Nov '11 Astro Hodge Podge

I have a full slate of astronomy related activities for this fall month. Week 1 had excellent outreach opportunities, and quality observes from my yard. This last week has had winter like weather come in and it really killed the observational end of things. Our Sun is really putting on a show right now but my viewing options were limited to the Internet!



My backyard through the clouds Solar observe........

Even Herschel Wedge was bummed by it all. With wonderful Solar activity going on being covered by a blanket of puffy puffs there was no photon gathering for this very specialized device. The disappointment was profound!


But rays of light soon found me on Saturday with Drive By Astronomy chiming in on my face book with his very special picture of the current SUGSPOT activity! Apparently he is the only one that can do this type of Solar picture taking! For the life of me I have never seen this type of activity before! He had picture prefect conditions from his Buffalo NY digs and was bugging me all weekend with texts and phone calls about his quality observations. One thing we did do was a long distance Lunar observe via phone and Skype. I would be the navigator on this Saturday evening.
Using Alan Chu's down loadable atlas (if you want to seriously observe the moon you want this!) Mike was out in his yard with his 10" dob. Now I have been observing the moon in detail for sometime but this Chu Atlas is moving my and Mike's observing to a new level! Mike is falling in love with Luna. We had (or Mike had) the perfect evening for Domeland Luna observe! Over the course of two evenings Mike made awesome observes of hidden Lunar treasures! Hopefully he will chime in and tell you about them as it was a joy to hang with him on his excursion.















My weekend was brightened with the arrive of 'The Cambridge Atlas of Herschel Objects" to compliment my O'Meara "400 Guide"! The Cambridge was on sale @$26 (free ship too!) and could not be passed up. As soon as my weather clears 12.5 Discovery Dob will be out on the patio as I revisit and make some new celestial acquiesces! I will post my observes from time to time.

And finally a Raspberry Almond Scone on Sunday morning to ease my pain with this stormy pre winter weather! One of the best scones I have ever made enjoyed with extra bold french press coffee! I was in hog heaven doing couch astro dreaming of scopes on my patio with views to inspire!