COLD BUT SPECTACULAR NIGHTS

If it was not for the dropping, freezing tempratures this night would have been a pristine night for observing. The crispyness of the cold air made the skies absolutely clear and the seeing was spectacular.

The sky was so beautifully laid out with every star and planet, which is Jupiter right now, shining at their absolute maximum brightness. Betelgeuse is such a high intensity orange I was a magnet on it with my scope.  Just absolutely stunning.

Perseus was proudly placed among Auriga and Gemini and the Pleiades were a pleasure to observe. With my 10mm eyepiece and barlow lens I happily observed Merope and the bright blue nebulous haze around it. Very fascinating constellation to observe with my 12 inch dob. Jupiter's clarity is is a nice target lately, especialy with the moons in a different spot each night.

I truly love observing the three star clusters of Auriga, they are a great sight in the scope too me. Cassiopeia is in the best spot right now for viewing her deep sky objects around the area. I always enjoy stopping at the deep sky objects on this page in  and around the fun constellation I printed out. I visited all the objects on the list tonight!


The winter nights are very uncomfortably cols and a little hazerdous to our health to be out there in such frigid conditions but it is a part of us too stay connected to our cherished  observing life.

HOW I FIXED MY HEAVY 12" DOB TO MOVE IT EASIER

It was TOOOOOO  heavy for me to move my 12 inch dob around, I came up with the idea of putting handles and wheels on it!  Works great so I have to share how I pumped up the functionality of the scope.

My Observing Stuff

So finally I am sharing my observing toys and trinkets. I am always asked so I thought I would make a video, tried to keep it at a minumum of explanations  and time. After the video I have  Links  of accesories and stuff I mention in the video. Click the bottom x  for  full screen (or your choice of viewing it.). I enjoyed making it for everyone, now I want to make observing videos! Especially out under the stars this coming summer.

Links to products I mention in this video:

Orion Intelliscope Controller - how it works.

My Orion Intelliscope to pc wire for updating your controller I mentioned I ordered.

RocketFish Laptop Surge Protector

Antares Erfle 40mm widefield eyepiece

Island Eyepiece Telescope And Accesories Store Online

Anteres  Planetary Filter Set

Kodak Lens Pen

Here are the blue photos I mentioned as wel as 'USE YOUR FLASH' as I forgot to mention.

A FOGGY DEW MOON

Wow the Moon has been experiencing amazing effects from falls weather (clouds are on the move in high winds!), mostly from atmospheric happenings . Two nights in a row I was out with my scope and camera having a blast. Jupiter and the Moon got close out there, awesome! Night sky is wild this week.

So last night I popped out and the Moon was so mystic looking, it was foggy and dewy, bad night for scopes and optics but great moment to capture with my camera. So here it is on film and photos. The Moon turned out awesome. Very cool orange effect.

This is one of the crazy high wind clouds blowing by the Moon and jupiter like the clouds were on fast forward. My batteries died just after this photo, which is not clear but you can see the cool event.

The Moon next morning at 7:30am. Wow you could see the dark grey features so well at the moment with just your eyes. Epic visual moment! That is my neighbors roof, wires and antenna's do not go with the Moons amazing-ness, it was so bright!

GOOD NIGHT METEOR

Ever go outside for a few minutes  and you look up to your night sky and a random yet exhilarating meteor streaks across the sky?  I love it too, it's like a sneaky surprise from the universe. My little dog Sophy and I went outside before bedtime and she was playing in the fallen leaves off the trees and I looked up and a brilliant blue meteor streaked through the sky by the Pleiades.

Tonight I am getting a good night's sleep, I really believe in a good night's sleep. So I said "good night meteor". Then picked Sophy up, went inside and enjoyed a good nights sleep cuddled with her under my blankets.

And they say a warm glass of milk is good for you before bedtime.

Moon-Lit Jet Streams Above My Backyard

I walked out of my back porch  and stepped outside  to get something in my shed and I of course looked up as I  was walking and one of my very favorite sky events in the summer was happening. Watching the jet streams from airplanes being lit up by the Moon. these I call events because I find them fascinating.  Just an incredible sight too me. I love the way they look with the Moon itself being out there.

The sky happening when the moon and airplanes meet is so amazing!!  People on the airplane have no idea what a a fascinating thing they left behind when flying above my backyard!!   Try brightening up your screen and full screen the video too see it, it was brighter on my camera.

Six Am Trek: Marvelous Mars And What's That Star?

