Eclipse phases at Top of The World Laguna Beach, CA 12-12-11

It’s been a while since I’ve done some astronomy. But I finally got out again last weekend. I almost did not go, because the lunar eclipse was going to be in totality until it was light. I ended up going because when I started to look it up, I found out that the next total lunar eclipse visible in the states would not be until 2014. I did not want to wait that long, and I wanted to take the opportunity to see a lunar eclipse with my daughter while she is still young.

The eclipse in the morning light.

We got up early and went to Top of The World in Laguna Beach. I was surprised by how many people were there. There were lawn chairs, blankets, cameras, and at the top of the hill there was even somebody camping. I was the only one with a kid and a telescope: two things that usually don’t go together well when you are trying to image.

My buddy and I set up our tripods and started to take some snapshots. The field of view I wanted was really wide, but the moon was too small for the eclipse to be really visible so decided to shoot through my scope instead. I’m glad I did because I got some cool shots. It was also fun to be out when the moon was out. Usually when you are doing astronomy you usually plan your trips when the moon is not in the sky. It’s funny because we stare at all these celestial items that are sometimes too hard to even see, yet we have this awesome super bright object close to us and we hardly ever really pay that much attention to it!

I got an interesting shot taken the night before the eclipse. I had to make sure I could setup my gear properly since it has been so long since I’ve done imaging through my telescope. As I was framing the moon up in the viewfinder of the camera, I saw a plane fly across the moon. Luckily I had my remote in my hand so I was able to catch some smoke trails going through the moon. I got a cool image, but I really wanted to catch the plane!

A camera and telescope test the night before catches a plane flying by.

Equipment used: Nikon D40, Baader Coma Corrector, Celestron Omni XLT 150mm reflector on a CG-4 mount.

The Leo Trio: M65, M66, NGC3628

“I am using the stock eyepiece of this scope. I haven’t been able to observe galaxies, nebula and star clusters like I would love to. Perhaps I am doing something wrong?”

This is a comment somebody posted under my YouTube video “Omni XLT 150 Setup”

It seems this is a common theme with many people that purchase a new telescope. The problem here is that  if these people don’t find help fast that shiny new telescope will be doomed to the garage and dust for many years before somebody else gives it a shot. That budding astronomer will loose interest and move on to a new hobby. They will miss out on all the joy astronomy brings. We should all know our tiny place in the universe.

In this article I will cover how to get started with a brand new telescope. If you are just getting started in astronomy and need help with the basics make sure you read my article “How to Get Started In Astronomy.”

Well I admit I was one of those put-my-telescope-in-the-garage people, but luckily my persistence paid off. My excuse why I could not find anything was usually related to my location. I live in the city and was always disappointed because I could never find any galaxies. I then pointed the blame to my location for the reason why I was not finding anything. All I could really do was point my telescope at a star “yup another tiny bright dot.” I paid no attention to the fact that I did not know the major stars and constellations. I also had no clue about Messier objects let alone how to find them.

I think my early impressions were that you get a telescope and point it anywhere and you’d be able to see more than just stars. Now that I think about it, that’s pretty ridiculous, but that is how a lot of us start out. I did however manage to find Jupiter and Saturn somehow, and even a comet once!

Okay so now you have a new telescope and you are ready to try it out! Okay, if you really have the need to see something quick and fast look at the moon. It’s funny because the moon is the brightest thing to see in the night sky. You can see tons of detail and it’s the closest thing in the sky to us. But once you are a few months into astronomy chances are you’ll hardly ever really be caught in the dark with a telescope when a bright moon is out.  Why? Because the bright light impedes our view of faint objects.

So what else can you look at? Try to find the planets. Just look along the ecliptic (the path the sun follows in the sky) and look at the brightest things in that path. Chances are if there’s something that’s brighter than most stars, it could be a planet. Chances are that anytime during the year either Venus, Jupiter, Saturn or Mars will be visible in the night sky.

