First observing session of 2011! Wow, it has been almost a year since I have taken the telescope out for some night-time viewing! I happened to notice it was fairly clear tonight without too much city haze, and no moon visible, so I decided to see if I could find a few more Messier objects.
But even more exciting, I have ordered another telescope!
After using the Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian for all my recent viewing over the past few years, I have now ordered the Orion SkyQuest XT10g Computerized Go-To Dobsonian. I have been wanting a computerized scope that can track against the earth's rotation for a long time, and the value of the XT10g is superb.
Orion has a backlog of orders, and it looks like the scope will not be shipped until mid-to-late August. The May 2011 issue of Sky & Telescope has a great review of the XT10g, remarking that the optics and mirror are excellent, but there is a slight bit of vibration when the motor unit moves the scope. So I also ordered a set of damping pads.
The thing I like about the XT10g is that once you align it by viewing two stars, you can move it by hand to a new object instead of slewing to the object, and the scope will maintain its tracking abilities.
I'm hoping that I can finally take some pictures of the moon and the planets through the new scope by using a camera T-attachment. But that is all for later after I have had the new scope for a while.
Observed these objects tonight:
Overall, spent about an hour outside tonight stargazing.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
6/30/11 Observing Log
Saturday, July 10, 2010
7/10/10 Observing Log
Second observing session of 2010. I didn't observe much in the summer last year, so this is an opportunity to see some summer objects.
Observed these objects tonight:
Hopefully I'll get out more often between now and winter.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
See Saturn, Mars, Regulus, and Venus!
If you look west tonight, you will be able to see Saturn, Mars, Regulus and Venus in a rough line.
Saturn is highest in the sky and farthest south, followed by Mars, the star Regulus in the constellation Leo, and then the very bright planet Venus.
Here is a picture of the configuration:
If you miss it tonight, don't worry, the same configuration will roughly occur for the next week or so. Venus will move to the left of Regulus over the next two weeks, and Mars and Saturn will get closer to each other by the end of July.
For those who are curious, the screen cap was taken on my iPhone using the Starmap app.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
1/11/10 Observing Log
First observing session of 2010. I've now had the telescope a little over a year, so it is back to observing the winter constellations again. I've now viewed most of the non-galaxy winter Messier objects visible in the first half of the night, so almost everything viewed this evening I've seen before. But it gives me a chance to see how the seeing is different than in previous times.
Plus, tonight was the first time I've really seen Mars well, and the first time I've seen it through my Orion 8" scope.
Observed these objects tonight:
All in all, a nice hour and a half of viewing tonight. I finally "knowingly" saw Canopus, and I had my first real view of Mars. Even though the light pollution seemed high tonight, I was pretty pleased with the overall outcome.
I ordered a better green laser pointer earlier this week, since my current green laser is very powerful but stops working well when it gets cold. I have to spend 3-5 minutes heating it up with the warmth my hand before it starts shooting a long beam again. The new one is from Orion Telescopes and is supposedly able to handle colder temperatures. We'll see.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Playing Classic Board and Card Games With a Six-Year-Old
I've been pulling a few classic games from the closet and playing them with my 6-year old son, Isaac. Turns out they hold up well!
We've played Uno off and on over the past year. It's a pretty good game for a 5 or 6 year old. My son tends to hoard the Wild and Wild Draw Four cards and play them at the very end, I guess due a fear of using a "good" card. Surprisingly, this stragegy works fairly well. In the mid-game, rather than using a Wild to avoid taking a card, he'll take a card for a few turns instead. If he lucks out and gets the card he needs relatively quickly, then the extra cards don't hurt too much, and he's then unbeatable when he gets down to his last few cards that are all Wilds, especially if they are Wild Draw Fours. Uno is also a great game for Isaac to play along with Mom and Dad, because Mom and Dad tend to battle between themselves and let the little guy get rid of all his cards.
