Return to the night sky

It is Late Friday night early Saturday night. 24 degrees nearly balmy. I had to dust off this notebook as its been awhile since I have been out. Between cloudy nights, sleep and my health I have been away from my telescope much too long. I am a bachelor tonight, rested and ready for the night sky. Looks like my hands did not appreciate the cold by I am warming up. Tonight it was just some general observing to get re acquainted from where I left off. I was shiver with this short exposure to the late cold, I concentrated on the first star bright enough to grab my attention. I believe it to be Regulus according to my star charts and star software.. My equipment appeared to handle the cold well.Little or no issues with the cold for the short time I was observing. Me on the other hand managed only and hour before my hands began to pain me and my arthritis froze up my knee so bad I was unsure if I was able to manage my telescope back into the house. None the less the sky was very cooperative, no clouds or turbulence to be observed whatsoever. Just anight cold as it was to be appreciative of Gods handy-work

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Regulus (α Leo, α Leonis, Alpha Leonis) is the brightest star in the constellation Leo and one of the brightest stars in the night sky, lying approximately 77.5 light years from Earth. Regulus is a multiple star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. The spectroscopic binary Regulus A consists of a blue-white main-sequence star and its companion, which has not yet been directly observed, but is probably a white dwarf star. Located farther away is the pair Regulus B and Regulus C, which are dim main-sequence stars.

Ok its been awhile a long time. No night and cold weather, but I will return.

Dark Skies Wednesday night.

Alkaid
Eta Ursae Majoris (η UMa, η Ursae Majoris) is a star in the constellation Ursa Major. It has the traditional names Alkaid (or Elkeid) and Benetnash (Benetnasch). Alkaid is the most eastern (leftmost) star in the Big Dipper (Plough) asterism. However, unlike most stars of the Big Dipper, it is not a member of the Ursa Major moving group. With an apparent visual magnitude of +1.84,[2] it is the third brightest star in the constellation and one of the brightest stars in the night sky.

From My own backyard. Attached to my Orion 120. Shot at F2.8 a 1.9 Second exposure at iso3200

The Cats Eye Nebula

The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543, Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco. Structurally, it is one of the most complex nebulae known, with high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations revealing remarkable structures such as knots, jets, bubbles and sinewy arc-like features. In the center of the Cat's Eye there is a bright and hot star; around 1000 years ago this star lost its outer envelope, producing the nebula.
It was discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786, and was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins in 1864. The results of the latter investigation demonstrated for the first time that planetary nebulae consist of hot gases, but not stars. Currently the nebula has been observed across the fullelectromagnetic spectrum, from far-infrared to X-rays.
Modern studies reveal several mysteries. The intricacy of the structure may be caused in part by material ejected from a binary central star, but as yet, there is no direct evidence that the central star has a companion. Also, measurements of chemical abundances reveal a large discrepancy between measurements done by two different methods, the cause of which is uncertain. Hubble Telescope observations revealed a number of faint rings around the Eye, which are spherical shells ejected by the central star in the distant past. The exact mechanism of those ejections, however, is unclear

                                                                 The Cats Eye Nebula     F2.8    4 second exposure at ISO3200

Mars, M3 and Me.

The top picture is that of M3 That I took tonight with my telescope. Wikipedia states,  is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier on May 3, 1764,[7] and resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784. Since then, it has become one of the best-studied globular clusters. Identification of the cluster's unusually large variable star population was begun in 1913 by American astronomer Solon Irving Bailey and new variable members continue to be identified up through 2004.


Arcturus can be used to help locate M3  


Messier 3 with amateur telescope
Many amateur astronomers consider it one of the finest northern globular clusters, following only Messier 13. M3 has an apparent magnitude of 6.2, making it a difficult naked eye target even with dark conditions. With a moderate-sized telescope, the cluster is fully defined. It can be a challenge to locate through the technique of star hopping, but can be found by looking almost exactly halfway along an imaginary line connecting the bright star Arcturus to Cor Caroli. Using a telescope with a 25 cm (9.8 in) aperture, the cluster has a bright core with a diameter of about 6 arcminutes and spans a total of 12 arcminutes.


This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 8 billion years old. It is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years away from Earth.


The Next Photo is that of MARS  that I took. Just a fine night for star-hopping.

Lunar Neighbor

A Good night for observing. All photos shot with an old kodak 6.1MP camera mounted to a 30mm flat eyepiece. I cropped them out in photoshop but they did not need much cleaning up.

Deep Space

Experimenting with deep space and limitations of my camera.

The Full Moon

It was a grand night bringing back a childhood memory. I remember as a young teen being chosen by the bishop to serve at high mass on good Friday then after mass and my responsibilities to the church in its religious preparations I would bicycle home to prepare my equipment for an evening of viewing hoping to get a glimpse of something beautiful and spectacular. I saw Saturn tonight in all its splendor however I find that I do not own the necessary equipment to bring it to publish.

I did tonight stretch the abilities of my starshooter IV. Summarizing after a year that its only real significant value is that of most bright and brilliant objects such as that confined to lunar activity as I share with you now.