More naked eye astronomy

Casual Observations

by
Mark Wagner,
David North,
Jeff Blanchard,
Jamie Dillon

Mark Wagner:

I'm in the middle of an intense work schedule, and my eyes are crossing from looking at the computer monitor. So, I took a short break, walked out in the backyard at 6 p.m. as the daylight was fading and night was rising in the east.

Bright in the west, Venus was blazing away, Jupiter was next up looking like a more distant and therefore dimmer Venus. Up high rode Saturn, pale yellow in comparison to the two bright planets. Looking very much like Mars, east of zenith, sat Aldebaran, nicely reddened, with its bright twin further east, Betelgeuse. Only Rigel, bright white to Betelgeuse's south seemed out of place. The others formed a nice gently curving sweep from west to east.

A nice treat for tired eyes.

David North:

I gotta agree. I took a break from working some particularly boring data to take a peek through the scope at Saturn. Not great seeing, but not bad.

It's still there.

(I tried Jay's "don't look at the bright thang so the gain will not be stepped down" as an averted vision trick to see how many moons I could spot; so far results are inconclusive. But the moons themselves clearly show better with averted vision; this is no surprise though. Can't wait to try the other averted trick on a disparate double... maybe The Pup?).

Jeff Blanchard:

Not bad over here in Santa Cruz. My Saturday afternoon collimation tune-up sure made a difference. Jupiter and Saturn are sharp and colorful once again, Rigel split into 2 pinpoints. I guess when I installed the secondary heater before my December trip I moved the mirror forward because it was about 1/2 inch off. I just thought the seeing had been the pits. Live and learn.

Jamie Dillon:

It was last Thursday night with a pervasive high haze, a cold night here in Salinas, and around 11 there was a remarkable ice ring around the moon (one of those big rings that extend 16 deg out).

Now having grown up largely on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, out in the boonies, I've seen a lot of these, but this one was not plain vanilla. It shimmered and dominated the sky.

There were two stars out period, Sirius and Pollux, and they shared the quarter of the sky with Luna and this huge bright ring. An arresting sight. Gave a wintry feel that was rare for the central coast.