Venus & Jupiter in Conjunction

The two brightest planets, Venus & Jupiter will reach conjunction tomorrow night (9/1/2005). This should be a beautiful sight. Look for the pair low in the southwestern sky shortly after sunset. The pair are the brightest starlike objects in the sky... with Venus by far the brighter of the two. The pair will slowly drift apart over the coming days and weeks... as Venus continues to climb nightly... while Jupiter fades fast. The picture below shows the pair on Saturday night... when they were still several degrees apart. By Thursday's closest approach, the pair will be just over 1° apart. This is roughly the width of an outstretched finger.

Awesome Weekend Viewing

Saturday started out kind of cranky... with clouds and scattered showers. Keeping faith in the Clear Sky Clock... and the hourly weather.com forecast, we headed for the high country. About 1/2 hour before sunset... the Sun began to shine :-) We were treated to a very nice sunset... and things only got better from there. We got a sweet view of Venus & Jupiter setting in the west... and things only got better from there too!
As darkness fell upon our 9400' campsite, the Milky Way was clearly visible from horizon to horizon. I readied the scope... and spent the next several hours "cherry-picking" goodies from the sky. Hercules, The Ring, The Veil, and countless other Deep Sky Treasures were on the menu.
Clear, dark skies... and lots of aperture. Observing doesn't get much better than that!

Clear Skies This Weekend

Skies were clear last night... and are forecast to be even nicer tonight. With that in mind, we're heading to my favorite High Uinta Observing Site. The few clouds that are expected should be vacating just as its starting to get dark. Yesterday was the last quarter moon... so, moonrise tonight won't be till 1am or so... giving 3+ hours of dark skies to go DEEP. Of course, I'll be taking The ObDob (pictured). It's the perfect instrument the for clear, dark skies I'm anticipating.

The Northern Lights

Well... as Jerry Garcia once said... "have you seen the light?" Of course, we're talking northern lights... The northern lights were visible for a while early Wednesday morning (8/24). Even a very large and bright moon couldn't stop a sweet display of one of nature's most impressive sights. Reports are indicating that thing spiked just around sunrise here in PC. Figures, right? Anyway... There's a good chance for aurora again tonight... when the second of two coronal mass ejections reaches Earth. Skywatchers are encourage to keep an eye on the northern horizon after dark tonight.

Aurora Watch!!!!

WooHooo!!!! Not one, but two Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) are heading our way.... Sunspot #798 erupted twice and launched 2 coronal mass ejections towards Earth. Skywatchers should remain alert for aurora after dark tonight & tomorrow night (8/23 & 8/24). Given the waning phase of the moon, this could be perfect timing. A good dose of the northern lights would be just what the doctor ordered. Checkout these sweet aurora images I took back in November when the skies last lit up for me.

Spectacular Sunset!!!

We caught one of the most spectacular sunsets last weekend. I finally got around to looking at the images on the computer and... all I can say is... WOW! Check this out and YOU be the judge. This was taken from our campsite in Utah's High Uinta Mountains.

Full Moon Rising

Did you see the full moon rising last night? Wow! It sure was a sweet site! I was sitting out on the back deck when it started to illuminate the clouds sitting just above the horizon. Moments later, the upper portion of the moons disk came into view. Slowly but surely, it crept higher and higher until it was fully illuminated. For a few moments, it seemed to hang... susended above the horizon. Then, it crept slowly behind some low hanging clouds. Nothing thick enough to block out the moons brightness... just enough to add to its visual appeal. After that, there was nothing but clear skies for it to cruise through. Shortly thereafter, we called it quits... and headed in. What a nice night!

The Moon & The Clouds

I guess the fact that the upcoming full moon is coinciding with a serious amount of cloud cover (and precipitation) is a good thing. Hopefully, the following week/weekend will provide us with some clear skies to go with the waning phases of the moon.
I was out briefly last night. The Moon looked cool as it struggled to shine through the clouds. Eventually, it managed to simply climb over them for a while. The whole thing looked a bit eerie early on... but felt much nicer as the evening progressed. Hopefully, tonight will allow me to observe without the threat of a wet telescope.

Outdoor Lighting by Starry Night Lights (Part II)

As I mentioned previously, we ended up purchasing 3 different types of outdoor lights for our home. Each is designed to fit nicely into the color/materials scheme of a specific area of this house. As I also mentioned, we purchased these lights online from night sky friendly lighting provider, Starry Night Lights (www.StarryNightLights.com).
This outdoor light fixture, the SPJ48-02 by SPJ Lighting is pictured here in "Raw Copper"... though we'll be getting it in "Rusty" which should have it fit nicely into the area we've planned for... the front entry. The front entry is wrapped in Montana Stone. I'm not sure what makes Montana stone any more special than Utah stone... or Wyoming stone, or any other stone for that matter, but... the rock contractor made it a point to point out that it was Montana stone. Anyway... we expect the fixture to match nicely with the colors found inside our Montana rock. Additionally, the night sky friendly nature of this closed top fixture will blend nicely into our mountain setting. (We're nestled comfortably into the trees on the side of a mountain at roughly 7000'). We'll need to take & display some photos of our house and its diverse lighting scheme when we're done. Then, you can be the judge as to whether or not it actually works. Regardless, we were determined not to mar the beautiful night sky above our mountain home... hence the lights chosen. If more folks would do the same, perhaps a larger number of people would actually be able to see the Milky Way at night :-\

