Here’s the first of what is sure to be an amazing series of images to come from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. All I can say is “WOW!”

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA

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It stopped raining though.  I might even be able to get the scope out tonight but I’ll leave that decision for later.  I had to cart everything inside because of the possibility of high winds with the passing storm system.  We never did get the winds and I am just as happy we didn’t.  We did just today, exceeded our normal yearly rainfall (38.8 inches/15.3 cm), we have 39.2 inches/15.4 cm, and we still have four months to go!  Not great for observing.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the news over the past few days, there was a couple of stories I wanted to mention:  There was a rocket launch on Monday from the new spaceport in New Mexico.  An unmanned, 20-foot SpaceLoft XL rocket belonging to UP Aerospace made it to an altitude of about 40,000 feet but something went awry and the rocket crashed.  The spaceport is going to be a very busy place from here on out, with many launches taking place.  Yes, this particular rocket didn’t make it, but I believe they will get things sorted out and it will not be long before things are running smoothly.  So congrats UP Aerospace.  From RedOrbit – story link.

From a distance of 2000 million miles Hubble has captured images of a black cloud on Uranus.  These clouds have been reported since 1900, which seems amazing in itself, but never confirmed.  It’s though it has to do with the hemisphere coming into the sunlight after 84 years.  The equinox on Uranus is just over a year away.  Luckily for us we have them a couple of times a year for all the kids to balance eggs, and yes you can do that on the equinox or any other day of the year. Image Credit and Full story on Hubblesite.

There is also a new story coming out that a camera on Hubble has shut down again. Last I heard engineers were looking at the problem and were going to go from there.  Finally on October 4, we may see some Hubble images of extra-solar “planets” at least according to NASA.  We shall see.

I went back out last night and had a MUCH better time with the scope, in fact I was aligned in record time.  I think night before last was some sort of operator problem.  The sky was not nearly as good, but it was still pretty good and it was nice temperature wise.  There was a bit of a breeze and the wind gusted and moved the scope slightly.

It wasn’t all great though.  I was just getting some images with my DSI and something went afoul with the software and I wasn’t sure if it was actually taking images or not.  Meade has apparently different software with the AutoStar Update I downloaded and I was able to use that, didn’t care for it.  To be fair, I must explain I didn’t care for it because it was the same interface as it used to be, but acted much different.  I did get some images though but have to do some dark subtraction.  Interesting thing I didn’t know, but apparently the software saves the dark images or “Darks” with a different image size than the images of objects.  Well that isn’t good makes it a pain to do the dark subtract, soooo I will take some darks and treat them like regular images and they should be fine, but I got to do it.  I’ll get them posted when I’m done.

Still all things considered I had a good time, too bad I had to work today, I could have spent a lot longer than the 2.5 or 3 hours I did.

First off let’s not even talk too much about last night. I could not get that scope to give me a decent alignment to save my self. I’ve had this trouble before and ended up in a terrible mood.   Last night I spent a half hour fighting it, and while I was frustrated I just shut the thing down and packed it up.  If my usual pattern holds true the next time out will be one of those where nothing goes wrong.  Looking at the bright side.

So this morning I get up and carefully before turning on any lights AND before feeding the dog and cat… yes it’s that serious, I go running outside with a pair of binoculars to see if I could see the comet.  I didn’t get far before I noticed two things: the sky was just amazing, and the grass needed mowing.  I didn’t bother to put shoes on and the grass was wet with dew, it was also very cold, too cold for some idiot to be running around barefoot at 5:00 am with the temperature sitting on 38 degrees.  I also found if you manage to stand in one spot for a minute or two, your feet will warm up,  just a hint for anybody else who might decide to do this.

I didn’t spend too long in this effort, but I’ll tell you Orion, Sirius, the Beehive cluster, Pleiades, etc were glorious; however no comet.  I went back inside and fed the now not so patient cat and let the dog out and fed her, then, I put some sneakers on. By that time the sky had brightened quite a lot but I did a search and lo’ and behold there it was! Barely!  But it was there, just visible.  I’ll try again tomorrow, I remembered how I said to find it a couple of posts ago and bingo.  As I was looking at it, I seemed to remember (why. I have no idea) that I put you need to look to the west.  I will go back and check that and change it if necessary [I did].  You of course need to look to the EAST, I would have seen it the first time had I actually stayed out a bit longer.  It’s well up and I’m betting very easy to spot…if you are not barefoot in close to freezing wet grass that needs to be mowed.

Here’s a Cassini image of the moon Iapetus. This little moon of Saturn is only 912 miles (1,468 km) across.

The moon is distinctive because one hemisphere is bright and the other is dark. In this image you can see some of the cratering in the bright side. The dark area looks kind of odd to me. Oh well, it’s a moon we don’t get to see often.

I am rushing out to set up my telescope and see what I can see later on. So I can keep blogging il cielo di notte

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

An early morning comet that should be visible with binoculars in the early morning. I will be looking forward to it if the clouds clear.

The image shown here was taken by Carey Johnson and is posted on the San Diego Astronomy Association site. There are many excellent images over there and it’s worth the visit!

Seiichi Yoshida has the comet at a magnitude 6.9! Keep in mind cometary magnitudes seem (at least to me) to run a couple of magnitudes higher than the numbers say. It’s probably because of the diffuse nature of the things. Seiichi Yoshida also mentions the comet is very condensed, so it should be easy to see.

Northern Hemisphere viewers should look to the west east (oops) early in the morning. Look for Leo and Leo Minor, go north of Leo’s rear-end and then look east of Leo minor. You can also go a bit south of the western most (left?) leg of Ursa Major and you will be pretty darned close, I think, at least that’s where I’ll be looking. If I get REAL ambitious and very lucky, I might set the scope up and get an image of my own. I want to see if I can actually see it with binoculars first. I’m also thinking of looking about 4:30 to 5:00 am local time.

Orbital elements can be found in MPEC 2006-S39, and there are finders charts on Seiichi Yoshida’s site.

If you happen to be up at that time and have good skies, check it out and let me know if you can see it. If I can see it you are sure to hear about it.

Image Credit: Carey Johnson / San Diego Astronomy Association

What have they done to Word press?? I think I have the links fixed, it just sticks copies of links I add just willy nilly. Oh well I’ll still be blogging il cielo di notte