April Saturn

Here's Saturn from last night. Click for a slightly bigger version. I saw my first skunk of the year while I had the scope out!

Mars Mars Mars

I took this image on Tuesday night this week. (Click for a bigger version.) Sky conditions were very good. Mars is pretty small currently, but I managed to capture lots of detail on the small disk. The dark dot poking through the light clouds on the left is Olympus Mons, the solar system's largest volcano.

Clear Weather

The skies were clear in town on Saturday night so I got in some observing on the Orion Nebula despite the 12 deg temps. I used my new narrowband filter and it made the nebulosity much more noticeable, can't wait to try it on more objects. The seeing was pretty steady and I saw the 'F' star in the Trapezium for the first time.

Here's an image of the Trapezium I took last Winter.

Triangulum Galaxy

A new pic! This galaxy is designated M33, it's in the Summer constellation Triangulum. I took this image on Oct 24th from the backyard, and finally got around to finish processing it tonight. I'm going to try this one again from a dark sky site sometime, I'll be able to get more detail and more accurate colors.

Good Bye Jupiter

Here is an image I took of Jupiter on the 18th. It turned out blurry because the seeing was very turbulent. Jupiter has been low in the sky all year, right above the neighbors' rooftops. I think everyone in the neighborhood has their furnace turned on now and heat from the chimneys is stirring things up too much to get a clear view. So this is probably my last Jupiter until 2010.

If you squint, you can see half of the Great Red Spot on the planet's right limb. It was visible in the eyepiece, too, even with the blurry conditions.

The seeing on objects overhead was still pretty good though, so I'll be turning my focus to objects up there next time we have a clear night.

Quick Jupiter

It was clear tonight! My new motorized focuser arrived last week, so I got to try it out tonight. It works great! The little motor doesn't make the scope wobble like it does when I focus by hand.

Here is one of my two targets tonight. I'll post the other one tomorrow since I need to head to bed. I think I skipped a processing step with Jupiter; it looks a little over-sharpened.

Sunday Night Jupiter

Here is Jupiter from Sunday night, the seeing was not very good so it's a little blurry. Caught some good glimpses through the eyepiece though. Saw a baby rabbit in the yard while I was taking the videos.