Sunday, October 23, 2011

Winter Skies In The Fall Mornings

Oh how I love this time of year on the Eastern Sierra foothills with it's warm days and cool evenings. But it's the wee hours of the morning that I get really excited about. Nice dry, cool, still air which makes for fun viewing at our 4300 ft elevation. The next two months I hope will be astro bliss for this suburban backyard astronomy guy.

What is on the docket to observe....well lots! Jupiter will soon be at opposition with it's parading moons and atmospheric show. We have several early morning comets which will require 12.5" dob to be set up and challenge the PUG's observing skills see them at all as they are faint and relatively low in my sky. Plus in keeping with my habit of "observing one season ahead" all our fabulous winter deep sky stuff. Watch out Mr.Unicorn your treasures will be explored soon from this patio setting!

Also I received a request from Sierra NV Journeys last week to work with two different groups of grade school teachers in Nov/Dec. This is a good opportunity to invest in our educators and then all the youngsters. Looking forward to this.

Here is a awesome group of outdoor educators that I had the privilege to inspire in August of this year with SNJ! They were a very studious group and will be very successful in their astro efforts to the younger generations.

4 comments:

Mark Lee said...

Hi SUG, that's great work your doing with the teaching.

I know how much work goes into organizing even the smallest gathering. What you do requires much dedication and use of personal time.

So many more people,both young and old will have the chance to experience astronomy,thanks to your enthusiasm....Excellent !!!

I'm envious of your weather, warm days!! cool evenings!!, Cool still morning air!!...... sounds perfect.

That CR150 beside you looks just the job for those cool still mornings...

As well we both know...when those good seeing evenings/mornings come around those mighty refractors are all you need to tour the Universe in style..... :0)

The Kepple/Sanner "Night Sky" volume one that your holding....is it a good book?. I ask because I've had my eye on that book for awhile now but never met anyone who has read it.

Great post SUG, enjoyed reading it.....good luck with the teaching in Nov/Dec


Pembs Astronomer ....Mark :0)

Sidewalk Universe said...

Hey Pembs buy both volumes! Trust me they are awesome! Very easy to use and you will NEVER exhaust the amount of stuff one can observe.

Tal 1 will love you for it! Buy it just for the double star/variable lists and charts! CR150 is busy with these!

Every serious observe I undertake these volumes are used and loved!!!! They are also a education as all the tutorials are excellent. All of them! These volumes are a education in hard bound.

BUY THEM!!!!! Did I mention that already? Oh yea CR150 loves the double star charts and lists......Did I mention that too?

Trust me......you will curse even more every cloudy night you encounter as every patch of sky is covered in detail. The pics are so so but the descriptions and drawing will leave you with no doubt about what you are seeing and how to find it.

Buy them, steal them, borrow them but do not loan them to any one for you will not see them again. Just like my Rukl Moon Atlas which Drive by has.......

Incredible resource...did I say that already?

Mark Lee said...

Buy them, steal them, borrow them but do not loan them to any one for you will not see them again.

Excellent review SUG...:0)

Looks like I'll be fishing around on Amazon in the near future for these two lovelies...

It sounds they would be worth it just for the doubles chart list, which interests me the most at the moment...

Thanks SUG you have a "Night Sky" book convert...

.....for BOTH volumes..!!! :0)


Pembs ...

Sidewalk Universe said...

Hey Pembs keep me posted on how this works out for you. Even though much in the book is for larger dobs there is so much here to keep you busy. My skies when good make 12.5, Cr150,10" dob act "bigger" than what they are. You have an observers eye.....so you are only limited by patience, and sky.

Open clusters, doubles, variables, nebulae all in the reach of Tal 1's 150mm optics. So many catalogs in one place! I have done about half of my cluster survey with Cr150 and was seeing stuff fainter then listed for my size scope.

As you catch good skies with Tal 1's excellent optics you will be in photon heaven!

Be well!