Weekend Observations

We spent the weekend up in the High Uintas of northern Utah. Each evening started out looking pretty bad, but... things got better as time progressed. By 3am or so, skies were as clear as I think I've ever seen them. You could see stars through the trees, right down to the horizon. The Milky Was absolutely spectacular.... glowing from horizon to horizon. Then, of course, there were some very nice Perseid Meteor Shower leftovers. All in all, it was a pretty sweet weekend.
Temps? Well, that's another issue. We awoke to frost covered everything on Sunday morning :-\ Could have done without that for sure!

The Perseids & Beyond

Reports coming in are that this years Perseid Meteor Shower was a good one. I was out early... for a little while... and managed to view a couple of nice, long ones. A quick look at the Spaceweather.com Perseid Meteor Picture Gallery was enough to assure me that there were some awesome meteors this year!
If you missed the peak (which occurred this morning) you're not completely out of luck. Perseid meteors should be visible after dark for the next week or two. Of course, the closer you are to the peak... ie the sooner you get out and look for them... the better. Happy Hunting!

Mars (and Perseids)

Got out this morning for a little while. Views of Mars were OK at best (lots of moisture in the air)... Also saw a couple of Perseid Meteors. Skies are looking reasonably good for the next few days. Let's keep our fingers crossed for clear skies for the peak... which occurs on Friday morning (8/12) between around midnight and first light (5:00am).

Perseid Update

Perseid activity is definitely on the rise. I saw one nice one last night through some high clouds. If skies hold out... as is (sort of) expected, Friday morning's peak should be awesome. More information on The Perseids can be found at Gary Kronk's Comets & Meteors Showers Website.

Outdoor Home Lighting by Starry Night Lights

We just purchased exterior lights for our new home online from www.StarryNightLights.com. The lights look beautiful, and should add nicely to the look of our home at night. No glaring lights... just proper illumination. What a concept, huh?

Anyway... we ended up using 3 different types of outdoor home lighting fixtures. We're not quite sure if that'll give the look we wanted, but... I guess there's only one way to find out :-)

We started with the JDG-1300W (pictured here), a beautiful exterior ceramic wall sconce by the Justice Design Group. It's a quarter sphere that'll shine all its light down. None should go up... or across property lines. We're finishing it in what they call Textured Faux California Gold Slate. This seemed like it would match nicely with the colors in our stone work.

Star Party & Perseids Report

This weekend's Utah Skies Star Party was awesome. Skies were clear and steady all night long. We probably had around 75 people show up to do some observing. Among other things, we hit Venus & Jupiter, The Ring Nebula, The Veil Nebula, The Hercules Star Cluster and a bunch of stuff in Sagittarius & Scorpius. All in all, it was way cool!
As the night progressed, we saw a bunch of Perseid Meteors as well. The most spectacular of which (of course, I missed that one) crossed an estimated 90* of sky.

Clear Skies, Warm Temps, New Moon - Wow!

Should be an awesome night... and an awesome weekend of deep sky viewing. Conditions couldn't be any better! Plans are calling for me to get out each of the next several night with the big scope.
Of course, the highlight will be tomorrow night's Utah Skies Star Party. With the first good forecast for a star party this season, we should get a pretty good turnout.

The Perseids Are Coming

The annual Perseid Meteor Shower is rapidly approaching. It'll peak in the wee hours of Friday morning (8/12), but I've already seen a few. This years event should be a good one, since the moon is going to cooperate with us. It'll be a waxing crescent at that point... setting before the shower really gets going. Those of you viewing from dark skies can expect to see in the neighborhood of 100 meteors per hour at the peak... pretty close to 2 per minute.
The Perseid's are probably the best known meteor shower... coming during the summer as they do. I'll be setting my alarm for 2:00am so that I can head outside for the best part of the show.

Friday Night Star Party

Utah Skies and The Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District will be hosting a star party this coming Friday night (8/5). Folks are invited to make plans to come out and observe the heavens through some of the finest astronomical equipment available to amateurs. On display will be a tiny sliver of a crescent moon... so tiny that we might not even find it :) Along with this, we'll take a peak at two of our solar systems brightest planets... brilliant Venus and giant Jupiter.

Once we're done with these, we'll go deep and explore the wonders of the summer night sky.

A quick sampling will likely include:

• M13 - The Hercules Star Cluster


• M20 - The Trifid Nebula


• M57 - The Ring Nebula


• NGC6992 - The Veil Nebula

Admission, as for all Utah Skies events, is free. Bring your friend... bring your telescope... or just bring your imagination.

Approaching New Moon Means Deep Sky Viewing

Skies are expected to clear just in time for the upcoming new moon. This is fine by me. I live for those opportunities where I get to go DEEP!!! Having access to truly dark skies is something I hold near & dear. In the meantime, we seem to be in for a bit of weather (highly unusual for this time of year)
Anyway... if skies clear as expected this weekend... i'll be pointing the ObDob at some sweet summer time objects.