Comet Holmes

We dusted off the old telescope and brought it into the backyard of the church. We were trying to teach the Boy Scouts about astronomy (but they were more interested in playing football with a stocking hat) and we spotted Comet Holmes. It was visible with the naked eye, even in light polluted New York City. We checked it out in the telescope too.

Jupiter's Red Spot

Tonight we viewed Jupiter's red spot for the first time. We learned about the time it would be visible from Sky & Telescope Magazine's website. We viewed it from in front of our apartment building in Staten Island. The clouds rolled in so we weren't able to view it for a long time, but we were able to catch a glimpse of it. We used our high powered eyepiece to view it.

M34 & Meeting up with old freinds

Tonight was close to ideal conditions. The only drawback was the wind. We headed up the canyon and revisited old freinds. The Andromeda Galexy, the Great Cluster of Hucules, and other favorites were enjoyed once again. M34, the open cluster is one of the newest objects we saw tonight.

Mars, and M42 - the Orion Nebula

Early this morning before the Sun came up, Mike went outside to observe. It was a clear calm morning and twilight had not yet begun. He started out observing Mars. It was big and bright up high in the sky. Through the telescope, features of the surface could not be seen. Mike also saw the Orion Nebula (M42). It is one of the brightest objects that he has observed. He started by finding the eastern most star of the belt. From there he aimed the telescope south and the nebula was easy to find.

M15 - The Great Pegasus Cluster

Tonight Mike and Danielle caught the Great Pegasus Cluster. They found it by first finding Enif, the red nose of Pegasus. The Great Pegasus Cluster is in the same line from Baham to Enif about ¹/₂ the distance off of Enif. It was a bright globular cluster that was not as impressive as M13 but it was still quite the sight. The night was clear and dark (or as dark as it gets from our backyard).

M57 - Ringed the ring nebula tonight

Tonight we observed M57, better know as the ring nebula. It was a clear night but the sky was not calm. We found it by first fixing the finderscope on Vega, high over head. We observed M57 from the comforts of our light-polluted back yard. We star hopped to down to Sheliak (Beta Lyr) on the eastern edge of Lyra. From there it was a few degrees south, half way between Sheliak and Sulafat (Gamma Lyr). We have viewed this Messier object from the roof of the physics building in their 12" Cassegrain telescopes. This was the first time we decided to go for it with our 6" dob.

M4 - I Spy the Cat's Eye

Tonight we poked around Scorpio until we found the Cat's Eye, or M4. This was one of the faintest objects to date that we have observed. We started by zeroing in on Antares, and then moved our telescope to the west and a little to the south. It was a clear night and quite calm. We observed from the comfort of our light-polluted back yard. We also revisited some favorites. We observed the dumbbell nebula in our dobsonian, along with M8, and M21.