Archive for the ‘Observing’ Category

Jupiter’s Back

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

This past couple of months have granted some great views of Jupiter. We've had better seeing than normal the preceding two months in the Atlanta area. I had two exceptional views of the GRS through the Fernbank 36 inch on December 1st and 8th. When I drew a bead on Jupiter ...

Winter targets sans planets

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

These last few weeks have seen the gradual westward track of Jupiter. In the evening hours, Venus has been working it's way easterly. They are always fun to explore. But the evening are much longer now, so, why not work on finding nice objects to look at once the planets ...

First glimpse of Saturn for 2011

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

I just happened to be up in the wee hours of the morning last Sunday after a long night at work making computers happy. It was 2:30 AM by the time I got out to the parking lot and it was really nice and clear. (oh yes, the computers were ...

Great view of Jupiter’s GRS .. Finally!!

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

This last few months has brought me a lot of joy showing off our largest planet to audiences small and large at Fernbank Observatory. However, the seeing conditions have been anything but 'astronomical' all the way through the late fall. In a couple my posts back in October and November, ...

SVC Tip #2 - Tracking Jupiter moon occulations

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

As already mentioned on the SVC Tip #1, one of my favorite internet tools is Sky View Cafe.  This tool is very useful for determining the location and position of the moons of Jupiter. I've used the special tab called "Moon/GRS" a number of times in the last few months to ...

Filters for viewing Jupiter’s GRS

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Jupiter has been a lot of fun for me this apparition. It's been higher in the sky than last time and much easier to see right from my driveway through a very convenient gap in the trees. I've been able use one of three scopes at home (3 inch refractor, ...

Viewing the Lunar Straight Wall (archived)

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

I just happened to notice an event on my 2010 observing calendar a few months ago, something about a "Lunar Straight Wall". Hmm, I had not heard of that one before, probably because I had not paid too much attention to the finer details of our moon. But since this ...

Globe at Night Update #1

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

I've been accumulating GaN data for the past week or so. I have been relaying on the more qualitative technique published by the GaN web site. This uses the belt of Orion and the remaining stars of the constellation as magnitude indicators. I now have some data from around the ...