The monsoon keeps on trucking. And that means no telescope time over the new moon weekend. But it did mean a mini storm-chase for me today. Another one of those 'early season' troughs yanked loads of moisture up and promised to breathe life into some nice storms. A look at...
August 2008 Archives
Click image to view larger version. Observation Notes From a dark location with a good pair of binoculars, this rich, starry field is filled with a tapestry of nebulosity. While staying at Flying W Guest Ranch in Oklahoma, I found myself sitting under the stars one clear, dark evening. I...
I'm going to broaden my content here just a bit, and I hope it doesn't prove too distracting to the main theme of the site. I'm a bit of a weather geek. I love watching and photographing clouds, storms, lightning, and other atmospheric happenings. I figure the link between my...
Click image to view larger version. Observation Notes This stunning group of open clusters and brilliant field stars was first pointed out to me a few years ago by Brent Archinal during my first dark sky observing trip at Anderson Mesa. He called it "The False Comet" while circling it...
Click image for larger version. G1, the brightest globular cluster in the local group, is associated with the Andromeda Galaxy nearly 3 million light years away. By itself, it is bright enough to be visible to even modest sized scopes under dark skies. Which is pretty awesome to consider: you...
Observation Notes: I could not resolve stars or even a vague sense of graininess in this globular. It did have a lumpy, mottled appearance. Averted vision showed an extended halo about 2 arc minutes in diameter. The brighter core region was somewhat rectangular with extensions running toward the northwest....
Observation Notes: I had never taken the time to look for this galaxy next to M13, but it was visible without much effort through the 8-inch Dob. It shared the view with it's huge globular cluster neighbor at low power. The 120X view offered the best view, showing the...
Pin at will!
(Thanks for maintaining
return links.)
