Crescent Venus and Moon

Venus and The moon are both bright enough to be seen during the day in this picture. Venus is not visible with the naked eye, but can be seen with binoculars ar a telescope. The picture was taken right afterthe moon eclipsed Venus. It is rare for both cresents to be visible in the same picture so this is a very unique photo.

The first and last appearance of SWAN

The Comet SWAN has become increasingly brighter over the past few days, eventually becoming quite bright and visible in the northern sky. It is near magnitude sic and visible with binoculars, not far from the big dipper. It will come closest to earth at the end of this month. Since it's orbit is hyperbolic it will most likely never return to earth and dissapear out of existance as we know it.

Reflection Nebulas in Orion

In the Orion Molecular Cloud complex, there are a myriad of bright blue nebulas, 2 of which are seen here. To reduce atmospheric variables the image was taken with a 4 meter telescope on a mountain in Arizona. The nebulas are aproximately 1,500 light years away. Since it spans across most of the orion constellation, the magnification is not great in this picture; The resolution, however, is much better then that of the naked eye.

Haphazard records

Though I often make observations, I am not mych like Brahe in that I do not record very many of them. This is a slapshod attempt to sum up my observations. After the last new moon on a sunday I observed the extremely short crescent of the moon, though did not see any abnormal effects, other then its size.I spotted a meteor on the fly one night while trying to determing where that ruddy teapot had run off to. Andromeda is very faint, and I rarely get to see it, though I think it's pretty cool that it's hurtling toward us. I discovered the main circumpolar constallations that are visible around the little bear. Oh, and I determined that I live on an north south road, just from the position of the north star. Most of my observations are here and there so I cannot accurately judge the time concept of them, however it most likely amounted to a couple hours, some of which were on cloudy nights, most of which had mostly clear skies.

Another Astronomer's enemy...

Thousands of tiny bits of mollecular mass have distorted this image till the observer is seeing triple!!! Ice crystals make this effect pretty but are a common enemy to astronomers, as they distort the crisp images of space objects. The sun pillars are a pure atmospheric effect that happens only twice a year on cold nights in Wisconson (so there is something in Wisconsin).

Light Pollution!!

Light pollution!!! Man made city's are an enemy to the modern astronomer. All this light given off by cities makes star gazing in those areas quite difficult. Field trip to Africa!!! Most of the industrial nations have heavy lighting and it's just our luck that we are in one. In any case it looks really cool from space, so it's all good.

Stargaze Session 1

A small group gathers on a dimly lit service road. They quickly and efficiently darken the area by covering nearby lights. Their Objective: Stargazing! The temperature is approximately 90: enough to make those with long sleeves uncomfortable and those with short sleeves itchy from mosquitos. Repellent is used as a counter measure against the blood sucking beasts. 2 Cities were easily Identifiable, Venice and Sarasota.

Several masses of burning gas were spotted including: Vega, Demeb, Altair, Antares, Arcturus, Fomalhaut, Polaris, and Albireo.

Many a constellations were noted including: Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, Bootes, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major (in part), Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Scutum, Pegasus, Andromeda, Casseopeia, Cepheus and that one Mr. Percival made up that is like a worm or something.


Somewhat less interesting masses of non-burning rock were observed: Jupiter and Uranus. 3 moons of Jupiter were observed one of which dissapeared behind the planet as the night progressed. Jupiter itself also set as the night passed

Fuzzy objects: M11 - Wild Duck, M13 globular cluster, M8 in sagitarius, M31 Andromeda (which we must note is hurtaling towards our galaxy at an alarming rate) and M57 - the Ring Nebula

Binary Stars: Epsilon Lyrae (the double-double) and Albireo (beta Cygni) a 2 color binary. We determined that there is no correct answer for the color of certain objects as each observer interprets it differently.

Overall, the group never managed to drag the information of the elusive "maximum power" from our trusted leader. The main concern of the event was to observe and analyze our surroundings. Overall a clear night, and a good stargaze.