| Red sky in the morning | | [10-Jan-2012]
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| Quadrantids | | | [04-Jan-2012]
Got up at 1:45 (actually 1:15 couldnt sleep). Put on a silly amount of cloths and set outside till 3:30 for a meteor shower. Counted 15 total, and another 5 or so out of the corner of my eye that were maybes. 2 very good long bright ones, one which went from almost horizon to horizon. Temp was 21 degrees. The moon went behind the house about 2:30 which greatly improved things and thats also when there was a noticeable peak in activity. Tried to take photos but Im afraid the lens frosted over soon after I started. Ill just hold the film and develop it later.
Disappointed in NASA for having an iphone meteor recoding app and not a droid one. |
| First Freeze | | | [12-Nov-2011]
Its just after midnight and already 29, supposed to go down to 27. Everything Im keeping is inside. Will lose the pink lemon, and summer peppers tonight. Tomarrow: cut down the bananas, plant the sugar cane, go to Leslies and look at blueberries for transplanting. I'm thinking about moving the old blueberries when I do the transplants they just arnt growing well where they are and something else could go there. Leslies blueberries will form a hedge to block the church sign so I can use the telescope without it pissing me off.
Septic tank was pumped yesterday. Everything is good and I dont have to worry about the drain field so planting on it can go ahead. Thats where the sugar cane above goes.
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| Geminids | | | [14-Dec-2010]
Got up at 4:45, made some rolls. Laid out in the hammock all bundled up for and hour and a half in 25 degree clear skies. Counted 39 meteors. The other people who said they were coming were a no show so listened to History of Rome podcasts. |
| Leonids 2010 | | | [18-Nov-2010]
Got up at 4:30. Stared out the door for a few minutes trying to decide whether to go out or not. Saw a nice bright meteor right from Leo so had to. Dress and sat outside for about half an hour. Saw a few more, but only one more bright one. Still trying to adjust my schedule so went back to bed. The peak was 13 hours before then anyway so I should have been out the night before. |
| Perseids | | | [13-Aug-2010]
Went outside some for the Perseids, saw 6 in about half and hour before I was driven in by mosquitoes. It was hazy and damp but at least I could see something besides clouds this year. The Milky Way was really visible across the zenith. Half the meteors were nice and large and bright. |
| Leonids 2009 | | | [17-Nov-2009]
Saw the first one at 2:19 on the way home. Lay out in the hammock with the sleeping bad listening to History of Rome. Saw 10 total, but most were from the area of Taurus not Leo. I think the Taurids peaked last week. Clouded over by 3:20, another meteor shower washed out by weather. |
| Eclipse Photos | | [26-Feb-2008]
Watched the eclipse from the parking lot of All Saints. Took some photos with the new 135mm lens. I need to get attachments for the telescope for the new digital camera. The only one of real interest is the time lapse:
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| Eclipse Photos from August | | | [13-Dec-2007]
I was cleaning up my server and found some photos that I never posted. Looking at them I see why. This was the first time i really used the new camera for an eclipse and im not impressed. I dont have the adapter to hook it to the telescope yet so all the photos are just tripod mounted and the moon is pretty small and crappy. |
| Sunset Lunar Eclipse | | | [03-Mar-2007]
Went to St, Marks to catch the total Lunar scplise at sunset. Unfortunatly it was pretty cloudy. Missed all but the last 20 minutes of partiality. Got a few photos of the end, and sunset before the moon rose.
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| Transit of Mercury | | | [08-Nov-2006]
Photos from the transit of mercury. They arnt great because it was partly cloudy couldnt see it half the time and I was trying to work during it. The is a large sunspot also, dont confuse it with the smaller Mercury. |
| Persieds | | | [12-Aug-2005]
Most years trying to watch the Persieds is not practical, its too cloudy in August in Florida. It was finally not overcast this year. Even without clouds the seeing last night was horrible, no Milky Way and the haze caused a horrible glow from Tallahassee.
