We went outside on the morning of Aug 22 and saw what we believed to be Neptune.
We also saw Jupiter (again), Mars and what we think was the Orion Nebula.

We need to get some filters to make viewing better.

Jupiter and moons.

Just a quick snap of Jupiter and a few moons.

Taken 21 July 2011.

Early Morning Pics of Jupiter!

Hey guys!

Well, I walked out this morning a little after 6am and looked into the sky to see Jupiter looking back at me!

So, what do you do when you see the largest planet in the solar system staring down at you? Get your telescope! What else?

After a few minutes of setup, and a few minutes longer trying to line up the iPhone in the viewfinder, and this is what I saw...



and here's the same pic with a filter...


Now, if you look closely to the lower left of Jupiter you can see the four Galilean moons. Starting from the outside and working your way back to the planet you can definitely see Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. If you squint just a little you can see the closest moon to Jupiter, Io.

What the pic doesn't show at all is that I was actually able to see two colored bands crossing the planet. That's right! I actually saw two of the bands (the colored stripes of the planets atmosphere) of Jupiter!

All in all, a very good morning and I just had to share. :)

Not a lot of viewing tonight.

We had thunderstorms early on tonight, but the northern sky cleared up rather well, so I popped outside to see what there was to see.

I started off locating Benetnash (in Ursa Major), then went on to HR 5126 and HR 5112.  Following a line down and to the right from those two, I believe that I saw M51.

I'll need to have another view of it from a darker location to be sure.

I found M2!

This morning, I looked at the sky from a remote location.  Definitely less light pollution there.

Saw M2 tonight, which would be a personal first.  I have never before seen a globular cluster, so I was a bit unprepared for what I saw.  It was like a star that I couldn't bring into focus, even tho the other stars were all sharp.

Absolutely beautiful!

Since this location has a better vantage of the easter sky, I also took a look at Jupiter, just as it was a few degrees above the horizon.  I was able to discern Jupiter and 4 moons.  It appeared that one was just completing it's transit, because at first there were 3 moons, then the 4th looked like it popped out of the side of the planet.

What a stunning morning. 

Just a couple more moon pictures.

Here is a couple more pictures of the moon, taken with the iPhone.

These were taken with a 2x Barlow adapter and a 20mm eyepiece.

Moon 5/25/2011

Well, there wasn't much to look at tonight as it was quite humid and the light from the city was washing everything out so I decided to turn the telescope to Earth's closest celestial neighbor, the Moon.



Not a bad view.

So, what high tech camera did I attach to the telescope to take this picture?

Simple...



We are a sophisticated organization here at Big Bang, Bright Lights!

The hunt for M4

The last few nights have been very overcast and rainy, but this morning we got a break. The rain stopped and the clouds broke, so I went out and had a peek at the sky.

Saturn was quite visible around 2:30, and I got a nice look. There were still some wispy clouds moving through, but I'm almost sure that I saw Titan as well. It was just a flickering spec of light, but it was just where Titan should be. Since I was pointed that way, I took a peek at Arcturus as well.

The clouds in the west were starting to thicken again and I was unable to see much, so I  figured I'd try hunting for the globular cluster M4. It is in the southern sky which was relatively cloud free. I located Alniyat and Antares, as well as HR 6141 (22 Scorpii) and HR 6165 just to make sure I had my bearings, then started looking for M4.

I knew where it was supposed to be, but I couldn't see it at all. It may have been the humidity, it may have been the clouds, and it may have been the light pollution. Maybe my 100mm aperture isn't enough. It certainly didn't appear for me today, but I will continue my search.

Next up for the night is Jupiter. It should rise just before 5am, and I intend to take another peek at it this morning, hopefully I"ll get to see the 4 big moons this morning.  (Last week I only got to see 3 of them, as one was behind Jupiter.)

Anyway, the hunt for M4 will continue if the weather allows for it.

Bitten by the bug.

I have been bitten by the astronomy bug, so have created this blog to document the celestial objects that I see.

The equipment that I am currently using is:

Orion 100mm Newtonian reflector on a dobsonian mount
Orion 1.25" 10mm Plossl eyepiece
Orion 1.25" 20mm Plossl eyepiece
Orion 1.25" 2x Barlow 'shorty'
Orion 1.25" 13% moon filter

Hopefully I will be able to get equipment that will allow me to take pictures of the items that I see, so I can post them.  I'm the mean time, I will post as much information as I can have.