday I found one that's near perfect, ended up doing a little sidewalk astronomy in the process, and...
June 20, 2007
Wow! Some things catch me way off balance . . .
. . . and that's good! I don't get too excited about seeing satellites - in fact they can become a bit of a nuisance - but I found my jaw dropping a few moments ago as Bren and I...
May 26, 2007
Finding Mercury the easiest way
I do like the little Celestron NexStar 5. It led me quickly to Mercury this evening well before it was detectable to the naked eye and when there were no stars visible to do a normal two-star alignment. I...
Mercury -speedy - but easy to see if . . .
The next couple of weeks are our best opportunity to see the fleeting planet, Mercury, low in the western sky right after Sunset. This last week in May might be the best time to see it. While I hope folks...
May 22, 2007
Venus and a fallen star of 1865
Observing last night between rapidly drifting clouds I was once again stunned by the incredible brightness of Venus in the west. This morning, just at sunrise, as I walked around the yard I paused to admire and smell the lilacs...
May 08, 2007
When bad is good - a productive cloudy night of observing
Clouds! Throughout my observing life I’ve written off cloudy nights as next to useless for the observer. I guess this is due in part to my lack of serious interest in observing planets, because last night was certainly cloudy here,...
May 03, 2007
Viewing a second 'double double' and 'discovering' a third!
Seems I learn something new every night – and maybe discover something new to. I always thought the Double Double was, well THE Double Double. I'm talking about the well-known – and challenging pair of double stars known as Epsilon...
April 25, 2007
Lovejoy? Not for me - but I'm flipping over the moon ;-)
Took a quick peek this morning for Comet Lovejoy. I was armed with my 15X45 IS Canons, but they weren;t enough. According to Sky and Telescope chart it should have been easy to find because it was well-placed in Aquila....
April 23, 2007
Wrapping your mind around Saturn
Looking at Saturn last night, I thought about it in a new way – new to me, that is. I saw one end of the rings as touching the Earth, the opposite side as reaching two thirds of the way...
April 14, 2007
3.5mm Hyperion , 80 ED, split the Double-Double
You know I like the Hyperion 8-24 zoom. Add to that the 3.5mm, 68-degree Hyperion from Baader Planetarium. I tried it briefly last night on the 8-inch LX90 and found it the most comfortable, high-powered eyepiece I have used....
April 13, 2007
Getting on the "E" plane - with a push from Venus and the Pleiades
Bren and I caught Venus dropping in on the Seven Sisters the other night. Pretty – and it certainly drove home the message of a hundred-fold difference in brightness. That is Venus is at about –4 and the Pleiades have...
April 06, 2007
You gotta be kidding - observing for the blind?
Astronmical observing for the blind? Does that sound like a cruel joke to you? It did to me when I first heard it and before I gave it much thought. Yet a few weeks from now I hope to be...
April 05, 2007
How fine should we be cutting it?
My friend Clay Cooper has some interesting experiences to report in a recent message: I got a new 2" eyepiece this week - a GSO 30mm Super View ($58). Ordered it from Agena Astro on Monday morning and received it...
March 30, 2007
It's a full moon! Should you get out there with the werewolves?
The full moon bothers a lot of amateur astronomers and I used to just plain hate it. First, I read too many horror comic books while sitting in the barbershop as a kid, so werewolves do bother me – but...
March 25, 2007
Seeing (something much different) with two eyes
For years I have squinted through a telescope with one eye open, one eye closed. This never felt right to me. Now I'm discovering how to observeastronomical objects with one eye working with an entirely different image than the other...
March 24, 2007
Weather lessons, electronic eyepieces and finding stuff
Preface: A Messier Marathon is an event held near the end of March, the one time of the year when you can actually see all the Messier objects in a single night. There are 110 Messier objects and a...
March 21, 2007
Imagination plus zoom eyepiece equals awesome observing
I've added the final piece to my ideal star-gazing equipment, a Vixen 8mm-24mm zoom eyepiece - and in the process come across a wonderful piece by Chet Raymo that sums up what I think observing should be. But more...
March 19, 2007
80 ED vs 102 F5 - And the winner is . . .
. .. the Orion 80mm ED Apochromatic Refractor - but does it matter?. Just as Clay called it in his comments on my earlier post, the 80mm ED outperforms the larger 102mm Celestron. Bottom line: Quality counts. But . ....
March 18, 2007
Small, cheap and fast and . . .?
Let me get to the bottom line - I was testing a Celestron 102mm F5 against an Orion ShortTube 80mm F5 for brightness and quality and while I would give the edge - in brightness - to the 102mm, the...
