Saturday, March 5, 2011

Spring Break Observations- Astronomy night practice

Time: 9 p.m.
Location: Venice, FL
Listening to: Dr. Fountain's Magical Licorice Stick Remedy for the Blues

         I finally put together the telescope I got for Christmas! It came with two lenses, one where F=6mm and the other F=12mm. After much finagling in the dark with my red light, the 6mm was on and I was ready to observe the winter sky. After waiting for some ill-timed clouds to pass, Orion stood clearest as the way to start. I moved southwest and saw Canis Major, with Sirius definitely not being "heart" to see (see what I did there?). I was using my starchart this time, so the sky became much easier to navigate. I moved north and found the void of Monoceros, then north to Canis Minor, with Procyon a-twinkling. An odd fact is that my sister assumed all constellations that followed a major-minor notations looked the same, like siblings of different ages. Canis Major and Minor clearly make that invalid. North ho and Gemini appears; using the telescope, I think I can see the open cluster that is M35! maybe. Either way, I can definitely pick out Castor and Pollux. Going back to Orion and south, I see the area of Lepus, which is quite parsimonious with stars because of the stray clouds. I did not see Hind's Crimson Star, which was highly disappointing.

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