I’m back observing after more than a month. I’ve been so busy I just haven’t been able to get out. Tonight is beautiful, though.
Happy New Year!
December 31, 2011
October 5, 2011
The Moon on 10/5/11
Tonight is not quite as chilly as the other night, but it’s just as clear. Unfortunately for deep sky stuff, the Moon is getting brighter. Of course, that means it makes a nice target for the camera. There’s a lot of detail if you click to the image and view it at full size. Of course, the amazing thing to me is that no matter how good the images I take of the Moon, they don’t do justice to the detail you can see with your eyes. Just the opposite of deep sky objects, which are so much clearer, brighter and colorful in long exposure images.
October 3, 2011
The Moon on 10/3/11
I’m finally out imaging for the first time in a month – I’ve either been too busy working or the weather hasn’t cooperated. It’s a bit chilly, but very clear out.
September 1, 2011
The Moon on 9/1/11
I’ve finally gotten out with the scope again. It’s been either too windy or too cloudy (no rain, though, all month) or I’ve been too busy to get out since early August. It’s pretty warm out here (high 80′s), but it’s a nice clear night. I’ll probably do some widefield shots.
June 11, 2011
Moon on 6/12/11
Tonight’s moon is very bright (bright enough to read by) so there wasn’t much use trying to do any deep sky stuff. But the Moon itself was an inviting target and after stacking 50 frames, I feel like this image comes close to the detail you can see through the eyepiece – make sure you look at the full resolution version because there’s a lot more detail there.
June 6, 2011
The Moon on 6/6/11
I haven’t been out a ton lately – I’ve had a lot of late nights at work – but tonight was nice and I couldn’t resist. I got this pretty detailed shot of the Moon and I’m processing some other shots as well – we’ll see how those turn out.
March 19, 2011
“Supermoon” on 3/19/11
Here it is: THE SUPERMOON. Approximately 15% brighter for your viewing pleasure. Of course, you can’t tell that through a telescope and visually, it’s a nice moon – but not obviously larger or brighter. We had some folks over this evening and it was fun to share with them the view through the scope.
March 18, 2011
Supermoon! (actually tomorrow) on 3/18/11
I finally have been out with my new setup (well, new laptop and some connection stuff) and it seems to be working well. Of course we’ve got the SUPERMOON out tonight (99% full – technically tomorrow is the full moon)! The SUPERMOON® is actually just a term referring to when the Moon is larger than normal. In this case about 14%, I believe, not enough to make a big difference. It was pretty though, and I’m happy with this picture. Not as happy as I am to be observing again, however…
Also, I have a quick M42 I did tonight that I may upload later if it turns out okay. There was so much skyglow from the Moon, though…
December 21, 2010
I’m turning in for the night – it’s now supposed to start raining soon…
The forecase is now a reasonable chance of rain in the next hour, so things are getting worse. At least I got one photo, but I’m still disappointed. I had high hopes for this lunar eclipse and now it’ll be April 15, 2014 before we get another shot at one. Four years! Arrgh.
The clouds are very dark now.
I don’t think it’s the clouds themselves – I think it’s that the Moon isn’t shining brightly anymore and so it’s actually gotten quite dark outside.