March 14, 2007
Seeing through clouds? Ya gotta be kidding!
OK, if I didn't have an excellent witness sitting beside me, I would not have believed it myself, but yes, I can now see through solid cloud cover with telescope and video camera! Maybe this is old hat to some,...
March 12, 2007
Notes on looking up . . .
Another hour or so beneath the Orion 80 ED on a p-mount has given me more insights into this business of straight through viewing - looking up to see the stars. (See earlier post.) What's more, I just did a...
March 08, 2007
Deep sky video with NexStar SE 5
The little Celestron 5-inch (BexStar 5 SE) can deliver a very impressive and colorful view through the Color Hyper MallinCam – but it took me two freezing nights, plus experimentation in daylight in a warm house to get it right....
March 05, 2007
So what happened last Saturday night?
I know - some sharp person is going to tell me there was an eclipse of the Moon, Saturday,March 3, 2007 - and they would be right. I know, because I watched it. But what exactly was happening? I put...
March 03, 2007
Simple scopes, simple joys - and Nova Scorpii too
Nova Scorpii - I put it at about 6.8 this morning - but I was using familiar comparison stars that weren't that good for this purpose. All I'm sure of is that it has dropped significantly from my previous observation...
March 01, 2007
Nova Scorpii - dropping, but that's fun too!
Popped out about 4:45 am this morning to get a look at Nova Scorpii 2007 #1 and a look for Nova Scorpii 2007 #2. I would put the first one now at about magnitude 6.0 and the second at -...
Live, from the moon. . .
. . . we bring you Gassendi! A French theologian, mathematician, and astronomer - got to love that combination - he's been dead for about 350 years, but a magnificient crater bearing his name lives on. I like the nickname...
February 26, 2007
What did you see?! A little lunar detective story
I'm a great believer in preparing well before you go out to observe – but I don’t always do it and even when I do, I leave myself open for surprises because trying to figure out exactly what it is...
February 25, 2007
Nova 2 - too - telescope needed!
OK, I just looked again - 5 am - for the two Nova in Scorpius and the first one remains easy i binoculars - perhaps 5.2 or 5.3 - but the second? Not in my 15X45 IS binoculars and only...
So long scar! Hello graben!
The Alpine Valley has been one lunar feature that has always fascinated me, even when I had little interest in the moon - which was most of the past 50 years ;-) It looks so dramatic - and at the...
February 24, 2007
Saw one nova for sure, but the second . . .
Checked on Nova Scorpii 2007 about 5:15 am this morning from the road in front of my house - I would put it at about 5.1 - just a shade dimmer than the 5.0 comparison star. I was using the...
February 22, 2007
Two nova in Scorpius? Whoa!
Update 2/23/07 : AAVSO says the second one is a nova!. Astronomy magazine has a chart showing both nova. The appropriate AAVSO chart of comparison stars is here. Think of it - two nova in one binocular field of view!...
Lunacy in Crisis . . .
. . .or in Crisum, the Mare, I should say. Not only have I not observed the moon much, but I haven't observed one of the easiest parts of it at the best and most convenmient time at all....
February 20, 2007
Two surprises
Arrived home at dusk last night after a less-than-successful puppy expedition that had left us both a bit tense. As I got out of the car, the first thing that caught my eye was a beautiful line up of the...
February 19, 2007
Observing Nova Scorpii 2007 -so what?
Cool! well, cold - very cold. At least here on Earth it was cold - 15-degrees, to be exact, with winds gusting hard enough to shake the car. I drove down to East Beach in Westport, parked so I had...
February 18, 2007
Naked eye nova in Scorpius!
Picture a small, incredibly massive - and incredibly dense - star, a white dwarf, revolving around a larger star so closely that it's continuously sucking gas away from the companion star. In such a situation the white dwarf eventually becomes...
February 16, 2007
Mizar!! . . .and a few hundred billion companions
What a wonder a new pair of glasses are. Of course, you can't see anything if you don't look and I haven't been doing enough looking lately. Last night I went out to the observatory about 7. It was around...
January 09, 2007
The comet and the hawk! (And a Jan 12 observing report and pics)
Well Comet McNaught continues to surprise and please! Bren and I got a look at it for about 20 minutes this afternoon at Horseneck Beach and I took several more pictures. The first picture was taken just 7 minutes after...
November 22, 2006
M35 in action- an example of "integration"
"Integration" is part of the astro-video lexicon. Near as I can tell the result is about the same as taking a time exposure for whatever number of seconds. But what continues to astound me is what I see on the...
November 11, 2006
UPDATED: Uh oh! Interesting, but ????
