Yeah putting up with a hyperactive precocious child probably aged them badly. My sister however was the well behaved one. Until we were in our 30s. Then she lost her mind and I found mine.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

That's hot.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Just had a good night with the new scope. Views weren't as crisp as I would have liked due to hazy skies and some moon glare (not to mention my neighbors new flood light but next weekend weather permitting we'll take photographs at a dark sky park nearby) Here's tonight's targets...
M57, the ring nebula. Mostly a white ring shaped haze tonight, but next week I'll use an oxygen III filter to really bring out the colors.
M81, Bode's galaxy. Distinct spiral galaxy shape, again moon glow and haze interferred a bit.
Jupiter. Tonight we got a chance to see Calisto's shadow cross Jupiter, and Ganymede disappear behind Jupiter. I missed Io because I was using 333x magnification (probably not a good choice, should have gone much lower) and the field of view was too small. Nevertheless, it was an impressive show and I enjoyed it. Everything was a bit on the fuzzy side due to the haze and jupiter was pretty low on the horizon. There was noticeable air currents, not a great view overall but still fun.
Saturn. Because why not? Saturn will always be my favorite object to view. The north face of the rings are about two yeara or so past maximum tilt, but still around 20 degrees, so a real nice view as always. Our closest approach will be 7/20 so that's my target week for best, brightest and biggest views. Incidently Jupiter reaches opposition (closest approach) only a week prior. Should be a fun week if the skies cooperate. (Mars opposition is coming up too, Oct 13)
Luna. Because why the hell not? It's familiar and kind of boring to most until you dial it in and really take her in with high magnification. As mentioned above, caught a nice illuminated crater rim which gave an illusion of a thin ribbon of light floating beyond the terminator.
Here's a fun terminator fact for you. The terminator is the point at which the sun is setting, or the line of darkness that crosses the moon (or earth) as it rotates. On earth, if you were in a supersonic aircraft traveling at just over 1000 mph, its possible to make the sun set in the east or rise in the west.
All in all a good night!

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Oh, and Spaulding, she didn't get up.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Meteor Shower alert!

May 5th and 6th, the earth will pass through a debris field left behind by Halley's Comet. These are called the eta Aquarid shower.

Normally we'd see up to 40 per hour, but unfortunately we'll be experiencing a very bright full moon. In fact its yet another supermoon. It will probably wash out 2/3rds of the meteors leaving on the brighteat behind.

But if you get up early and look towards Aquarius in the east before dawn, you'll probably catch a few.

The debris field is big enough that there will likely be some strays on the days before and after the peak.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Comet Swan update!

A sudden brightening seems like maybe the nucleus broke up, or possibly fragmented.... or maybe its just volatile and is holding together. Either way, this is kind of exciting.

For now its a southern hemisphere event. But ill keep posting pictures.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Shows over folks. Reports are that we're exiting the stream of debris. Cloud cover killed this one for me. Hope yall maybe caught a few.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Is the above from your telescope? That is amazing.

No, no. That comet is only visible from the southern hemisphere.
My wife's camera equipment is here however, so we will be taking pictures with the telescope very shortly and will post results probably by this weekend, weather permitting.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

The design of the telescopes today is pretty amazing. Being able to fit a scope with large lenses into a small car due to the collapsible design is really cool. When I built my house I looked into it as a hobby but the learning curve seemed way too steep. Could a 12" Dobsonian capture an image like the above?

On a dobsonaian? Absolutely no. A 12" yes. You need a tracking scope, and time exposure.
I have an 8 inch dobsonian. Problem is tracking. You fix on something small in the sky and the rotation of the earth moves it so quickly that it escapes the field of view in a second or so. Its good for viewing the moon or solar system objects for sure. But for ease and photography I'd say you need something that tracks.
If deep sky objects are your target, 8 inch is a good start. More light collection (inches of aperture) always better.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

For the price of a 12 inch dob you could probably buy a 6 or 8 inch cassegrain with tracking.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

On another note I do have an 8in dob and an 8 in cassegrain so if you want to try them out come on by some night when I'm not working and you can contrast and compare.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Late tonight, or more accurately early tomorrow morning, Jupiter will be only 2 degrees away from a waning moon, and Saturn will be only 5 degrees away. A neat little conjunction for your early risers.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Comet Swan is heading toward northern hemisphere visibity!
It will be just above Aries in the pre-dawn eastern sky by end of week.
I'm not sure why I'm mentioning really, its gonna be super hard to find. And its fading.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Thanks for the offer! When I was looking to get into it I was thinking it would be something for me and the kids to do. One is off to college and the other is close so not much point now as I already have too many hobbies. Its a great hobby though. Maybe when you post more of your observations you can mention the equipment you're using.

Mom has a ranch in Mammoth so we go out there for a couple weeks in July. The elevation is over a mile so the view is amazing. I thought about maybe getting something and having it shipped out there. If I have any questions on what to get I know who to go to.

Also I was watching something with my kid and that Heaven's Gate cult was mentioned so I was telling him about Halle-Bopp. Is there anything like that expected to come around soon (astronomically speaking)?

We also watched The Farthest a few months ago...great doc.

Well there's a comet coming into view in the northern hemisphere right now. Comet Swan. It's rising in the east just before dawn so you only have an hour or so to spot it before dawn washes it out. You might be able to spot it with binnocars but a scope would bring out the greenish tail.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

That was amazing. Was at the Grand Canyon and you could see the tail with your unaided eyes.

Drove overnight from Bozeman to denver when thst happened. It was amazingly clear.

This one is worth marking your calandars for.
On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will be within 0 degrees 0.6 minutes of each other.
Thats the closest since 1961. Binoculars or a small scope will really show off this rare conjunction.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Something I won't forget.


I'd drive out to see this, but these damn clouds....

On the calendar. Stuff like this is a great excuse to spend time with my kids and to get them off their phones.

Venus made an inferior conjunction today.
That's when its between us and the sun.
So if you can get a view just before if goes in front of the sun, you might spot it being completely black with sunlight filtering thru its entire atmosphere causing it to appear as a ring.
An amateur got a shot of it this time around...

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

A moon-dimming eclipses coming on the Fourth of July.

Heard on the radio that tonight was a strawberry moon. Happened to be out in the sticks tonight so not sure if it unusually bright but it is blinding where I am at. I guess we are about the only continent that doesn’t get the lunar eclipse which is unfortunate because an eclipse of this moon would be amazing.

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Mulli is Howard Stern in his prime compared to Haugh.

Sorry you are revved up like a deuce.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

Here we go again, Darko. Yeah I know. But maybe, maybe... this is the one.
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) could be a naked eye comet for the northern hemisphere.
By mid July, assuming it survives perihelion on July 3rd, we'll have a show.
Stay tuned.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Comet NEOWISE looking to survive a close encounter with the sun.
This could be big.
Give me a couple weeks. This could be a big deal.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Comet NEOWISE is only a week and a day to its closest approach to the sun, and its holding together and getting much brighter. Its tripled in brightness in the last few days.
If it holds together, and all indicators thus far are that it will... when it emerges from the glare of the sun it could be as bright as a first magnitude star, somewhere between Aldeberan and Deneb but much larger than a single point in the sky.

I'll provide updates as I can. Been working a ton of hours this last 5 weeks but I'm gonna follow this as best I can. With a bit of luck my wife's camera setup on the scope should give some nice photos so I'll post up our Instagram if we get some good shots.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014