Posts in category 'astronomy'

  • Jupiter Redux

    Well, I just had to go out again last night and check out Jupiter. With it setting earlier and earlier these days, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to observe it.

    Unfortunately, the weather has been very unpleasant lately (it’s mid-August, but it feels like mid-September!), and so seeing wasn’t great, with a lot of atmospheric turbulence. Still, I got a beautiful view of the Galilean Moons again. It’s fascinating seeing them change position… rather than being in a straight line, as in my previous observations, this time Io and Ganymede were to one side and Callisto to the other. Just beautiful.

  • Wild Ducks and Other Things

    Ahh… a cool night in Edmonton, but a good one, nonetheless. The sky was fairly clear tonight, and minus some clouds, observing conditions were not too bad. So, I nailed a couple more open clusters tonight. The first, M25, is a nice little sparse cluster in Scutum, and fairly close to the horizon. Definitely a pretty little cluster, with many bright stars.

    The other big one, and the one I’ve been trying to get, was the Wild Duck Cluster, or M11 in the Messier Catalogue. This is an open cluster as well, although you wouldn’t know it to look at it. It’s so compact that, in my telescope, it looks very similar to a globular cluster, just a little less compact. But, with a relative magnitude of 5.8, it was visible even in binoculars. Definitely a sight to behold! My next hopeful is M22, a bright globular which is in Sagittarius. Perhaps tomorrow. :)