11.15.06 - From discussions generated by the MallinCam Yahoo Group I'm pretty sure that the problem lies in the refractor. Either it's hopeless in terms of getting true color, or I have to make serious changes to the camera settings...
October 31, 2006
The Holy Grail - or at least The Horsehead
Well sort of. , , I'll be the first to admit, this view of the Horsehead is not overhwelming. But, it is there - honest - take a close look. Seeing the Horsehead has been one of my main goals,...
Messier, mystery, and SWAN and Halloween
Updates: Double-trouble Mystery solved!?! Comet SWAN, toodling through Hercules on its way back out from the sun, presented a wonderful opportunity for education – but then it got zapped by space aliens! Well, maybe not aliens, but help me out...
October 27, 2006
Lessons learned from Orion's sword
One of the more enlightening moments I had last year was when a visitor to Driftway Observatory peered into the 15-inch and asked me if the three stars in a row she saw were Orion's Belt. It was a good...
October 26, 2006
Two swans and a new "zoom" lens
Hey, the great attraction last night was Comet SWAN – but I did capture the above image of the well-known constellation Cygnus the Swan with my new zoom lens as it (the heavenly swan) plunged into my trees to...
September 26, 2006
The "Spring Square" - a new constellation!
I overslept, so when I got up just before 5 am I knew there wan't too much to be gained by setting up a scope. Still, as I headed downstairs I glanced out through the door to the upstairs deck...
September 25, 2006
Of twins, our Sun, and what we see
Out at 4 am – clear – average seeing . . . Castor and Pollux – the reversed twins – were they swapped at birth in the hospital? - are fascinating. I had not noticed it before, but Castor –...
September 04, 2006
View planets in the day time?
You bet! And that's hardly news to veteran observers. But I have to admit I haven’t bothered to look for planets in the daylight before for a variety of reasons. However, I've been reading "Seeing in the Dark" by Timothy...
August 09, 2006
Old dogs, new tricks, and O-III filters
Well, I learned something new last night. For most of my amateur astronomy life I have regarded the moon as an enemy and the full moon as Satan. Why? Because a bright moon drowns out most of the interesting things...
July 29, 2006
Summer interlude
When I went to bed it was still damp and dull despite a passing thunderstorm. But when I awoke at 3 am it was dazzling and I got in an excellent hour of observing. I had put all my scopes...
May 29, 2006
Marginal is good enough, but . . .
Well the Clear Sky Clock can be wrong! It was calling for pretty close to ideal viewing conditions between 9 and midnight last night and they turned out to be marginal at best. As I waited for four visitor’s to...
May 28, 2006
You can't believe your eyes . . .
That's the bottom line - it's about what I'm seeing, or not seeing . . . It's muggy, it's humid, it's 3:30 am. Any astronomer with a modicum of experience would tell me to go back to bed. The transparency...
May 24, 2006
Even the best laid plans sometimes go right ;-)
Shortly after 7 am yesterday I sent out a notice to the group planning to visit that night saying “this is going to be an iffy day - right now I expect it to be mostly clear this morning,...
May 23, 2006
Twinkle, twinkle little nuclear explosion
I had a father and his10-year-old son come for their first visit to the Observatory yesterday and this time I think I started them off right. I’ve learned a lot during this first year of public observing sessions and...
May 22, 2006
On bended knee . . . sometimes things just distract you.
On bended knee Globular clusters fascinate me – partly because they play a Cheshire Cat-type game with the cosmologists. See one of the things cosmologists try to calculate is the age of the Universe. However, some studies of globular clusters...
May 20, 2006
Flying south with Cygnus and . . .
Given changing conditions and iffy forecast I decided to go to bed early and get up early to see if I could catch another glimpse of Comet SW-3. I figured the best time would be between 3 am and 3:30...
April 02, 2006
April Fools! It's Clear! Moon Occults Pleiades!
Well the weather played havoc with my plans to have folks over to view the Pleiades star cluster being occulted by the moon last night. Rain had been forecast for days and all day long the forecast looked gloomy -...
March 31, 2006
Pushing the limits - why?
Let's see - this morning I was able to detect M51, a pair of colliding galaxies about 18 million light years away, with just 14X on the 80mm ED. It surprised me. On the other end of thngs, I came...
March 06, 2006
A lesson in context and framing
Lesson for me, that is, so I can better represent the universe to 8-year-olds. If you were wondering – ok, I know you weren’t – that’s what I was doing at 4 am this morning either huddled in the observatory,...
January 29, 2006
A wonderful encounter with "glowy things"
Bren and I were in Rochester, MA the other night to spend a couple of hours with our grandchildren, Jeremy and Amanda. It was wonderfully clear, they have a nice dark site, and so I brought along the Orion 6-inch...
