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!

STREET-LIGHT ASTRONOMY

WOW! Awesome video, loving it and the nice voice accompanying it.
That is a radio voice. Twilight zone effect but for astronomy buffs like us.

Us astronomy buffs thrive at night under the stars enjoying our hobby, this video and incredible music gives me a great feeling in my night sky observers soul.




For his other interesting videos click here.

PERSEUS IS HOT!

Full of hot young stars that is. Tonight I had a pleasant time observing them all. I went out, looked up and the stunning view knocked me out. How can I find the right word to even to begin to describe the stunning view of Perseus, Pleiades, Pegasus, Cassiopeia and the planet Jupiter? How about wonderful, impressive and thrilling.

Right now it is getting chilly at 48* and I bundled up to enjoy some familiar deep sky sights. I'm touring with my  12 inch dobsonian, 25mm lens and 2x barlow lens. Jupiter is electric out there! That planet is getting a little bigger and every feature on it is very well seen and the moons are nice to observe. WOW What a sky! What a sight! I began by looking at Jupiter then going to my favorite part of Perseus which is the Mirfak area. I never get tired of exploring this awesome part of the milky way. It is so rich with young blue stars, a spectacular sight in my scope.

Then I poked around the Pleiades, my barlow lens brings out the nebulosity around Merope and other stars in really nice detail. I then aimlessly wandered around Triangulum, stopping at  the galaxy known as m33  and some of the galaxies around  Andromeda. Each site is so bright this time of year, really worth it going out in the chilly night, even for just a little while.

Check out this nice page on Triangulum, I printed it out and used it as my guide tonight and observed everything on it with my scope. It is very worth it to check out all the deep sky goodies in this not so well known and often overlooked area. Last week I scoured it with my binoculars.

Even though the weather is changing to the unwelcomed by stargazers and die hard observers  uncomfortable cold is returning for four months, it's worth it to pop out, take a few peeks and stay connected  to your deep sky hunting!  :)

AMAZING LUNAR & ATMOSPHERIC EFFECT !!

 A Week (ish) ago I went out to put the garbage out and the clouds were making an amazing effect around the moon. HAD to film it for everyone, so amazing!  I was so wowed. It is just amazing me our skies. It looks like a nebula effect. I took some shots then decided to try for a video and wow I got one. Then the clouds got moving.. wow!  Too amazing. Ever changing skies.  Photos below the video.

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Click on the icon on the right hand side of video too view it full screen and click bottom photos to see them larger.

Kicking Off A New Day With The Soccerball Cluster

From my observing journal: October  5 2011 

WOW!!  It was 6am and I went outside to browse around the winter sky. A beautiful 6:17am and  dawn was rising, orion nebula was a showpiece  and I could still see the orion nebula and surrounding stars. do you get the amazement of this? The sun was rising and all the stars were disappearing slowly and the nebula was still seen to the max. and the pleiades were all brilliant, just stunning. Loving my new binoculars!! 

Usually in my telescopes I can still see it big time but my binocs is  quite the star catcher. I was kicking off a new day with the soccer ball cluster. Do you know what the soccer ball cluster is??   Hint: It is a deep sky feature of Gemini, found by a major star found in the constellation.  This really cool, and a great idea, of an asterism was created by Phil Harrington. you can read about it and go out just before dawn and kick it around for yourself, your star maps awaits right here. I decided to make a video, was feeling really great after some pre-dawn winter sky observing. Click right  here to check out the asterism.

The photo above is exactly  the  pre-dawn sky I was observing  when I can still see the great nebula, pleiades and surrounding goodies. I really enjoyed the spectacular Sirius, just so spectacular that star is. Grab a scope or binoculars and go catch a glimpse of it. And Jupiter and it's moons were a  visual treat.

"I discovered the term the soccer ball cluster from Phil Harrington's  Binocular Universe" is what I was going to say when my batteries died. Then I decided to show you my skies I observe and my observing space.

I call my observatory Summer Moon Stargazing observatory after an amazing night I had in 2003. No worries, my telescopes were cleaned up and everything that was on it was put away. Actually my whole back porch got cleaned, built up some energy being excited  that the winter skies are around. The big dipper was out too!   I also caught some galaxies in my scope while dabbling among the dipper!

I SAW THE I.S.S LAST NIGHT

I was somewhere out there in my binoculars. and I see some spacecraft and I yelled (yes loud) woaaah look! wooow it's the fuckin international space station!!!!!

WOOOOOWWW! that was awesome! I started to tear up! wow so amazing! I had to get the excitement out so I did a free thing of running to grass and plopped down and just layed there whispering "holy asteroid! the international space station! wow that was awesome wow!". And rolling like an idiot, how can you contain that??!! 


Then sophy and spirit came over and was jumping on me. Accidently wound up my dogs!   What an awesome moment, wow!!



CANNOT WAIT TO GET OUT THERE TONIGHT, MY AWESOME NIGHT SKY LIFE IS BACK!