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I personally have wondered in the other direction. What's the chances that the moment I walked back into the house, we hit an unexpected, previously undiscovered outburst, and there was a 1000 a minute storm, for just 2 minutes!

Welcome! This is an amazing forum!

Now I've read that the first manned Starliner launch will be next year, no earlier than March. Boeing is confident it will be able to do its contracted 6 launches to the ISS before it is decommissioned in 2030! I need to call my doctor! She ask me this past Thur at my annual old guy exam if I was depressed! I said no! But now, I am really depressed!

Yes, I purposely left out that incentive. And the fact that once again, nothing is being saved and reused. I feel as if this is being looked at like another chance for the "Ole boys" to fill their piggy bank. Yes, it is to fill the night sky with clutter, but SpaceX is launching a rocket a week, if not more!

I've really been, anxious, to see progress with the Artemis program. I guess I'll just have to be patient. I can't stop thinking that our first manned launch was in '61. The next year, the President made his famous speech, to the moon and back, safely, before the end of the decade. With pencils, paper, sliderules, and hand drafting, we went thru Mercury, Gemini and then Apollo. We kept his schedule. Now, working with advanced computers, existing knowledge and designs we seem to struggle more now. Artemis's first launch was delayed 6 years. Even now, the heat shield is being questioned. I hate to even mention, budget concerns! Do you think it will be possible for them to get things going even close to the schedule? Time's a-wasting! Some of use are growing old!

I was hoping to travel for both the eclipses, this Oct and next year. Now, with some budget issues, I'm having doubts. Still put in for time off this Oct so at the least I will see it at home.

Really nice! Love the meteors!

Nice reading your report. Glad you finally got a good night!

Now that I zoomed in, I can spot it without zooming! That's cool.

I'd be giddy with both those! Best I've done so far is just a blur of the core with 31. Now i have a mount im ready to do better.

My dream, The leonids peak on my birthday. I might have 1 more chance if I live long enough. I'm 67 now. I want to witness a storm!

If you only see 1, it's the time out there that matters! I have found that laying back in a comfortable chair and sleeping bag is a very relaxing thing to do! Another way to clear your thoughts and reboot your mind!

No I haven't. I see the rabbit's face! I usually see things easily. That's how I found many Indian artifacts, flint, cheap and coral points while farming. That doesn't always apply with astronomy. But the elephant stood out!

Only thing I can add is, oh yeah!

Hope you see many more. A good night viewing meteors is always enjoyable.

This morning at about 3:30 am I looked at the area of Montes Apenninus for almost an hour. Viewing was very good, the moon placed well for me to get comfortable at the eyepiece. As I watched craters changing as the terminator moved across them a shape caught my eyes. There was an elephant! It's head and trunk lifted up to the sky. I just watched, till it gradually wasn't an elephant anymore. So, I had to find what I was seeing. Lucky for me I bought the duplex moon atlas. On page 21 of the green section you'll see Rima Bradley. Just below the end of the words, look at the high area amidst all the clutter. You have to let your minds eye work. The light and shadows were perfect at that moment. Even in this image on the page, there is a dark area between its legs, more towards the center is a high area forming a head, with the trunk continuing. I know it was nothing but the way the sun illuminated the hills and valleys. But there was my elephant on the moon standing on the plains of the moon, the mountains behind it.

Great image. I was out for an hour and never turned away from the Moon. Jupiter was quite brilliant, but the Moon had me captivated.

Wonderful image! It was beautiful this morning, except for the Fla heat. From the shadows I was out a bit before you.

Just walked out to feed the chickens, before going to work. It's the mid 80's°F and very humid, high thin clouds ruining the sky. There is a conjunction of Luna and Jupiter that is only separated by less than my pinky finger tip! The terminator pointing directly down to Jupiter, below to the right!

Before I ask my question, if the moderators want to move this somewhere they deem better, it's okay. Lately I've watched shows on the astronomy they did. Granted, the shows were mostly by the ancient alien theorists. But I can filter out the nonsense, and pick up a few things. So, to my question. You don't have a computer, or calculator. You didn't have a series of professors or their books to rely on. All you have is someone scratching your ideas in a wet clay tablet, or chiseling on a stone. You are sitting there, looking up into a sky that has only seen light pollution from camp fires. How long are you going to have to sit there watching it all, to start getting the things worked out? Have to take at least a year, to get a year figured out. But for them to calculate eclipses, and the other things they put in their stone records. Their math puts me to shame! Was it hundreds or many hundreds of years? Share your thoughts.

I do like the GIF and the way the moon peeks out from behind Jupiter! Well done!

That's a good one! I also noticed you caught one of Mr. Musk's starlink defense satellites streaking in from the left to destroy it! Now we know the real reason for those thousands of satellites he is putting in orbit!🤣

So, how about a question on this subject that seems to have been avoided. Have you personally or have you ever spoken with someone who HAS, seen something you cant explain? I have to say yes on both accounts. I have seen lights in the sky I had no idea what they might be. I've seen rockets up close and across the state. Seen lots of aircraft during the day and night. I have never seen anything like the lights I saw. Also spoke with a professional airline pilot who had seen something twice, who would only say, it wasn't us. All I can admit is, both cases were just UAP. I'm waiting to finally see Bigfoot. 🤔

Excellent!

I've been watching a few so called documentaries, most which have me laughing at some of the obvious stupid things they show. One investigator got so frightened seeing a light rapidly approaching him, HE DROPPED HIS CAMERA AND RAN! I had a thought when looking at one of the members images of the Hercules area that showed an amazing number of distant galaxies. One of our lotto games is 1.25 billion dollars right now, with odds of winning 1 in 300 million. Take the billions of galaxies, then the incredible number of stars in them. Say only 1/10th have planets, and of those only 1/1,000,000th are capable of supporting life. If we are the only life in the entire universe, the 6 billion people on Earth have really won the lotto!😁