Since Uno went well, a few weeks ago I taught him Mille Bornes (actually, a slightly simplified version of the real game where the goal is to get to exactly 1000 kilometers rather than play for points, and we don't use the coup fourré rule). The game requires some math skills when adding up the mileage cards, and also some association skills between remedy, hazard and safety cards. He was able to remember which remedy cards fixed which hazard cards pretty easily, and was very good at adding up all the mileage cards. The only mileage card that usually trips him up is the 75 kilometer card. I remember that one was tough for me to add up as well when I played as a child (and I was older than 6!). He had a harder time remembering which safety card prevents which hazards, probably because the safety cards don't come up often enough. He did know to hold onto remedy cards, and quickly understood that they were more valuable than mileage cards. The real learning and thinking occurs when he has to discard because he can't play anything and he has to choose which card he needs the least.
Earlier in the week we played Sorry! (the Nostalgia Edition) for the first time. We had played Trouble several months ago, so he knew the basic concept of moving your pawns around from a Start to a Home base. I hadn't played Sorry! in a very long time, and in my mind it was equivalent to Trouble, but it actually has involves more strategy due to cards like 4 (move a pawn four spaces backward), 7 (split your move between two pawns), 10 (move 10 spaces forward OR 1 backward), and 11 (move 11 spaces forward or switch one of your pawns with one of your opponents). It is interesting seeing how he chooses which of my pawns to switch with his own when he draws a Sorry! card or an 11 card. He even sometimes used the 4 card (move backwards 4 spaces) strategically after starting a pawn, after watching me do it once and asking about it. I'd recommend starting with Trouble at age 4-5 since the dice are self-contained within the center bubble, and then moving on to Sorry! at age 5-6. 
So... earlier today when we were driving around, Isaac said he wanted to "try a game where there's BOMBS". Well, Stratego has bombs, so I decided to give it a try, not knowing if it would be too advanced for him or not (the box says "Age 8+"). I described the rules to him, which are actually fairly simple (goal is to get your opponent's Flag, Bombs and Flags cannot move, lower number pieces beat higher, both pieces lose in a tie, bombs blow up all pieces except Miners (8s), Scouts (9s) can move more than one square if it is open, and Spies (S) beat the Marshal (1) if it attacks first). What surprised me is on his own volition without prompting he set up his pieces so that his Flag was in the back, surrounded by Bombs. He was also good at moving a Miner around to destroy one of my Bombs once he found it. He was only so-so at this age at remembering which of my pieces were what (other than Bombs) after they were revealed, and he also did not take advantage of one of his low-number pieces creating maximum destruction through my pieces once he knew my own low-numbered pieces were gone. Oh, and he thought the Bombs were the bomb! Maybe a few years from now when he's good at Stratego I can spring The Generals on him.
All in all, though, not bad for age 6, I thought.
My hope, of course, is that he learns that board games can be fun to play before his friends influence him to play only video games or computer games, and board games suddenly become "booorring!"
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
11/17/09 Observing Log
Near a new moon tonight (2% waxing according to my iPhone Moon Atlas app), and the sky was clear, so I took out the scope tonight.
One other thing to mention is that the iPhone Starmap app is awesome on the iPhone 3GS since it uses the compass to detect which way you are facing and thus gives you a representation of your sky view in the exact direction you are facing. Sweet!
I was hoping to take a look at Jupiter again, but by the time I took out the scope and let it acclimate to the outside temp, Jupiter was below the tree line, so I decided to look for some more Messier objects instead.
As I have written about before, I primarily use Ken Graun's The Next Step: Finding and Viewing the Messier Objects and the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas.
Observed these objects tonight:
Overall, I was a bit disappointed in the seeing tonight. It seemed that a faint haze covered the sky and prevented me from excellent seeing conditions.
I'll try for Jupiter tomorrow if the sky stays clear.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
8/25/09 Observing Log
It rained for a few minutes in the early evening, so I thought it might be a good time to go out and finally take a look at Jupiter. I haven't used the scope in about 6 months due to timing with cloud cover when the moon has been new and full moon when it has been clear. This is the first time I've viewed Jupiter through the new scope. Crescent moon tonight (36.7% waxing according to my iPhone Moon Phase app).
Observed these objects tonight:
According to my August 2009 issue of Sky & Telescope, Io will transit Jupiter Thursday night, so hopefully the sky will be clear and I've have another chance to go out and see that. Couldn't make out any Great Red Spot, though nowadays I understand it is pretty dim. Sky & Telescope calculates that the Spot will transit the meridian around 00:08 this morning, so presumbly I should be able to see it now.
