Observer's Log

A Trip to Kentucky

I'm going to take a trip home to Kentucky in September and am thinking about taking my telescope. Anyone near Owensboro know of a good location where I can set it up?

Storms In The Tropics Of Saturn's Moon Titan Discovered

Storms In The Tropics Of Saturn's Moon Titan Discovered.

Well, the Perseids were a bust...

But that's ok. There's always next year.  I was able to get out to the Bradford Creek Soccer Complex and see some folks I haven't seen in a while during the StarGaze. It got rained out, but you have probably already read that on the home page. 

At Last, 40 Years Later: Apollo Landers Seen on the Moon

SkyandTelescope.com - News from Sky & Telescope - At Last, 40 Years Later: Apollo Landers Seen on the Moon.

Hiking in the moonlight

I've decided to go camping tonight and, since the Moon is just a day and a half past full, it may be a great time to hike the trails at this site at night. During a full Moon I have treked the entire eight mile loop without the need of a headlamp and the experience was one of my best on a hike. The woods become a cometely new world when lit in moonlight - Think of all those movies where the woods are tinted blue and everthing is eerie. That's exactly the experience. And, you can bet there will be a lot of wildlife to run into - mostly deer.

-- Post From My iPhone

Oregon Inlet

This is on the front page of the blog but I wanted to post it here, too. Lots of stars to be seen at Oregon Inlet Campground on the outer Banks of North Carolina on June 20, 2009.

The dark coast

I'm getting ready to take a trip along the coast of North Carolina and I'm hoping to get in some stargazing.  Maybe there will be a good photo opportunity with a lighthouse in the foreground.  A nice time exposure would sure be good.

Quick camp

I didn't take the scope but I did camp last night at Goose Creek State Park. The night started out very clear but a nearly full Moon diminished any observing I could have done.  I got out the binoculars for a little while and then the clouds moved in.

The sky is falling, the owls are calling

The trail is still being hiked but the blog is being neglected.  I've been to Goose Creek several times in the past two months (eight to be exact) and have taken to setting my scope up in an area of the park wide open to the stars.  When it's been cloudy I've hiked the 8-mile trail loop that winds along the creek with numerous board walks over swamps and under spanish moss-covered trees.  Lately the owls have been hooting all night long between campsites #3 and #5 and the deer have been brave enough to walk through my campsite.  The weather is getting nice and cool and the bugs are finally going away (almost).  This will start the new season of hiking, camping and stargazing.

Darned good to darned bad.

I set up my scope at Goose Creek State Park with scattered clouds above. The Milky Way was shining like I haven't seen it in a long time and this convinced me that I've found my new favorite observing location. Not too long after I got started though, the clouds moved in permanently. But here's what I observed in the meantime, while listening to my new Telescopin' playlist:

M13 in Hercules
The Globular Cluster NGC 6229 in the constellation Hercules and at magnitude 9.39. At 100,000 light-years distant it appeared very tight and fuzzy but not point-like, or star-like. I could not resolve any part of it.
I observed what I think were NGC5985, a barred, spiral galaxy, and NGC5982, a class E3 elliptical galaxy, in the same Field of View in the constellation Draco. Both were very faint but I could seperate them from one another. NGC 5981, another barred, spiral galaxy, should have been in the same field but I could not locate it. So, I may have been seeing it instead of one of the other objects. I can't be for sure.
M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, was very faint because of its location in the sky. The Globular Cluster M92 in Hercules was very bright. This has been my favorite Messier Object to observe lately.