A Moment with the Universe

I felt compelled to share this. 

It was 10:10 PM last night.  I had decided to take a break from the computer and walked upstairs to grab myself a drink. Entering the dark kitchen, I noticed the pale blue moonlight pouring across the floor, gently bathing the room in a soft lunar glow - I smiled and approached the window and tilted my head upward. I gazed in wonder as my eyes settled upon Jove and Luna, which hung so majestically between a gap in the treeline. In that very moment, a meteor streaked eastward, passing between the two. It was magical.

Moments like these are my reward for looking toward the night sky.  They allow me a unique glimpse of the universe; to feel connected to it (as we so often don't in our modern lives), and to feel humbled.

Moon Report 8/19

Tonight's forecast finally called for a cloud free sky, and I couldn't wait to get out and sight up the moon.  The humidity was a little higher than ideal; 75%.  The view was a tad hazy, and a faint glow could be seen around the moon, but the air was pretty still.  I started setting up about 8:30; no reason to wait until complete darkness to view the moon.
It wasn't but a few minutes until I heard the buzzing of mosquitoes - talk about a party crasher.  I went out without bug repellent and didn't set up any fans; I wasn't planning on staying out long anyway.  I did, however, get some satisfying scope time identifying some of the major features using the map at InOMN.  Copernicus and Tycho looked great, and the Apennine Mountain range was a real pleasure.  I didn't last for more than 10 minutes, the mosquitoes were too much to deal with (btw, Burt's Bees Outdoor Bug Bite Relief works great).  I did manage to snap a few photos of Luna before heading in.  29 days until InOMN!

Skunked

I have done little observing the past two weeks, and it's not because of the weather.  My problem is with the local skunk.  I'm sure it sounds silly, even I think so.  The first time I saw him he came around the side of the house, and swaggered into my neighbors yard, and eventually made a U turn back to my yard.  He was there again when I woke up in the wee hours to view comet McNaught, forcing me back into the house.  Last Friday I had set up a little more equipment then usual, hoping to spend more than 2 hours observing - but guess who crashed the party?  Yes, within 30 minutes the mephitidae snuck up behind me.  No regular flashlight spooked him before, so I had with me a larger and brighter light which sent him scurrying away.  But even if he does scurry away, I just can't relax. Time to educate myself about Mr. Skunk.

A brief lesson on the Skunk, and why he wants to be my neighbor.

 The striped skunk is a solitary, omnivorous, nocturnal animal, with powerful claws (for digging) and the ability to accurately spray an offensive liquid up to 16' as a defensive mechanism (hence why they fearlessly walk around in the open).  Their diet includes, but is not limited to,  insects, grubs, berries and fungi.  Their vision is relatively poor, only being able to see approximately 10 feet (perhaps another reason why he get's so close to me).

This information alone is enough to understand why the skunk keeps visiting me.  On the border of my yard stands a Red Mulberry tree.  Obviously Mr. Skunk is feasting nightly on these berries, as is evident by the seed filled droppings I've been finding around my yard - pretty rude if you ask me.  But I can't possibly get rid of the berries, there are far too many on the ground to pick up.  I really don't think there's much I can do about this except remain vigilant while outside.

DSOs On A Clear Spring Evening

I managed to step outside for a while the Saturday night - which happened to be one of the clearest nights we've had this spring. Although the warmer nights are more enjoyable, the clouds that have been forming in the evening are less than desirable.

I've kinda been on a cluster streak lately and I was in the mood to see a new galaxy or nebula. I began with M3. This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, oldest and is made up of around 500,000 stars. I can tell that this would be a beautiful dense cluster in a larger scope, but with my 8" and my skies it was mostly dim and washed out. I could make out the texture and individual stars - it just wasn't very sharp.

Next up was M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, then M51. M63 was just a gray smudge with a bright core, and M51 had eluded me in the past (poor seeing) so I was happy to finally catch it on this clear night. As faint as it was, I was actually able to tell it was spiraled. Darker skies and more aperture will bring out the spiral structure and core in this galaxy. I then spotted M101 and M109 - M101 being the absolute faintest object of the night. I was only able to detect it after about a minute of staring and using averted vision - it was like trying to see a ghost. M108 was actually more distinguishable than M63, but still very faint.

After moving away from M108, I changed my mind and decided to go back for another look. I'm really starting to dislike my [6x30 no cross-hair] finder scope, and finding my way back just wasn't as easy as it could be. While searching for 108 again, I found another object which surprised and thrilled me. It wasn't on the map I had with me, so I had no idea what I was looking at, but it was a very large round cloud. I eventually realized that I could put this object and M108 in the same FOV, which was beautiful and exciting. After I got back inside and had a chance to look it up, I found out I had spotted the Owl Nebula (Messier 97). How very cool! All in all, very satisfying for me. The best find though was M81 and 82 (Bode's Nebula/Galaxy) side by side. These were the most distinct objects I found, and were a great pleasure to see. Everything I saw was best viewed at 48x with my 25mm Plossl. I have a Barlow coming in this week, and am looking forward to using it. 150x was just too much for the galaxies except for M51 and 63.