Punctuation, grammer and propper writting people .. duck! your about to be clobbered! No other way to write how I am feeling right now, at this moment.

COLOSSAL WOW!  Just came in (7:38am)  from an hours worth of  observing!!! MARS IS SPECTACULAR RIGHT NOW!  So exciting, observing is  SOOO  amazing!  OBSERVING IS AN EPIC LIFE!   I got up at 6 am  for Sophy's doggie mother nature call and  yikes I could not stop looking up. Too the right in the south west  Orion is absolutely  magnificently placed for observing with it's vivid bright stars. Too my left Leo was roaring along with Mars too the right and above Regulas. Wow what a show! There is a very vivid white star poping up in the early morning, it is being affected by the rising atmosphere and it moves  so rapidly it glitters. Catch it if you get a chance in your scope. Leo triple galaxy was a nice treat also this morning.  Very nice objects to hunt and capture in my scope.

After rolling out my 12 inch dobsonian 'Ambrosia'  I moved it too Regulas, wow what a sight. Then to Mars and wow what a planet to observe in this size of scope, Ambrosia was doing a beautiful job showing me that planet. I started out getting it   in my finderscope using my 26mm eyepiece, then I threw on my Antares 2x Barlow, then moved in just a little with my 25mm.

After that I decided to play with my filters and eyepieces. My eyepieces I used were my  Meade 9.7mm and Orion 10mm eyepieces. Then my planetary filters. Mars isn't quite close enough to really dig into the landscape as great as you can with Jupiter (pm planet right now) but the filters provided some cool contrasts. As the dawn's light started to grow I just threw on my Anteres ND25  Moon filter and that darkens the background sky.

Now,  onto the mystery star.  I could not figure out what that star is. I know the skies, i've been observing it for 12 years and I should know, ever puzzling. Venus is up at dusk, rule that out. Saturn is up at dawn but it is a twinkling white star. Rule that planet out too. The only logical reasoning is a star but it is unclear to me because my experience and observing books, maps and Starry Night program tells me Arcturus could be the only star big enough to be it. But the star is orange.  So after some research it is Arcturus.

Why the unclearness? Atmospheric turbulance is affecting it.  When it is close to the horizon  atmospherics will  interfere with your view of it, happens to even the best telescopes. According to star catalogues  Arcturus is classified as orange whitish. The atmpsheric conditions can make any star appear white. So I'm going to keep an eye out on it as the weeks progressed.

So I had quite the learning and adventurous time trying to figure that out, in my observing experience I have not had that happen. So it was really fun, and puzzling trying to figure it out. If your out early before dawn take a look at it, very interesting.  But yet .. it's SO WHITE so i'm still 5% puzzled.

This morning was a fun observation session and you can bet I will be under the stars tomorow morning enjoying them all over again. What a great way too start a day!

Fantastik Sunrise And I Shot The Crescent Moon!

From my observing journal October 25, 2011

This is Niteskygirl reporting for The Nightsky Observer, I got up and the sky was so fantastik I went and grabbed my camera. I have been wanting to capture the Crescent moon for a year now and finally did. So happy about it!  Also I was geeked out with the morning sunrise I was clicking away while I was running around my neighborhood to capture it.

The first video I mention seeing an airplane shape in the clouds and I actually said it was the night sky instead of it was the clouds. Had fun filming it and Sophy makes an appearance.  There are more photos below the videos. This was fun too FINALLY capture the Crescent Moon. All pics were done on the sunset setting of my digital camera. Full screen the vids for better views.

Usually all mornings look about the same but for some reason I was enjoying this one to bits!!!

WINTER SKY AND NORTHERN LIGHTS

This morning between 6 -7 am I saw the northern lights! I was out with Sophy, she woke me up to go outside to go.. well you know, natures call.. and I looked up towards north and thought wispy clouds do not move that fast? What the hell is going on?

Then as we were going back to the house I thought only the northern lights do that. I looked up and they were just ending. Nice!!  I was out the two previous mornings observing Auriga, Gemini, Orion and company and this was another show before dawn.  I came back into the house, opened my bedroom window and thought wow the people across the street have no idea! Wow that  was quite the realization, I wanted to yell "Holy asteroids everyone!!" out my window.

Thinking that they had no idea AT ALL  what was going on above them, made me cherish my astronomy connection, astronomy world and life a little extra this morning while looking out my window in udder disbelief.  Goes to show you never know what's going on over your house in space!