What *WAS* that up in the sky last night? (12/10/2007)
So – were you looking up in the sky last night (12/10/2007) right after sundown and wondering what that huge bright “dustball” was? If so, you weren’t alone – the abrupt appearance of this phenonmenon had astronomers all over the US and Europe in a buzz! Our guys at the SFAAA were no exception. Manny […]
We had a pretty good August!
Oddly enough August has been a good month for me (and many of the other members of the club) imaging-wise… I’m nowhere near as prolific as Fred (who must have set a record for number of images taken during August) but I got some decent time on a few DSO’s and I got a shot […]
(06/08/07) Shuttle Launch pictures!
Got an email yesterday from my friend Jeff who lives within earshot of the Cape. He got some pretty cool shots of the launch from his front yard. I asked him, and he said it was okay to share it with you, so here we go: —–Original Message—– From: Undisclosed Sender Sent: Sunday, June 10, […]
Observing/Imaging Reports – 2/8/2007 @ Area27!
Fred’s Observing Report: Greetings to all: Our session at “Area 27” tonight was very pleasing and even somewhat productive. Everything went quite well, and the three pictures I took turned out great. Click on any of the images to launch a full sized version. My evening went something like this: 6:00 PM. Leave work for […]
Imaging Report – ‘quickie’ at Area51 – January 22, 2007!
I was out on Tuesday, January 22, 2007 with Fred and Manuel at Area51. I was specifically playing around with the autoguider in my SBIG ST2000-XCM CCD camera (making certain that my earlier success at autoguiding wasn’t some kind of fluke), and shooting M42 only because all I needed to do was polar align and […]
Observing Report – Mercury Transit at Fox Observatory
Hi Folks – here’s a quick observing report from yesterday’s Mercury Transit: I alternated between frustration and enjoyment yesterday during the Transit of Mercury. We happened to have a cold front pushing its way through our area right at the time the Transit started. I completely missed the first and second contact events because heavy […]
Wednesday Night Astropix – July 26-27, 2006
Well, sometimes you just can’t win for anything… I spent a long time carefully focusing and framing a wide field shot of M8 (the lagoon), M20 (the trifid), and M21 (an open cluster whose name escapes me at the moment). Here is the test shot that convinced me to shoot: As luck would have it, […]
Area51 Observing Report – May 30, 2006
Dear Group, The sky clock from the Area 51 didn’t look good around 5:30PM; but looking at the sky conditions we decided to make the trip. Jay, Fred and I. It was a good night, no turbulence, few mosquitoes and no dew. After checked on our neighbors, 2 gators in the canal; we decided to […]
Observing Report – May 7, 2006
Hi, Here is my observing report: I was out in my front yard tonight with my Tec140 and ASGT goto mount. I observed for 4-hours (from 11:00PM to 3:00AM). The seeing was good, around a 7. I had a problem with my ASGT mount as I noticed that the alignment stars were way off and […]
Area 51 Observing Report – April 28, 2006
Hi, I was at Area 51 (our Dark Site) tonight with my C11S-GT. I observed for 4 1/2-hours (from 8:45PM until 1:15AM). Tonight was very clear and the transparency was very good. The seeing was below average, around a 4. Manuel was imaging with his Meade 12” LX200GPS and Fred also showed up but he […]