Bill's Sky

 I finally have the C8SE set up on a permanent pier and covered with a Telegizmos 365 cover. The months of October and November have unfortunately provided proof that the cover lives up to its reputation. There have only been three possible nights for observing and I was unable to take advantage of them. The forecast for November 11 was looking like it might be possible to do some observing but it started clouding up enough I decided not to try. There was also a possibility of the Aurora showing up. I went out and looked just after dark, but didn't see any. Later in the evening I got an email from the Western Montana Astronomical Association that the Aurora was visible north of us. The clouds had cleared enough to get a view of most of the sky, except south. I went out again and the Aurora was covering most of the north and northeastern sky. There were areas that had a pink color visible. These waxed and waned, sometimes showing almost red color to the naked eye. In images taken w...

 There were four targets fro "Turn Left At Orion"  that I wanted to try for this night. M92, M56, M39, and the double star Albireo. By the time I was aligned and ready to observe, I  only could observe M56 for a short time before it went behind the hills and trees to the west. I moved over to M39 . This is an open cluster in  Cygnus. I spent quite a bit of time looking at it, using 32mm and 25mm Plossl eyepieces. I wasn't able to positively identify it at the time. The next morning I looked it up and was in fact in the right spot. Unfortunately, I didn't think to sketch it since I wasn't sure at the time. Next I moved to M92 , a globular cluster in  Hercules. It is approximately 27,000 light years away and contains about 350,000 stars. It is what is referred to as a metal poor cluster, which means it contains few elements heavier than Hydrogen or Helium. I spent about 10 minutes just observing and trying different eyepieces to see more detail. I spent 10-15 min...

      August was pretty much a bust for observing. On many of the days the sky would start out clear and then by mid afternoon clouds would start building, and not dissipate until well after midnight. Thunderstorms and lightening with high fire danger sparked a lot of  (thankfully) smaller wildfires that were out or controlled quickly. There were two large fires south of us about 30-40 miles that kept the sky smoky for a lot of the month. An occasional thunderstorm would clear it for a day or so. The few clear nights we did get, I didn't bother setting up the telescope, but would go out just naked eye observing or maybe carry binoculars out with me. I did observe M31 with the binoculars a couple of times.  These nights helped preserve what sanity I still possess.        Tonight was different. The sky was clear, but transparency wasn't real great. NELM was probably 3-4.  I had done a small astronomy presentation the night before at the ...

  On May 4, 2025, I caught a bright flash out the window that immediately drew my attention and made me think fireball. It was so bright that it  actually reminded me of a flare. I went outside to verify that it wasn't someone shooting off a firework.  It only lasted a couple of seconds before disappearing behind the Sapphire Mountains. It left an indelible image in my mind. The core was almost magnesium white, with a greenish tint around the edge. The smoke trail was easy to see, and only extended about 3 core diameters behind. The swirls in the smoke trail were visible and my immediate impression was how much it looked like some of the old artists renderings with fanciful curlicues. I had always seen those renderings as embellishments, but now realize they weren't!  I found out the next day that the Fireball had been reported to the American Meteor Society by 118 people, from southern Alberta to southern Colorado. It was caught on a couple of videos, here is a lin...

  Crater Thaetetus The sky was mostly clear, but very bright and transparency was low. The Moon was at about 60% full waxing. Bright enough to cast visible shadows. There was also a lot of moisture in the air. The lights on the side of the truss company, about 1/2 mile away, had halos around them. Luckily no dew formed while I was out. Seeing was probably Antoniadi 3, possibly 3.5. I wasn't able to push magnification past 156x without turning Jupiter into a fuzzball of light. I was hoping it was better because I wanted to check collimation after the 'scope fell last time I was out.  With the sky so bright, I made Jupiter my initial target. I was only able to resolve the North and South  Equatorial Bands. Seeing was unsteady enough that at times they disappeared. The Galilean moons were easily visible. I had read that using the Moon filter on Jupiter can sometimes help bring out more detail, so I gave that a try. The only effect for me was a dimmer view. I spent quite a wh...

This was my first opportunity to get out and observe for a month. Weather has not been very cooperative! The sky started out with some high, thin clouds. It seems like there was a lot of haze/humidity in the air, lights in the area showing definite halos. For some reason there wasn't any dew yet though. I started setting up at dusk, and made my first observation about 21:00 MDT. I did a solar system alignment using Jupiter, then observed that using 17mm Plossl (119.5x) and 13mm Plossl (156.3x) eyepieces.Seeing was much better than last time out, but at 156x it was hard to maintain focus. I would estimate seeing as Antoniadi 3. The North and South  Equatorial Bands were easily visible as distinct very light brownish bands. There were occasional hints of the South polar Band.  Since seeing was decent, I wanted to make another try at Mars. It is rapidly diminishing after opposition, which was not a real great one. Again used the 17 and 13 mm eyepieces. the view through the 17mm w...