So now that you got too see a few things quick, it’s time to move on and this may take some time.  Perhaps the fastest way to get into the swing of things is to join your local astronomy club. There will be many members there that will be glad to show you what they can see and will even help you get started on your telescope.

But if you are a do it yourself-er like me, or are not so outgoing, you need to learn things on your own. There are several different kinds of telescope mounts and you need to know about and also what you have so you can learn how to set it up to find cool things.

The mount is the part the telescope tube (OTA optical tube assembly) sits on to move around and point to objects. There are basically two main mounts that you need to know.

alt-az mount

The simplest is called an altazimuth or alt-azimuth more commonly an alt-az. With this type of mount you simply setup your tripod and move your telescope in just about any direction. Your telescope moves up and down and from side to side. The big giant tubes that look like they sit of the floor fall in this category (dobsonians). Alt-az mounts are easy to setup. You pretty much plop them down and start viewing the skies.

EQ Mount

The other type of mount is an equatorial mount also know as an EQ mount. This type of mount needs to be setup up a certain way. You need to have the telescope aligned parallel to the Earth’s axis, more commonly know as polar aligned. Yes it sounds crazy and scientific but it’s not really that hard to do. Since this is a beginners guide I wont get too detailed here. First point your telescope North (if you live in the northern hemisphere). If you don’t know where North is get a compass, or just note where the sun set. That will be West for the most part. From there you can find north. There you are now done. Okay, since you are getting into astronomy you probably want more performance and precision than that. Most EQ telescopes will have a polar alignment guide hole in the center of the mount. This is to attach a polar finder scope. To get your scope aligned well enough to do visual astronomy you can simply find Polaris and center it in this hole. If you don’t have a polar finder scope or hole for one simply move our mount and align it by site. Now it’s important to remember here that you are not moving the part of the mount where the telescope attaches to and swings from. You are moving just the base of the mount. This position remains fixed once you put your telescope on here and does not move the rest of the night.

The main differences between the two mounts is that with an alt-az mount you can be setup in minutes and need no power. But with an EQ mount, it takes more time and patience to get going, but you can track objects better and if you have a motor on your mount, the objects will stay centered in the eyepiece without having to move the telescope around.

Now that you have your mount setup and ready to go, you are now ready to start finding galaxies right? Almost, it depends on where you are viewing.

There are several things to consider when trying to find DSOs (Deep Space Objects):

1) Location- where are you viewing, in the city or outside of town. The brighter it is outside the harder it is to find stuff. Although it is possible to see galaxies in the city, most are pretty faint. Try finding M31 Andromedia first as it’s the biggest and brightest galaxy (except our own). A decent sky to view is when you can see the Milk Way. If it’s that dark then you can find most bright messiers (messier objects are a group of 110 deep space objects that were cataloged by Charles Messier- they are probaby the easiest and funnest items to start hunting out).

2) have an idea of what it might look like. Most galaxies are hard to see regardless of what equipment you use. You need to train your eye and get used to seeing faint fuzzies. When we do outreaches with our telescope clubs a lot of the people don’t see the galaxy I have the eyepiece centered on. No it’s not going to be in color and you are not going to see tons of details. But with practice you will start to see more detail (averted vision). They are called faint fuzzies for a reason.

Telrad pointing to Lagoon Nebula (M8)

3) Know where to look. You have to know the major constellations and brightest stars before so you can navigate the Messiers and galaxies. I suggest getting a Telrad finder and find or make some Telrad maps. A Telrad is basically a 1X finder that projects a bull’s eye in the sky. You use these marks to jump from place to place. I can easily navigate with my Telrad and maps, better yet with my iPhone app. This to me is the most important purchase you can make for this and just about any scope!

Okay so now that you have a better understanding of what you can see, it’s time to dust off that scope and get it going once and for all. Yes you may not see colorful galaxies with tons of detail, but you did find it. And that’s something to be proud of. And if that does not impress you, just remember that the light from that galaxy that you are looking at is millions of years old!

