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[stargazer]

Hey Joe,

I guess I will see you at Triton Sat night due to all the lite up boats on the lake. lol

if you get to view please let us know all about it.

B

[starrysungazer]

Hi Becky!
Nancy here! Thank you and your husband sooo much for your generosity! The night sky was sublime for moon viewing and you and the others and with their telescopes and your incredibly large binoculars made the viewing of "LeLuna" sooo much fun and sooo incredible! Your knowledge of the skies and the lingo is only matched by own friend Joe and your husband is no novice either!! Thanks again and see you next month skies and God willing...
Starrysungazer

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

On encouragement from Becky, I ventured out to the monthly star party at Triton. (I had intended to go to the lakefront, but as news reports of 250,000 people were to converge around the lake for the Venetian Night festivities, I decided not to go.) A cloudless sky presented itself, dusk settled around us, and comfortable temperatures permitted a nice night of observations. I had elected to leave my equipment home, as there would be plenty to other scopes to view through.

(See Astronomer's SoapBox for an addendum)

Becky and Bill had their 10" cannon set up and focused on the ever sinking Jupiter. With just a few minutes left before loss of visual, I managed a peek. Boiling and bubbling from the atmospheric disturbance, Jupiter produced final images of it's mighty bands and three of it's moons.

As it was still not dark enough, we just chatted awhile and visited other scopes in the area. A nice astronomer at the site showed us M13. Quite cool, as a ghostly image of countless stars appeared for us, although faint. We ran into Starrysungazer at the event, and had us a four person party.

The full moon was now raising over the tree tops that ring the eastern horizon of the Triton campus, spotted first by Starrysungazer. All astronomers slewed their scopes to target the yellow moon, including Becky and crew. Now, the Becky and bill team just got a cool 38mm monster eyepiece that you could practically fit your whole head into. Great eye relief and contrast, and displayed the lunar surface superbly. It was like looking through a porthole of a spacecraft.

I desired to grab a shot or two of the moon thru the scope, and the handheld result wasn't too bad...

After some time observing the moon, we sensed the Triton Campus police Gestapo were preparing to roust the star party from the session, so we decided to pack up and conclude for the night. But I wasn't ready just yet. I wanted to observe at random, as the night was still cloud free, although a bit hazy.

With permission, I scanned the summer triangle with the massive 10" dob, and marveled at the vast star fields I was seeing. Making a bee-line for my new favorite star grouping, I settled on Collinder 399 or commonly known as "The Coat Hanger", due to it's unusual shape. All stars were bright and fit easily into the 38mm eyepiece.

With that, the scope was packed away, we left and had a nice late night snack...the four of us. We all had a good time at the start party and dining afterwards.

My next venture will be at the lakefront this evening, (if the weather holds out), for an intensive lunar rise session.

[stargazer]

Joe,

Like the copyright symbol on the bottom. Just noticed them this morning.

I am glad you had fun Sat night and thought the trip waswell worth it. But I did find out some interesting news. This full Moon was NOT a blue Moon. Yes I know it was the second full Moon of the Month but this is how the figure out a Blue Moon. If there will be 4 Full Moons in one season the third Full Moon will be the Blue one. The mistake happened a long time ago back in the late 1800's, 1896 I think to be exact. When they were doing the Farmers almanic.

B

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

One must mark ones work. Law of the land.

...and yes, you are correct in the blue moon description, but...

The mistake was in a Sky and Telescope issue, in that it mentioned that two moons in a month is a blue moon. And it was just accepted as such ever since.

Now how come only at this full moon, was this revealed? We have had plenty of double month moons in the past, but I never heard this correction ever before.

I really enjoyed using your 20x70's binoculars. Good light capture and nice for star scanning. They make quite a difference in comparison to my 10x50's.

I will make the September star party, but forgo the Triton show.

[stargazer]

They did some research and found out the truth thats why this one was corrected.

Im glad you liked the Bino's. I love them. I am always using them to look for stuff I want to find in the scope and do the certs.

Im glad to see your going to make the Triton Star Party next month. We have a small Star Party in Schaumberg this sat if you want to come and bring that scope of yours.

B