Nikon F2 with Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens @ f/4

Expired Kodak Gold 200 film…yes, you remember film!

Losmandy G-8 for tracking

17 minutes

this is a scan from a print so it’s not as good as it gets…I’ll scan the negative later and repost.

The latest Spring Trip was no exception!

Click on the image for a larger view.

The sliver moon was delightful as is sat over the row of Live Oaks lining the parade ground at the Fort.  

They updated it a couple of weeks ago and I’m trying to get it back like it was before they “improved” it.

Bear with me just a little bit longer so I can sort it out.  In the mean time I hope you’re enjoying some views of Comet Pan-STARRS.  It’s getting dimmer, so I don’t think we have too much time left to view it.

I’ll return in a day or two with some new pix!

Click on the image to see it larger.

(WordPress altered the way I enter things here, so it’s going to take me a post or two to figure out the new system….

The skinny New Moon and Comet Pan-STARRS were very nice tonight. Made this image with a 300mm lens on the Nikon…

Earlier this week I received an ad from Kalmbach publishing  (they’re the same folks that print Astronomy Magazine) about a super deal they had on their “Wonders of Science” calendar.  It only cost $3.88 plus $2.95 shipping.

That’s not bad for a full color calendar with a nice assortment of science photos, so I ordered one and received it today!  Great!

However, when I was thumbing through it and got to April…..well, “Houston, we have a problem”.

Just look at the description below April 20….

Never mind that the Lunar Landing IS marked on July 20 a few months later….

Maybe this is why the calendar was on sale.  If the print is too small to read, just click on the calendar for a larger view.

Let the show begin!

Just a quick shot through a 3 inch refractor of the Moon approaching Jupiter.  The show continues after dark when the Moon gets even  closer….go outside and look up!

Today I gave another “orphan” scope away.  The scope used to belong to my neighbor, who is moving to Thailand.  I told her there were stars in Thailand, but…well you can guess the rest.

So, once again I had an orphan.  I can say had, because I gave it to a young man very interested in astronomy and someone I have been mentoring for the past year or so.  I’m hoping he’ll have some photos to share taken through his “new” scope soon.  If so, I’ll be sure to post them here!

Yippee!

I was thrilled to see “Observing Stellar Evolution”  added to the list of lists.  It’s exciting and probably one of the best thought out observing programs in the entire league.

I have other favorites of course, but “Stellar Evolution” looks like a lot of fun and I’ll be tackling it as soon as the moon moves out of the sky and I can see stars again!  It’s an assortment of Main Sequence Stars, Young Open Clusters. Low Mass Stars, Red Giant Stars, Carbon Stars, Planetary Nebulae, White Dwarfs, High Mass Main Sequence Stars, Red Supergiant Stars, Supernova Remnants, Variable Stars and Stellar Nurseries.

There’s something for everyone and it’s arranged in a logical sequence so you learn how stars form, evolve and then die in an easy to observe sequence.

It’s gets extra fun points from me because there are NO galaxies on the list.  ( Don’t send me any hate mail, but galaxies just don’t butter my bread.  I like bright things that sparkle!  And this list is full of sparkle.)

Extra extra points because you don’t have to draw anything, just a brief description will do the trick for logging your observations.  I love to draw, maybe I even like to draw too much, but some of my observing pals don’t care for drawing, they just like to look and get all tingly inside.

Plus more points because most of the targets are bright!  There are only a handful of targets on this list that are dim.  This means you can complete most of the items with binoculars!  Yippee for binoculars!

I love this list!

You can find the list at  http://astroleague.org/content/observing-stellar-evolution