I have been wanting to use my 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain to capture some of the smaller objects out there. I have tried using my finder/guide scope, but at about 200mm focal length it just doesn’t seem to guide a 2000mm scope very well. The last trip out I tried using an off axis guider with my Schmidt-Cassegrain with frustrating results. It took quite a while to even find a guide star and when I did it was so close to the edge of
the field  that it looked more like a half Moon than a star.  After thinking about it for a while (6 days I think it was) I
decided I was going to buy a refractor to use as my guide scope for the Schmidt-Cassegrain. I have looked into a few of the smaller shorter focal length refractors but kept going back to the 80mm ED Raptor by Stellarvue. Thursday night (02/18/2010) I decided I was going to buy the Raptor. The next morning I called my friend at Oceanside Photo and Telescope to get the ball rolling and have it shipped out. As luck would have it Captain Ippei just happen to show up there at OPT and agreed to deliver it to me on his way home and saving me the shipping cost (thanks capt.).

Packaging
My first thought, when I saw the box, was “wow that’s bigger than I thought it was going to be”. Up onto the tailgate of the good captains truck it went and I opened the box. Inside that box was a bunch of Styrofoam peanuts, foam rubber supporting material, some packing paper and another smaller cardboard box. I get the second box out and opened it up. Inside that was the soft carrying case with a nice, stitched in, Stellarvue logo staring at me through a clear plastic bag. I get that bag open and unzip the case to reveal my new, long awaited toy.

My first impression
Inside I found a nice looking, shiny, carbon fiber telescope with a 2″ gloss black two speed Crawford focuser with aluminum knobs. Around the scope was a beautifully machined clamshell ring with a short Vixen style dovetail bar on the bottom and a finder bracket attached to the top. Picking up the scope I notice the carbon fiber finish is nice and smooth with an even looking finish with no noticeable defects. I try out the focuser and it is buttery smooth with no backlash and, while holding it, no noticeable slop. The focuser is rotatable by loosening a single set screw near where the focuser meets the tube. It came with a 2″ to 1 1/4 adapter that is held into the focuser with a brass compression ring and three set screws. The focuser also has a graduated scale on the draw-tube to assist with initial focus. When I pulled off the front cover to have a look at the optics I noticed the metal ring on the front of the dew shield is a bit loose. It is screwed onto the dew-shield and when I tried to tighten it, it would not tighten up. I personally don’t think it is that big of a deal and won’t be sending the scope back for that. I think a dab or two of some kind of adhesive will work just fine. I will remove the dew-shield for this fix as I don’t want any out-gassing, of whatever I use, to settle onto the optics. Speaking of optics, they were spotless with no streaks, fingerprints or even dust on them and they had the usual slight greenish tint to them. Looking through the front of the telescope I could see the light baffles and the flat black interior of the tube. The dew-shield is also carbon fiber with the same looks and quality of the tube. It is a sliding dew-shield with metal rings on each end and the company name painted on each side of it. The front cell has some strips of felt attached to add resistance and yet allow the dew shield to slide. Sliding the dew-shield is also smooth and easy but will stay at any position you wish it to be at. Also included are some extra strips of felt in case more tension is needed. I am sure over time the original felt will reduce its ability to hold the dew-shield in place and some new strips will be needed. Also included inside the case were a shoulder strap for the case, a couple Allen wrenches for the clamshell, dovetail and for adjusting the tension on the focuser and the paperwork including a registration card. The foam inside the case has a number of cutouts that can be removed for storage of accessories such as a diagonal, finder and/or some eyepieces. There are 3 large round cutouts that will hold 2″ eyepieces, 2 small round ones for 1 1/4″ eyepieces and a small (approx 3″x3″) square cutout that fits my 1 1/4″ diagonal, 2 1/2 x Tele Vue  Powermate and camera adapter.

