maw lod qan

Sadly, working to put your competitors out of business isn't only in the optical industry. The influx of electronics and tools from both China and Mexico is becoming standard now over here. Some are okay, quality wise, others pure junk. Worst part is the pay scale those workers get paid. That's one of the big advantages of going over seas. I'm in a position to see the % of markups on those products and its amazing.

Like always, thanks for the information. I do hope to add the last two to my "have seen list."

Last week I had a good clear night and hoped to find Neptune and Uranus amongst the stars by their color. With my 8" DOB and a 23mm I was unable to pick them out. I know they should be a tiny blue and green star, but I didn't see anything that stood out. Should i be able to? Or are they going to be much smaller than I'm thinking?

Its has been spectacular seeing the moon with 3 planets. To think with you standing on Earth, you are seeing 4 of the 8, or 9, planets at one time. Just depends on how you consider Pluto! (By the way. It's a planet!😁👍)

Very nice image. I do enjoy looking at Luna.

Last December for the meteor shower, it was nice to bundle up in a sleeping bag for the light show. I just wish my gravity lounge chair was a double so the missus could have been a bit closer for the extra warmth.😊

I will never complain about it being cold again, in public. You have my utmost respect for your perseverance!

It's been looking very good for us here in Florida. Luna, Venus nearby, Jupiter down at the bottom and a faint Saturn upper left. At that time of the evening our mosquitos are still terrible.

I went out at first to look for the two day old moon just as the sun was disappearing below the horizon. I was a little early with the sky still quite bright. After just a few moments I managed to find Venus in my viewfinder even though it remained invisible to the naked eye. While looking at it through a 23mm eyepiece I found the moon nearby. It too was not yet visible in the light blue evening sky. I've found Jupiter a few times with it still invisible in the sky, so I moved the telescope to search for it. As I looked, the conditions changed and both Venus and the Moon appeared out of nowhere. There was a slight phase in Venus's appearance, probably 10 % missing. Now Jupiter was showing easily so I turned to it. Three moons were visible along with some faint banding, mostly in the equatorial regions.i was quite surprised seeing how it being much lower effected the visibility. Saturn was a bit higher, but the visibility still wasn't the greatest. The grouping of Jupiter, Venus and the moon made a nice widefield image. Saturn was just a bit out of my cameras view to get them all together. Deciding to change directions before going in I turned and found M31. The core stood out very good and the more my eyes adapted the more I could pick out its wispy outer area. Taking my eye away for a moment, I looked almost directly overhead just in time to see a meteor. It easily traveled over 45 degrees across the sky from the West to the East, leaving a long sparkly trail in its wake. Back to M31, I moved the scope around and found another faint fuzzy a little lower. My best guess is M33 after looking at some charts of the area. With Sky Safari showing Neptune and Uranus near the zenith, I spent some time trying to pick out their color amongst the stars, but never did manage to find them. All together, it was a pleasing short session. Hopefully, tomorrow will be fog free and I can view Mars.

I drive to work at 3am. It is so, depressing seeing all the businesses that are brilliantly illuminated, that are closed! The cost to produce the electricity, is just the tip of the iceberg, all the way to the beginning when someone drilled for the crude oil that fuels the power plants. But big money usually gets their way.

I've seen contrails moving with the jetstream long after the jet has disappeared. Sometimes when the moon is just right, the contrail will even cast a shadow in the sky.

I still struggle getting my Canon perfectly focused using only the viewfinder and looking at a image. These are a tad out of focus. It's easier when I have something bright and distinct like planets.

Like last year, I had 100% cloud cover for the Leonids.

First of all I still offer my thanks for the heads up on this shower! 👍 I've been quite, well I'll go ahead and admit the truth, lazy, with my observing the heavens. A quick example, just night before last I took the camera out for widefield being the sky was beautiful. There in the west was an amazing conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Took a couple shots, then turned to the East which is my better view. As I'm getting the camera ready, I glance overhead to find the ISS passing directly over. If I had only taken the time to stay up on things, i could have imaged it right there with those planets!! Back to the meteor shower. I set up again just at sunset. This time in for the duration. Starting as soon as it was dark enough to image Cassiopeia, I let the camera work while I wrapped up in a sleeping bag in a comfortable lounge chair. All together, even with a couple naps, I stayed there laid back looking up from 6:30 till 1am. Perseverance gave me three very good early sporadic meteors, one I imaged. Right on time at 11:40 I began to see meteors from the shower. All together I must have seen 20 or even a few more that I could say came from the radiant point. They varied in color and intensity. Much later, after I had called it a night, I imaged another very faint meteor. Out of 2800 10sec images, I scored twice! Many nights it's a total washout, so being I managed 2, I can say Quapla! (Sucess in Klingon!) As badly as I wish to witness a storm, seeing any meteor makes the effort well worth it. And I saw many more than 1 last night

I just brought my camera back in. Was out till almost 1am EST and did see a decent showing. Will look at my images hoping.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm planning on the 17/18 for the leonids. Hopefully I can see something of this one from Florida, or at least get some images with my camera set up for an all nighter.

I like having the Earth there to help get the scale working in the grey matter. For something so special, we and our world aren't much to notice in the grand scheme of things. Are we?

I guess they were seen near where I live last evening. Had many going into their bunkers and locking the doors.

Being I have a very tight budget, I've not a lot spent, yet. But i can see this hobby, if you really get the bug, being like owning a boat or private plane. Back when I was doing a bit of flying, the general thought was you needed to fly 2 hours a week, minimum, to justify owning even a little Cessna. But, there's the reward of turning your own telescope skyward and gathering that distant light.

Sadly it is all about the money. I think I heard some figure that estimated the possible revenue world wide being 300 billion, annually, but I could have that wrong. When big money is concerned, governments dont care about the average person. We 're all just cash cows hooked up to the milking machine.

Sunday I went out to get a couple quick shots of the moon rising. While snapping photos with the interval timer, I had a couple water birds come in to roost in the trees around my pond.

Yes, thanks for the images. It's great seeing you share this with your daughter. It will leave her memories that will last forever. I managed to get SWMBO out for a moment about 1/3 into the transit for a peek. Wish I could have got my grand children out, but they were in school.

Excellent. Definitely have to give a thumbs up to those dedicated solar scopes.

I wonder when you put the amatuer-amatuers, like me, the professional amateurs like so many of you on the SGL, then the real professional scientists all over the world, just how many witnessed it?

Incredible how tiny it is! With my glasses, I really struggle trying to get a camera focused on something so small. And to think, in the grand scheme of things, Sol is small too.