[deamonstar]

scope: 8" newtonian reflector f/4 equatorial mount (i have no collimation tool... so bear with me)
location: richmond, va very light-polluted front yard
time: 9:30p.m.-10op.m.
weather: cold!, clear and steady

my first target was the hypergiant star near cassiopeia (i can't recall its' designation). very orange in color... like a florida orange. great variable star. i will keep an eye on this one.

next, i went on to saturn. looks like an eyeball... rings are at a great angle for viewing. almost imperceptable banding. i saw two moons. but, because i have not yet collimated, the image was not too spectacular. I could not make out cassinis' division.

i then went on to m42, the orion nebula. wowwy-zowwy! green in appearance with dark band cutting through center and another fainter dark band skewed towards bottom left. all stars in trapezium are visible. gosh, i love this one!
moving to the bottom "star" in orions sword (actually, it is his scabbard... he is holding his sword in his right hand above his head) reveals what appears to me to be a small cluster of stars... cool!

a little ways away from that brings me to m45, the pleadies (probably spelled wrong... but, you know what i mean). this is my favorite open cluster and, perhaps my favorite object... period! more stars than I care to count. bright and vivid. I could have sworn that I could see some nebulosity... barely there but, there! I could spend all night with these sisters... if it weren't so darned cold!

the moon was near-by and, my 4 year old son (5 next month) was begging to see it. this is his favorite thing to see. I showed him the craters at the terminator and a ridge at the bottom of the image. he was fascinated... telling me how cool it was.

we then went over to jupiter. he liked it almost as much a I did. I could make out 2 dark bands, 2 medium shade bands and 3 light bands at the poles and equator. all 4 galilean moons are shining brilliantly all in a row. I told my son that jupiter is so big that it could swallow all the planets in the solar sytem... his eyes got BIG! "it can eat them?!"

i also observed the double cluster (again, what's that designation) near casseopeia. awesome as always... both high and low powers. when I get this scope collimated, I am sure that I can resolve it down to the core.

by this time I was getting pretty cold... so, I went inside and put my hands on my wifes' bare feet "DON"T TOUCH ME! YOU'RE FREEZING!" lol!

this friday, there is a public sky-watch at the museum. I will set up my equipment and share what I can with whomever may want a peek at whatever. saturday, I hope to get a chance to get to the dark sky site out in the country, where the local astronomical society goes to get away from the city lights.


untill then...
hoping we all have clear dark skies!

[Noah]

Excellent report deamonstar! I must get out at the next chance I get.

my first target was the hypergiant star near cassiopeia (i can't recall its' designation). very orange in color... like a florida orange. great variable star. i will keep an eye on this one.

Rho Cassiopeiae Definitely want to keep an eye on it. Maybe it will explode during our lifetimes. Would look awesome and is far enough away that it shouldn't harm us. Might even would be able to see the beginning stages of the nebula being formed which would be very cool.
Just a link for more infohttp://skyandtelescope.com/news/curr...icle_842_1.asp

we then went over to jupiter. he liked it almost as much a I did. I could make out 2 dark bands, 2 medium shade bands and 3 light bands at the poles and equator. all 4 galilean moons are shining brilliantly all in a row. I told my son that jupiter is so big that it could swallow all the planets in the solar sytem... his eyes got BIG! "it can eat them?!"

Nice! That is about the same amount of detail I can see. Did you see the Great Red Spot? There is also a white oval (smaller, temporary storm like the GRS) that I saw in the same band as the GRS.

i also observed the double cluster (again, what's that designation) near casseopeia. awesome as always... both high and low powers. when I get this scope collimated, I am sure that I can resolve it down to the core.

NGC869/884

this friday, there is a public sky-watch at the museum. I will set up my equipment and share what I can with whomever may want a peek at whatever.

:thumbsup: Good man!


Thanks for the report.

Noah
Clear and Dark Skies

[Tormod]

Yeah! Thanks deamonstar! Great work.

Tormod