First light.
I don’t have very much experience with refractors and the only thing I have to “truly” compare it with is a Stellarvue 80mm Achromatic refractor I used to have. I put the Raptor on my Orion XHD Paragon-Plus tripod and brought it out to my driveway. I put in my 24mm (23X) Baader Hyperion eyepiece and aimed the telescope at the Moon. The moon was just about 1/2 full (or empty for you pessimists) and it was crisp and sharp. I did notice a very slight greenish blue ring around the moon. I am not sure if it is a slight case of Chromatic-aberration or if it was caused by the moisture in the air. We have had quite a bit of rain and there were a lot of clouds flying by so I will need to update this when I can confirm what it is. I then put in my 13mm (43X) Hyperion to bump the power up a bit more. Again, there was a slight greenish blue ring around the brighter part of the moon but was still barely visible. The color of the moon itself looked just fine with no sign of discoloration at all. I swung it over to M-42, The Orion Nebula, and it looked great for a small scope in a light polluted city. The stars were nice and small with the 4 stars of the Trapezium clearly visible and separated. I didn’t see any signs of Chromatic-aberration around the stars and when the weather gets better, I will pop in my 2 1/2 x Televue Powermate to push the scope to its upper magnification limits.

Photographing with the Raptor.
I installed my Nikon D-40 to the scope with my T-Ring and Ho-Tech Self Centering Camera adapter and took a few daytime shots. The telescope focused t about 1/2 the length of the draw tube with the camera directly in the focuser. All the images were crisp and clear, well, the ones that were in focus were. I took a number of shots of a variety of objects and I could not see any hint of CA in any of the images. I tried to take a couple pictures of some airplanes flying by but it is tough to focus on a moving object.

In closing this telescope so far seems like a very nice telescope. With the great optics, fantastic focuser and beautiful carbon fiber tube I think I will be keeping this scope for a long time. The only thing this scope needs is a large carbon fiber telescope to sit underneath it.

I have not been able to get out with the scopes in a while and when I do again I will update this review,

I got my first chance to image with the Raptor at the last Julian Starfest. Due to some user errors my weekend did not go quite as planed. The scope did show quite a bit of coma on the edge of the images I was able to get and a more experienced imager said it looked normal. I was using my Orion Starshoot Pro v1 color imager.  For my next trip I plan on using my Schmidt-Newtonian for imaging so I may not get a chance to take any shots through the raptor.

Again, I will update when I get some quality info to add.

Self portrait minutes after I saw the Delta II launch

I’ve always wanted to see the shuttle lift off in Florida, but that will probably never happen.  So this year I’ve been trying to spot a rocket launch here in California.

As you may know Vandenberg AFB is home to NASA’s west coast launch pad. And according to Brian Webb’s website www.spacearchive.info we should be able to see the rocket launches during the twilight and nighttime hours here in Southern California.

Well today I saw it and it was very cool! This was my third attempt at trying to see some artifact from the launch while at home here  in Lake Forest Orange County. There was a big difference this time: the launch was at dawn. All the other times were in the daylight, or at some other ungodly hour. I was not yet committed enough to this quest to justify going out in the middle of night to see something, since I did not even know if it was possible. The last time I tried was during the day, and I saw nothing. However somebody reported that they saw something up in the mountains in Big Bear California.

It was fairly clear with some fog/haze towards the horizon this morning. I started looking right around launch time (6:09 a.m.) and saw nothing as expected. Three  minutes went by and I looked around again and I noticed a faint helicopter looking light flying low from the Northwest area. I almost dismissed it, but I picked up my 10X50 binoculars just in case and pointed them that way. That’s when I saw the FIRE coming out of the ROCKET. Holy smokes it’s the rocket! No I did not see much detail, but I saw a small object with fire shooting out of the back of it. I was shocked. In fact I was not expecting to see that at all. I thought I would only see cool smoke plumes or something like that.

