Sunday, April 12, 2015

Gotta Take Those Clear Skies When You Can Get Them!

My husband and I, along with several others, headed out to the Witte Observatory Complex Saturday night =)  I set up my 6" refractor, Jim H. opened the Clark 12" refractor, and Ray R. opened and was working on the Ealing (16" reflector) ;)

Here are a few objects I knocked of my M-list.  Still not guiding or stacking.....  These (I hope) are sort of like "base-line" pics.  Definitely "fun" to take!

M97  ~ Owl Nebula


M3 ~ Globular Cluster

M 87 ~ Giant Elliptical Galaxy



Through just the camera, a cool conjunction between Venus and M45


Not to be "out done" ~ a friend pointed out this conjunction the same evening with Jupiter and M44, the Beehive Cluster  =)


The local weather forecast is for cloudy skies for the next 6 days..... sigh!  We shall see ;)





Saturday, April 11, 2015

Morning Moon and a bit more

I was thinking I haven't captured images of many waning moons yet - since that means a set-up in the morning.....  So one week from last week's eclipse I thought I should celebrate and take a look at a Last Quarter Moon.  :-)

Some images ~




A rather long video this time, but I enjoyed zooming in 5x and then 10 x and traveling along the terminator :-)


It was starting to get light (I should have gotten up just a bit earlier ~ lol) but I decided to go for M13 and M57.  Not too bad for no stacking and skies getting lighter.

M13 - Globular Cluster in Hercules




M57, Ring Nebula in Lyra... a work in progress.  Hah!



p.s.  Minimum temperature this morning ~ 37 F =)



Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Miscellaneous pics taken April 5

Jupiter and it's Galilean Moons... with the scope tracking and then with the tracking turned off =)




Venus is still sooooo high in the evening sky.....


More pics of Orion's Nebular, M42.  It's setting a bit closer to the Sun ~ 




Getting ready to wrap up ~ I wanted to take some star trails with the tracking off.  This clearly falls under the category of "just because I can."  =)  I like star trails for some reason.


Thirty-second exposure I "think" in the vicinity of M42 ;)


Earlier in the evening I observed a bright ISS pass and wanted to try and capture it on film.  Here's the video I put together of the pass.  It was an especially L-O-N-G pass.  btw ~ Love the heavens-above.com website!







Sunday, April 5, 2015

Last Tuesday's Pics, March 31

March 31, though it was very windy, it was also very sunny.  I set up my scope to get a few pics of the Sun.  There was one big sunspot visible through my scope about 5:30.



While I was waiting for the Sun to set ~ I dabbled with a couple of Earth objects through the scope:






Just because I could.... =)


More pictures of Comet Lovejoy <3  Not too bad considering it's getting lower, moving away from the Earth, moving away from the Sun, and the Moon was pretty darn bright.




A waxing gibbous.....





My porch....  soooo convenient, far from perfect, but I am grateful for nighttime skies and stars =)









Saturday, April 4, 2015

Clear and Cold for the Lunar Eclipse April 4th! =)

My husband and I ventured out to the Witte Observatory Complex Saturday about 4 AM to view the eclipse.  The temperatures dropped to 28 F ~ but it was well worth it!  The video and pics I took are "alright" but they just don't do the "event" justice.  I think one of the coolest things is to use binoculars to watch as the Moon passes into the umbral part of the Earth's shadow.  How totally cool!!!

A couple of pics taken after we got home ;)




A handful of pics =)  The Moon looks so darn "flat"




Here's the video I made ;)


Though not quite what I want it to be yet.... here's a quick video of Saturn captured during the eclipse <3