Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Edi's Galaxy Quest


Well the time arrived for Edi my novice astro geek neighbor to have his hand at hunting down the faint fuzzies. He has been on the SUG Astro Training Program the last year and is growing rapidly in his skill and tonight it is galaxies. Though not ready to shoot the Virgo Cluster he is ready to bag & tag the brighter Messiers and then move on to the Caldwells.

He did great this night with his mentor challenging his navigation skills and he used all of his tools - DeepMap 600, Telrad Charts, and starwheel. With the good seeing, 10" f/5 optics, and 2" eyepieces he was seeing them with ease! What more can the SUG teach this guy? SUG showed off some quickie Caldwell gems to keep my charge motivated and not to cocky.

Here are some pics from our high desert location. Yes the trash cans are part of the landscape!







4 comments:

Drive-by Astronomy said...

Edi is surely getting his astro groove on with the assistance of the SUGster.
Pictures would look better if the Drive-by guy were there.

Sidewalk Universe said...

How true as just about everything is better when your around! Just ask the BAA!

Edi had a super time. I had him start out on Messier Globular Clusters. He did a fine job with M3/M5 which can be tough for a new guy. His first Galaxy capture was M65/66. As the evening progressed the sky improved a M's 51,63,94,106,81,82,104 were bagged & tagged.

It was fun watching Edi on the hunt. Next up for him will be either a constellation observation survey where you pick out one constellation and observe everything you can in it or a Caldwell Galaxy viewing.

NiteSkyGirl said...

WOW! Horizon to horizon views. I think I would need a good nights sleep trying to figure out what the heck to observe. I live in a small town and feel VERY fortunate to have the views I have. Hardly any lights phew!

Sidewalk Universe said...

Fortunately I have only a short 30 minute drive to some good skies. Still some light dome in the south but good seeing N E W.

I do a lot of my more serious observes here and I have many good memories in this location.