The rocket continued on a low fly by and all of a sudden the smoke plum started to show. The rocket was growing fainter as the smoke plum grew and became brighter. The smoke was totally visible to the naked eye at this time. It looked like a regular cloud as far as brightness, but in shape it was long and swirly. A few seconds later the smoke stopped and I could not really see the fire anymore, the rocket just looked like a satellite at this point. The smoke appeared to stop and then reappeared as another stage of the engine went off. I did not see fire, but saw more smoke. It then faded fast as it got lower to the SouthWest Horizon. It was at that time that I took out my camera and tripod and fired some shots of the smoke (click image below).

Ahhh that was a cool moment: to actually be able to see something lifting off to outer space!  I think what helped inspire me was a few months ago the shuttle was going to land here in the West. I heard or read somewhere that you might be able to hear the sonic boom. I set my watch and went outside. I told my neighboors that if they hear a loud boom that it was the shuttle crossing the sound barrier. They gave me some weird looks, but a few minutes later we all heard the boom and we all were excited.

So get out your binoculars, cameras and ears and do some astronomy. With just my eyes I have (and you can too) see the space station, the shuttle, a rocket launch, and Iridium Flares. Here are some resources that will guide the way:

http://www.spacearchive.info/index.htm

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Smoke from the Delta II launch 12-14-09

The dirt/sand surfaces found in many remote locations can make leveling an impossible task, or worse yet could cause your rig to slowly settle as you’re imaging regardless of if you walk close by or not.  To prevent such a thing from happening, you’re going to have to set your tripod legs on some sort of load spreading accessory.  Many companies make anti-vibration pads that would do the job but they can cost upwards of $100.  If you don’t want to spend money buying pre-made pads, your choices are to either deal with the sand, make your own pads or find some sort of suitable alternative.

This author decided that the easiest thing to do was to find some sort of suitable alternative.  A quick field trip to the local home improvement store proved to be the right choice.  It only took walking up and down a couple of aisles to find the perfect solution, banister rail caps.  They were the right size, light weight and the right price, $2.99 a piece x 3.

They came in handy during the last MBS astro trip out to Joshua Tree where it was sandy.  The tripod stayed in place without any slippage or sinkage and resulted in two successful nights of imaging.  Setting up was a lot easier this time around than the last trip to this same site.  This hobby, like many others tends to get quite expensive so any opportunity to save money is beneficial.  Sometimes it just requires a little bit of creativity!

Each subsequent frame started to slowly degrade from the edges in.  Nebulosity started showing where it shouldn’t be and stars were starting to diffract every which way just like the unprocessed shot to the left.

Since this was something I had never seen before, I kept taking a couple more shots until the last shot clearly showed the culprit…FROST!  It was like looking through a window in the dead of winter with the center of the frame still fairly clear but with crystal like spider veins on the edge of the frame.

M42 Frost, -5C

Well, for frost to form, two things need to be present.  A surface at or below freezing, and moisture.  Now, what could I do about the moisture?  Nothing at all.  I could do something with the temperature level of the CCD Chips though.  I was running at -5 degrees Celsius, so I decided to raise it to 0 degrees Celsius.  I know what you’re gonna ask, 0 degrees is still freezing so why not go to 5 degrees?  Well, the chip itself is at 0 degrees at the back surface but the front surface is just slightly warmer due to it being exposed to the air inside the camera body.

After letting it warm up for about 30 minutes, I started taking shots again and could clearly see a difference.  Most of the frost had melted and is evident in the stars at the left, bottom and right edges.  M42 itself is a bit sharper and the nebulosity isn’t artificially enhanced.  What is also evident is the amount of noise from the increase in temperature.  Eventually all of the frost disappeared and the rest of the shots I got that night were usable.

