Ever feel like you're being watched?
Entry posted by stolenfeather
378 views
February 6th, 2011
5:00 am
The forecast the night before had predicted a cloud-free morning. I was excited by the news since it would give me the opportunity of viewing Venus and Saturn before the sun made it's appearance. There was only one thing on my mind when I awoke,.. to dress and make my way outside! I knew that Saturn's rings were nicely displayed (showing much detail) and I simply couldn't wait till May to see it during normal evening hours.
I quickly dressed and,... the forecast had been wrong! :mad: All I could see were clouds! When I saw a break in the gray skies by the time evening made it's way to this part of the north, I knew that I had to take advantage of the occasion. Venus and Saturn would not be around but I'm sure some of "the other boys" would come out and play!
At 8:00pm, the moon and Jupiter were well on their way towards the horizon but still granted me with spectacular views! Some of Jupiter's bands were clearly defined but they didn't come out on any of my pictures. I tried but frostbit fingers can stay motionless for only so long (-36 Celsius will do that to you).
SGL gave me some very helpful tricks last week as to limiting my shakiness when taking pictures. One of these ideas was to take a video and to then extract the picture from it's files using Registax.
So extracting a picture from a video gave me this:
(Take it easy on me, It's my first time)
My night was far from over. I oriented my telescope by Orion where I visited my favourite Messier Object (M42) and then went out to find it's closest friend, M41, a faint yet beautiful star cluster.
It was while I was gazing at this new object that I felt eyes upon my back. I looked and felt a slight nudge by my lower leg. I was being watched by the little lady you see below:
I don't know her name, where she comes from or where she sleeps at night but once in awhile she comes out to join me while I am outside stargazing. The old saying is therefore true:
You never know when you're looking at the stars, someone may be looking straight back at you.
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