Last night was great: comfortable temperature and clear skies. I spent over an hour on the deck browsing the night sky. Later, before going to bed, I opened Starry Night to identify and log the galaxies I'd run across.
For an online resource SEDs has a nice catalog of Messier Objects, including an index with thumbnails. Here are the ones I identified from last night:
- Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)
- Pegasus Cluster (M15)
- Omega Nebula (M17)
- Bode's Galaxy (M81)
- Cigar Galaxy (M82)
The last pair are over by the big dipper and I only knew about them after snooping around in Starry Night. They were the toughest to see, primarily because the Lebanon/Hanover/West Lebanon area puts out a fair glow of light polution in that area of the sky. Say, you don't suppose the car dealerships would turn off their lot lights whenever there's good seeing?
A few nights back I attempted to photograph a galaxy for the first time. Andromeda, that ol' fuzz ball. As you can see the photo looks very little like those you normally see. I'm cool with that, my home movies don't look very hollywood either.
What I don't understand is the cool zooming in effect of the stars on the edges. It's like I managed to be traveling towards the galaxy during the time lapsed photo. Talk about astral astro projection, cool! But seriously, does anyone have an explanation? This was with the D70 coupled using prime focus. Unfortunately it was taken before I found out the noise cancellation setting for long exposures.
No planets though. Was planning (planeting?) to check them out just before sunrise but by then the all enveloping arms of Frances had embraced us. It's going to be a long, damp hug.
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