M42 Less Frost, 0C

After I got home, I immediately read over the manual and followed the direction on how to recharge the built in desiccant.  Fortunately SBIG’s design of the ST2000-XCM desiccant plug is very simple.  It simply screws out of the body, replace it with a dummy plug to prevent anything from getting in the camera and recharge it following the recommended procedure.

This happened almost after a year of use and in the fall, right after our monsoon season which makes sense since it was so humid.  So here are a few tips to follow to minimize the chance of your CCD Chip frosting over.

1. Store your camera in a cool, dry place
2. Throw a pack of silica gel or other type of desiccant inside your camera case when not in use
3. Recharge your desiccant plug (if applicable) on recommended intervals or before big imaging trips
4. If frost forms during an imaging session, set the temperature regulation to 0 degrees C or above

SBIG Desiccant Plug

Dummy Plug

The Julian Starfest is a major Southern California astronomy event, featuring a free public star party on Saturday, tours of the Palomar Observatory, astronomy supplies and vendors, astronomy guest speakers and presentations, a giant raffle with $7,000 worth of give-aways and four days of camping and astronomy.

Camping area at the Menghini Winerty, Julian Starfest

With plenty of room at the winery to spread out we had enough space to accommodate all four of our imaging rigs, complete with computers, workbenches and Fat Maxes (our super efficient, ultra compact tool chests). Our compound was flanked by the travel trailer on one side and two tents (for the adventurous) on the other. Plenty of room for our gravity chairs and binocular sky tours in the center, while our rigs were up and imaging all night.

Julian Pie Company

We pulled in Thursday just after 3:00 pm when camping registration opened. We picked our spot and got set up. The first night was perfect with clear skies that got pretty dark. Friday was overcast all day and it never let up, the night was clouded over, even raining on us a bit throughout the night. And good thing we stuck it out because Saturday night was again perfectly clear and dark (though very damp and dewy). I’m not a good judge of what is dark or not (and we’ve had much debate about Anza vs. GMARS, etc.) and Jamie didn’t think Julian was as dark as GMARS – and I disagreed. We were tempted to get a dark sky quality meter to start taking regular measurements of our locations – this tool would be a helpful tool to aid in our ongoing debate. All-in-all, we had two great nights of astronomy.

Craig Stark speaking at the Julian Starfest

Craig Stark from StarkLabs (author of Nebulocity, PHD Guiding and DSLR Shutter) gave a great talk on SNR (signal to noise ratio), similar to his series on Cloudy Nights, and detailed the differences between cameras for astro-photography. He also spend a few minutes with us discussing, and helping solve an ongoing debate about ISO settings and its impact on SNR. Look for more MBS stories discussing some of the Stark topics like increased aperture and its affect on SNR, and how single-shot color cameras differ from monochrome cameras.

We’re all good friends with Keith, Chris and Craig at OPT (Oceanside Photo and Telescope) so its always fun when we get to spend time out in the field with these guys. Check out Chris’ newest images on his website. OPT is one of the big sponsors of the Julian Starfest and they have a giant booth in the vendor village. In fact, this has become quite an event for all of us to do some “shopping.” This year Harvey bought his new CCD camera (Orion Starshoot Pro) and was like a proud poppa when he unpacked the box. Ippei was close to making his final decision on a new imaging OTA, but the OPT guys sold the last one in stock – right from under his nose. Jamie finally got his wide field imaging rig completed when he attached his camera ball head adapter (manfrotto 486) to his Celestron CG-4 mount, complete with hand-crafted, hardwood dovetail. This ended up being used by everyone for wide field imaging right off the camera – it’s awesome! And don’t worry, if they don’t have what you need at the OPT Booth – they call the store and have someone bring it up, THAT is customer service at its best! I finally got a new HoTech centering 2″ camera dapter, deliverd to Julian from the store (did I mention OPT is awesome!)

