What an Awesome night of telescope viewing....

[Heyo]

I don't know if the atmosphere is extra clear or what.... but man Jupiter is so bright and beautiful tonight!... I was able to see the Great Red Spot last night, but I believe it's around on the opposite side right now.. last night was a little blurry.... I can't wait til the GRS is facing earthward on a night as clear as tonight.. maybe I'll try later, will have to check the transition times for tonight..

Saturn is also gorgeous tonight, rings in all their glory, tilted at such an angle as if to say "here I am, check me out"

For the first time I was able to make out the large gap between the two main sets of rings...

Last and tonight I also saw the Orion nebula for the first time.. really faint, but I think when I take it to the park, away from the light polution, I should be able to see more...I can see all the proto-stars forming, and faint blue glow of the heated gas and dust.. (*very faint*)

Still have not been able to make out the form of a galaxy yet, but I probably need a much darker environment for that.... I will keep trying though... still looking for those binary star systems too... those have eluded me so far as well... my software helps me find them, but haven't nailed one yet.

Man I need to try and find a local 'stronomy clob to join... I really dig this. :P

Heyo.

[pocoloco]

1. Alright! Sounds like you are really having fun and you have a

good scope. You shouldn't have any trouble with the Andromeda Galaxy, M31 I think, you can make out it's glow with the naked eye. The Ring nebula in Lyra is also neat viewing. Enjoy!

[Birthmark]

2. Astronomy Clubs

Enjoy. http://skyandtelescope.com/resources/organizations/

What kind of 'scope do you have?

[ant]

3. ah, memories

I was an astronomy major in college, one of two basically (small school), so we had keys to the big telescopes and stuff so we could set them up for lab sessions and all that. One of my favorite things to do was go up there weekend nights with a few friends and some beer and show them stuff. Saturn always amazed me, and we always used to joke that it looked like that fake UFO from the Brady Bunch episode where Greg tricks everyone. It looked like a sticker on the lens, weird just because it's so out of the ordinary to see something like that, to know you're ACTUALLY SEEING it and not just looking at a picture as usual.

I'm in DC now, not exactly a dark sky, and my telescope is sitting in a closet at my parent's house in Floriday (they apparently made good use of it during the recent Mars events), but I've really been missing my star gazing lately. I actually looked up astronomy clubs just last week, and (duh!) the air and space museum here apparently has some sky watching events. Can't wait!

[BlueJazz]

4. Look at the North Star

..It's a Binary
The middle star of the handle of the big dipper is a 3 vway system.

[Heyo]

5. Wow cool!

Now that's some good info!!!

:Toast:

Thanks all.

Heyo

[BiggJawn]

6. What are you using?

The sky IS very clear tonight, it should be, seeing as how it's 10 degrees here...
what kind of scope you seeing the GRS with?

[HornBuckler]

7. Indeed

[Heyo]

8. I'm using a 5" Newtonian Reflector

I love it... will post about anything especially cool that I see.

Heyo

[StClone]

9. I love the Night time skies

When you get to finding Neptune and Uranus and see the blue green of those distant cold bodies it sends a shiver down your spine. I have seen eight good comets and can't wait for the next biggie.