Clear Skies Tonight!

Looks like we're in for some seriously clear skies tonight. Clear, transparent & rock steady is what the clear sky clock is calling for. I already got some nice views of the planet Venus. It was sitting nicely in the saddle of the mountains to the west of me. I also got a quick peak at the planet Mars... sitting in the southeastern sky. I was less thrilled with the view of Mars... likely because skies are expected to steady significantly in the coming hours... allowing for some (hopefully) high powered views.
Given the quality of the views expected tonight... I'm breaking out the ObDob... and inviting a few friends over to observe with me. The plan is to go deep... at least Caldwell Objects deep. Caldwell deep being at least a bit more aggressive than the standard Messier Objects. Not too tough given the whole setup, but... I'm expecting a quite enjoyable night.
The upcoming Thanksgiving weekend is looking to be awesome as well. We're hoping to create a new tradition... and are going to dutch oven a turkey down at Zion NP. There I'm planning to get quite aggressive... and go after a few ARP's as well. These generally require darker skies... and more aperture than most.

Conjunction Tonight!

The Moon and the planet Mars will be in conjunction (alignment) tonight. Look for the pair to rise in the east around 4:15pm. The Moon should be obvious immediately, while Mars will become visible shortly after sunset (5:10pm). As an added bonus, M45 aka The Pleiades Star Cluster will be sitting just a few degrees to the north (left). The trio might just fit within the field of view of a pair of wide angle binoculars? Regardless, The Moon & Mars should be stunning in your lowest power, wide angle eyepieces. If skies are clear here in Park City (questionable lately), I hope to capture a picture of the event. The accompanying image was taken a few months back when the two were in a widely split conjunction… say… 4 or 5 degrees of separation. The upcoming event should be within 1 degree if memory serves correct. Hope you can get out and view the event!

Fraser Valley Astronomical Society

I had the pleasure of dealing with Peter and Paul over at The Fraser Valley Astronomical Society. Sorry.. no Mary in the picture that I'm aware of :) Anway... These are some really nice folks. This caused me to revisit their website. I've got to tell you... its chock full of information... especially relating to astronomy information. I also found some very interesting light pollution information. Anyway.. Back to the astronomy infomation. They had all kinds of information relating to Telescope and Mirror Making. If you get a chance... be sure to visit The Fraser Valley Astronomical Society website at www.fvas.net.