Got up about 3:45 and watched from my backyard till 5am. Saw 18. I'm sure I missed a few, I was messing with the camera and telescope too. Took a look at Mars, M31 and the double cluster. Both M31 and the cluster are naked eye visible from the new house. The seeing last night was horrible, no Milky Way and the haze caused a horrible glow from Tallahassee but at least there were no clouds.
Observing from the backyard is adaquate, my neighbor George's security light has been off for weeks which is great. I dont know if he turned it off or the buld blew but its nice not having the yard lit up like crazy. The next source of light is the church across the cow pasture. Its far enough away just to be an annoyance. Tallahassee glow in the haze was the worst last night but on nights not so haze its not so bad. |
| 2 bad photos | | | [07-Feb-2005]
I went out last month hopeing to get a comet near the double cluster, unfortunatly becasue of problems with the tripod and clouds all I got was 1 shot of Orion, where the tripod wasn't stead and a lot of the moon. I'm only putting up 1 of the moon since most are identical. All this was with my new zoom lens. |
| A busy day | | | [16-Jan-2005]
Failing to remember exaclty how long a drive it was last year I went to the Brooksville Raid again this year, getting there only about a half hour before the battle started.
It had the same problem as last year, there is no good place to watch. The action takes place in the woods alot and swings around several times so its not clear what is going on. I was on the right flank of the Union this time, and they didn't have ropes up so we had to move several times as the action came too close.
There were also a lot of guys on the field with cameras, big ones on tripods ruining alot of photos. The may have been hidden from the VIP section but they were clear to all of us, and made no attempt to hide, be in period costume (not that that would have mattered with the large cameras), or even stay still. Photos of the raid.
On the way to the raid I stopped to do the cache 7 to 7 at a rest area near Perry. Maybe that is what caused the drive to take so much time?
Having more time on the may back I stopped at Homosassa Springs. I expected only Manatees and was suprised to a small zoo. Including a hippo. Which I just screwed up and deleted the picture of.
Near Cheifland I pulled over to see if Comet Macholtz was visible since it was finally clear, and I was somewhere dark. It is baerly naked eye. I took a bunch of photos with the digital camera. The will be posted later after I get a chance to process them.
Got home about 9:30 12 hours after I left, all for a 1 hour reenactment.
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| Daylight Venus Sighting | | | [31-Mar-2004]
Saw Venus at 6:29pm today. Sunset wasn't until 6:56pm. Used the jeep to block the sun, which was still about 15 degrees above the horizen. Only took me a few minutes to find Venus. since I new where it was was able to pick it up several times after that as I drove down MLK for the next few minutes.
Tomarrow can I find it at lunch time? |
| Observing Log | | | [16-Jan-2004]
I mounted the new finder scope (picture eventually) that I got for Christmas and this was the first chance I'd had to use it. Aligned it with the main scope using Venus. Tested the alignment with Saturn, M42 and M35. It workd well. The field is a little larger than I'm used to with the old finder but I'll get used to it.
Since the finder works tried some harder stuff: M1 which has always taken me forever to find for some reason. Found it pretty quick. Not to a good night no structure just fuzz.
Used finder and charts to star hop to NGC1746 and OC in Taurus. Its fairly big, reminds me of a tick.
Then to NGC 1647. Larger than 1764 but fewer bright stars.
Quickly did M36, M37, M38, M31, M33 (much easier to find than before).
NGC 1664. Small, hard to tell its not just a knot in the Milky Way.
NGC 1582. to big an indistinct to be good. Curved like a tadpole.
NGC 2331. Very few stars.
NGC 2392. The Eskimo. once again it looks like some one forgot to focus a star, except that the star next to it is in focus.
NGC 2264. The Chrstmas Tree. I never liked this one. It structure is thrown off by the bright star next to it and I don't see any nebulosity.
NGC 2261. Hubble's Variable Nebula. almost as small as the Eskimo.
M67. At this point I was talking more than observing so packed up and went home. |
| More Eclipse Photos | | | [15-Nov-2003]
Also uploaded some photos of the partial phases of last weeks eclipse that I forgot to upload last week.
None of the film photos are worth uploading. I really need a zoom lens for that camera. |
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