January 23, 2006
Seeing red – hey, that’s a good thing!
January 21, 2006 –4:30 am – 6:35 am - high, thin clouds – 38 – transparency average (in selected locations), seeing average; moon 21 days old, fairly low (38 degrees) in the south, but certainly lighting up the yard...
January 20, 2006
Testing ST-80 and 60mm Refractors
January 19, 2006 9:30 pm – 10:30 pm Mostly clear, 35-degrees, conditions average I’m re-examining the equipment inventory and trying to decide what is worth keeping and what would be better sold and the money used for something else. My...
December 20, 2005
Bringing a crater home for a closer look
Shortcuts to portions of this entry Theophilus, nectar and molasses Stumbling across a scarp – and fortunately not down it ;-) Keeping warm – NOT! Cor Coroli Mizar Now I’m more convinced then ever – the Moon is there...
Star Hopping – with help from Dr. Duchek
Shortcuts to portions of this entry Telrad finder charts A very soft, very large, fuzzy haze The large, the small, and the misty Last night I had two hours of dark skies before the moon arose and on a...
December 13, 2005
wow wow! WOW! - or how to get there from here
Saturn's C A GSO full of bees Nagler delivers - at a price Looking for the ultimate wow! 3:15 am, 25-degrees, clear and there’s a wind – but I am already out before I notice it. For a moment...
December 12, 2005
A morning romp with the Orion 6XT IntelliScope
Shortcuts for this entry: Finder issues and then there's the vertical stop Not Microsoft The Beehive Eskimo Saturn M35 M3 and M51 Scope facts just for the record Hey Scotty, Give me warp .3! Sorry sir, the best we can...
December 05, 2005
Of dogs, and queens and brighter things
Jump to: Messier 47 - an open cluster Why visual observing Saturn NGC 2392 - the "Eskimo" Well, even I, with my lousy hearing, can hear myself crunch-crunch-crunch to the observatory on a morning like this. It is 3 am,...
December 04, 2005
Triple, quadruple, and gang - but not in that order
Topics, this post: Pleiades Beta Monoceros Sigma Orionis 4.5-inch Orion Dob Stars tend to hang out together and observing stars that are close to one another offers some special opportunities to make comparisons. On the mornings of December 3 and...
November 26, 2005
Cold, cloudy, and confusing – but that’s OK ;-)
Double-star learning opportunity handout – to be read before observing session – and/or after.Download file Double-star field notes document with stars suitable for fall to early winter. Download file Well, I'm learning. I'm learning that my expectations for youth...
November 24, 2005
Doubles? No trouble!
I observed several double stars last night with various telescopes in the process of developing an exercise – an experience - focused on doubles for the public programs. This particular exercise is designed to help them start to develop several...
November 22, 2005
Slithering Sea Serpents of Serenity
OK, I want to talk about those "serpents" eventually, but there's so much more I find pouring out as my observing experiences set off chains of mini-mind events. Observing is such a delight – and I'm so bloody lazy...
November 18, 2005
37 and a nice crisis
I got up this morning at about 2 am pretty much assuming the moon was too bright for any interesting viewing, so I hardly looked out - but I did go to the Astronomy Picture of the Day site and...
November 03, 2005
Frustration and a rare connection
Morning after . . . an Observing Orgy Hey, I have fun observing and why waste "dark time" putting stuff away? I'll clean up later. Anyway - this is the way the Driftway Observing Deck really looks - not...
October 30, 2005
Superviews they’re not
I bought a pair of 10mm GSO Superviews new to use in the binoviewer and give me some context when I go to higher power. The clouds broke this morning for a bit and I got a chance to...
August 04, 2005
Oh me, oh my, oh Mars!
Mars gave me a real thrill this morning, which got me to thinking – if a friend were with me, he or she would probably have been totally unimpressed. That’s one of the problems with astronomy – photographs of the...
June 02, 2005
Log: 05.30.05 – 9 -11:10 pm EDST
Location: Driftway Observing Green Seeing: poor Transparency: average Moon: not present. Equipment used: Obsession 15, Denkmeier standard binoviewer with Denk 21 mm eyepieces and , OCS, and double arm Power X switch delivers approximately 115X, 168X, and 208X from the...
May 28, 2005
Tinkerbill, Jupiter and a billion volts (almost) of “first light”
Peering into the 15-inch mirror a few hours before "first light." All is well. (Click photos for larger versions.) “First Light” is one of those phrases of near Biblical proportions with astronomers. In the most prosaic sense it means...