UPDATE: Yeah, I can see the Great Red Spot, but only by putting in the 5mm Stratus, which gives 240x mag. It's very faint, and you have to watch it for a while to pick it out from the South Equatorial Belt (which is the top belt in the updated sketch below). Io is also getting closer to Jupiter and will begin transit within the hour.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Can I Have Some Time To Think About This?
Shortly after our son was born, I purchased a 30-year term life insurance policy for myself, and a 20-year term policy for my wife. My wife's policy is through USAA Life Insurance.
Today, I received this great personalized letter from USAA in the mail:Did you know that your policy allows you to change your coverage to permanent status without getting a medical exam? [... blah blah...] To change your coverage, please call us... before October 7, 2021.
Either they need to work on their personalized custom form fields a bit, or they really, really know me far more than I realized, because, you know, I just hate being rushed into decisions.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Isaac's Pre-K Graduation Today
Today, Isaac graduated from Pre-K school. Pretty special day for him. 
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Show Was So-So, But I Liked The Music
I happened to be channel surfing tonight and came across the series finale of ER. I had seen articles about the finale over the past week or so, but had forgotten it was tonight.
I have never been a regular viewer of the show. For some reason, hospital dramas have never grabbed my interest, although I do remember episodes of St. Elsewhere that were outstanding. And of course the St. Elsewhere series finale spawned its own metafictional universe.
I watched the last 20 minutes or so to see if anything cool happened. Nope. Just some doctors yammering, some important call to be made by Noah Wyle that was left unresolved, and a sudden final inrush of trauma patients - though it's always fun to see Ernest Borgnine still working.
Then the final backwards tracking shot of the hospital played, and I realized the one thing I did like about the show.
The theme song.
It was created by James Newton Howard, who most recently scored the soundtrack for the blockbuster movie The Dark Knight along with Hans Zimmer.
To me, it's a song written in the 1990's as a throwback to the electronic music of the 1980's, reminicent of mid-1980's Tangerine Dream, and perhaps Jean-Michel Jarre, some Vangelis albums, Boards of Canada, Kitaro, and Edgar Froese. It's a song that catches your attention nowadays because it seems so out of place with today's television music and themes, and, as someone who is always interested in hearing interesting new electronic music, it never fails to enthrall me for a few minutes when it plays on television.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
2/19/09 Observing Log
No moon visible, so the sky only washed out from normal Austin light pollution.
The book I have been using to determine which Messier objects to try to locate is Ken Graun's The Next Step: Finding and Viewing the Messier Objects. It is a great book with a lot of history about Charles Messier, as well as information and photos of the 110 Messier objects. I also like the fact that all the photos in the book are taken with the same field of view, so you can get an standardized idea of how large each object is compared to others.
Observed these objects tonight:
I also attempted to see M1 (Crab Nebula), but there is too much light pollution from my location to this faint object. I'm sure I was looking right at it in my main scope. I'll have to try again at some site that has darker skies.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
2/5/09 Observing Log
Moon is 5/6 full, so there was a lot of wash-out due to moonlight.
Observed these objects tonight:
I also attempted to find the Leo Triplet (M65, M66, NGC 3628) but the sky was too washed out from light pollution and the moon to detect anything. I'll give it another shot in two weeks when the moon is new.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
2/4/09 Observing Log
One final new eyepiece arrived today, a 35mm Orion Ultrascopic (gives 34x with my scope).
Observed these objects tonight:
Friday, January 23, 2009
1/23/09 Observing Log
New eyepieces arrived today! Orion 8mm Stratus (gives 150x with my scope) and Orion 5mm Stratus (gives 240x with my scope).
The Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas is great for star-hopping for me at this location, since the limiting magnitude in the atlas is close to the limiting magnitude I see through my finderscope. I also really like that the book is sipral-bound, so it opens flat on a table and can be easily opened to a particular page and held within my left hand while I'm looking through the telescope, comparing star fields, and adjusting the focuser with my right hand.
Observed these objects tonight:
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
1/21/09 Observing Log
New variable polarizing moon filter arrived today. I also installed the free Cartes du Ciel software program a few days ago and used it to print out a chart of where the planet Uranus is located, in an attempt to see it tonight.
Observed these objects tonight:
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