Bill's Sky

 Went out at about 22:00MDT. This was just a relaxing night of viewing. I didn't feel like setting up a telescope, and wanted to spend some time with the binoculars. These are the 12x50 Nikon. NELM is just a little better than 4. I can make out all 7stars in the Little Dipper, but the 4.4 magnitude and 4.5 magnitude stars are just barely visible. Sky is pretty bright. The Milky Way runs NE-SW. I set up the zero g chair facing east. The Pleiades are naked eye visible as a hazy area about 20 degrees above the horizon, which puts them just under 10 degrees above the Sapphires. The stars appear almost jewel like. I count nine bright ones and several lesser ones.  From there I moved to M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. It is just visible to the naked eye. In the binoculars I can see a bright core. The rest is fainter, fading out more as you move outward. It takes up over half of the 5.5 degree FOV. Cassiopeia is about 75-80 degrees above the NE horizon. About halfway between Cassiopeia an...

 The sky started out tonight with about 40% cloud cover but was completely clear by 21:30 MDT. This was one of the better nights I've seen in a long time. Some showers have cleared a lot of the smoke. Transparency was good and seeing seemed very good, especially at zenith. The Teapot of Sagittarius was easily visible low in the south. I was pleasantly surprised. Between the smoke and sky glow I had not expected to be able to see it again before it disappeared for the season. NELM was probably approaching 6. After my eyes were dark adapted, all seven stars in the Little Dipper were visible. Star clouds and dark lanes in the Milky Way were clearly visible. Since I got a late start after dark, I didn't bother with setting up a telescope, just used the binoculars. These are a pair of Nikon 12x50 Action binoculars with a 5.5 degree FOV. I also set up the zero-g recliner so I could be steady ( and comfortable). I started by looking at Sagittarius since it.s low in the south and will...

       Between wildfires in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, there has been pretty poor transparency. Add in a few smaller fires in the valley, and the skies have been pretty bad. August also seems to be a month where days start off clear but cumulus and thunderstorms start building in the afternoon, leading to cloudy evenings that often don't clear until the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately most of the thunderstorms result in lightning starting fires but not enough moisture to really help.      The last couple of days have been an exception. Still some lightning but for a change had enough rain to make a significant difference. It rained most of the last couple of days and cleared most of the smoke out. I went outside around 23:00 MDT to see if it was clearing at all. It was mostly clear! I had brought the 12x50 binoculars out just in case, but no plan. I just scanned around enjoying the views.      Vega and Deneb were ...

 19 March 2026 I walked outside at about 22:05 MDT just to see what the sky was like and if it might be worth taking the binoculars out. There had been a severe wind warning a few days ago so I had pulled the OTA off of the mount on the pier and put it away in the garage. Earlier in the day the sky conditions had been cloudy enough that I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised at how clear it had become. Just as I walked out to the driveway there was a bright orange meteor that tracked across a good part of the southern sky.It almost had the appearance of a fireball. The color was very striking. The track was angled toward the southeast. Because of that color it makes me wonder if I was actually seeing space debris burning up. Needless to say, I decided to go ahead and bring out the binoculars. These are 12x50 Nikons. In order to be stable and comfortable I brought out one of our "zero g" lounge chairs. Just today I had put the wrap that will be under the sidi...

  Just stepped outside to see how the sky looked, and  Orion was  in the southwest. Got out the binoculars instead of messing with the telescope. I was pretty amazed at how well this showed up in the 12x50 binoculars. Seeing was pretty steady, and transparency just so-so. There were also scattered clouds around. M42, the Orion Nebula, is one of the most photographed objects, by both amateurs and professionals. The Horsehead Nebula that has been shown a lot since Hubble Space Telescope imaged it is actually part of this complex Original sketch was made on white paper in the sketchbook I am using for a journal/log book. I then take a picture of it with  my phone camera and email that to myself. I download and save the image in a folder for astronomy sketches. The file names typically include the object and date. Those downloaded images are then inverted using graphics software. With this new computer, I have been using GIMP to perform the inversion.

      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 ...