With all of our new gear, the great food, the heated debates (360º capabilities, dark skies, Gaysted, breathing in the particles once you can smell them, etc.), the apple (and berry) pie, the ice cream lady, Bridgette, Ippei’s new truck (really a big help packing in all of our gear), Sea Breeze and the Millionaire Mile – We even got the chance to meet a few guys from the SoCalAstroPhoto group, and chat a bit – The Julian Starfest 2009 was a huge success!

Look for updated images from everyone under the MEMBERS tab.

We loaded all four of our Stanley Fat Max gear boxes into Ippei's truck.

Planning our strategy over breakfast in Orange County before heading out to Julian, CA

We stopped for pie at the famous Julian Pie Company

Setting up our campsite - astro-imaging center - and saloon. Four telescopes, four computers.

Our first feast of many - BBQ steak sandwiches.

Santa Ysabel Casino, just a few miles from Julian, CA - we went for the $4.95 Prime Rib Dinner! And some of us like horseradish more than others.

Jamie, testing his new personal dark adapted eye protection system. Now he can use the bright light from his computer monitor to light his work area - and still protect his own eyes - Patent Pending.

Harvey studying the manual for his new Orion Starshoot Pro - just picked up from OPT booth in Vendor Village.

Ippei and John conducting highly technical binocular comparison testing ... complete with vodka drinks.

All you can eat chicken quesadilla Mexican breakfast - note: three is too many.

Brian and Jamie posing for a quick portrait in town - Julian, CA

Harvey won this great piece of framed art in the raffle.

Nightfall at the Julian Starfest 2009. The milky way is setting over our campground.

That direct quote is from an email forwarded to me today. The sender was asking me if it was true.  I noticed in the email that it was also sent to about two dozen other people. These were all mostly business associates, so these are educated people, but the fact is that most people will not take the time to research stuff.

So sorry to disappoint, but Mars will not appear as big as the moon to us. A simple logic test would be to go outside and look at the moon and Mars right now. Is Mars half the size of the moon , now that August 27th is only a few weeks away? Can you even find Mars in the sky right now?

This hoax gets circulated each year, and each year I am asked by my peers if this will happen.  I usually ask them what do they think and why, and am always entertained at their excitement about the event, but lack of fact finding or preparation for such a great celestial event.

According to Snopes.com and Wikipedia this hoax started off in August 2003 when Mars did come to its closet point to Earth in 60,000 years. But Mars comes pretty close to this distance every 15 years.

So for your entertainment and reference here is the famous email hoax below.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING!!!

Every year, Team MBS participates in a couple dozen outreaches in the Southern Orange County area but this was the first ever joint venture outreach with members from the Orange County Astronomers, Riverside Astronomical Society and the Big Bear Valley Astronomical Society.  Fortunately, this was neutral territory so no OCA/RAS/BBVAS gang wars ensued with the use of our green pointing lasers.  Leading the way was John Day from the BBVAS, who brought along his home made Dobsonian.  John won an award at RTMC for this scope (the white one) which can be seen in the picture to the left.  He also kicked off each viewing session with an exciting presentation!

Each week there was a new group of 90 excited kids waiting to check out the night sky.  Saturn was a big hit, along with globular clusters and double stars.  We were able to see a lot of constellations with the naked eye, as well as the milky way and even some meteors which drew a lot of oohs and ahhs.  The International Space Station flew over us on the 6th towards the end of the viewing session.

July 20th was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  In addition to the scopes, there was a meteorite presentation and exhibit, and even some prizes were given away for those that stuck around to learn more about astronomy.  Usually, most groups get excited when binoculars are given away as prizes but this group (both kids and adults alike) went absolutely wild for the half eaten bag of frosted animal crackers…maybe it was the thin air.

Wow, if you are out for the new moon in June, you are in for a treat on the morning of June 21, 2009. At 4:00 a.m. you will be able to see a sliver of the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune.

That’s 6 Planets, and if you look straight down at that time you’ll see another planet. Get out your widefields and see what you can grab!