Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

My friend Tony Donnangelo and I traveled to Cherry Springs State Park, one of the best observing sites in the eastern United States, last Sunday. At sunset the cloud cover that was present during the drive to Potter County disappeared and the sky became strikingly transparent. Tony and I began observing satellites, binary stars, and a few bright deep-sky objects as astronomical twilight ended but before too long black clouds began streaming in from the northeast. Needless to say, the night was a complete washout save for a few brief sucker holes. Apparently an unusual low pressure system from the Gulf of Maine was responsible.

On Monday the clouds disappeared and sky was a cerulean hue the entire day. All the forecasts for Monday night were excellent and we began scanning the sky with high hopes. However, around 01:30 UT, at almost the same time as the previous night, the sky blackened again and our dreams of viewing dim planetaries, emission nebulae, and galaxies were dashed. One CSSP regular had a satellite TV in his van so we were able to watch a wedge-shaped band of high clouds cover the northern part of Pennsylvania on the Weather Channel satellite loop.

Tony didn't want to chance another night on a botched forecast so we returned home the next day, which was a bright and sunny one. As it turned out I was able to do a bit of observing on Tuesday night from a friend's observatory but high clouds detracted from the proceedings.

All told two very chilly nights at a premier dark sky site yielded less than 3 hours of observing.

Dave Mitsky

I just received the processed video images of Mars that I took in September 2003. The equipment used was an Astrovid StellaCam EX coupled to a 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain. Kudos to fellow ASH member Mike Snider, who put a lot of effort into processing the videotape footage. Mike is one of the most intelligent amateur astronomers that I've ever met.

Dave Mitsky

Here's another one of my Martian video images.

Dave Mitsky

Apparently Meade has purchased the Coronado Technology Group:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/altavista/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20041021005302&newsLang=en

There goes the H-alpha neighborhood?

Dave Mitsky

This photo was taken during one of the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's dark sky site outings in the Tuscarora State Forest. The 10" is the second largest of my current over-the-top stable of nine telescopes.

David Levy's interviews with some of the folks who attended the Southern Skies Star Party at Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, last July can be heard at http://www.letstalkstars.com/cgi-bin/archive.pl (9/14/04).

My friend Tony Donnangelo and I appear a little more than an hour into the program.

David gives an account of the wonders of the heart of the Milky Way as seen from Bolivia in his Star Trails column in the December issue of Sky & Telescope.

Dave Mitsky

I was at a special premier of the new bio-pic "Ray" on Tuesday night. "Ray" is the life story of Ray Charles (Robinson), a man who changed the face of popular music.

Despite being a tad too long and using too many psychological flashbacks, I felt the movie was very well done and was quite entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the slice of American musical history it revealed.

Jamie Foxx gives a great performance as Ray Charles.

I give "Ray" a 3.5 star rating.

To learn more about Ray Charles see http://www.raycharles.com/toc.htm

The meteorologists lied as they always do when a major astronomical event is about to take place. An upper air disturbance brought central Pennsylvania a mostly overcast sky prior to totality despite a prevailing high pressure system. Tony Donnangelo, one of his neighbors, Maura Smith, and I caught glimpses of the eclipsed Moon through sporadic sucker holes using his 14.5" Starmaster and a variety of Celestron binoculars (7x50, 8x42, 10x50, and 20x80). I wasn't able to take any photos.

Dave Mitsky

Here's my list of extended deep-sky objects for this month.

Dave Mitsky

Seventy deep-sky objects for November: M31, M32, M110, NGC 252, NGC 404, NGC 752 (Andromeda); NGC 680, NGC 691, NGC 697, NGC 772 (Aries); Cr 463, IC 1747, K14, M103, NGC 129, NGC 133, NGC 146, NGC 185, NGC 225, NGC 281, NGC 278, NGC 381, NGC 436, NGC 457, NGC 559, NGC 637, NGC 654, NGC 659, NGC 663, Tr 1 (Cassiopeia); NGC 40, NGC 188 (Cepheus); NGC 151, NGC 175, NGC 178, NGC 210, NGC 227, NGC 245, NGC 246, NGC 247, NGC 274, NGC 337, NGC 578, NGC 584, NGC 596, NGC 615, NGC 636, NGC 681, NGC 720, NGC 779 (Cetus); NGC 7814 (Pegasus); M76, St 4 (Perseus); M74, NGC 128, NGC 194, NGC 488, NGC 524 (Pisces); NGC 24, NGC 55, NGC 134, NGC 150, NGC 253, NGC 254, NGC 288, NGC 289, NGC 439, NGC 613 (Sculptor); M33, NGC 672 (Triangulum).

Challenge deep-sky object for November: IC 59 (Cassiopeia)

Venus (magnitude -4.0) was 33' north-northeast of Jupiter (magnitude -1.7) at 01:58 UT on November 5. This pairing was the closest planetary appulse of 2004.

The weather didn't cooperate on Thursday but I had a look at the pair with my 15x70 binocular on Friday morning. Jupiter was to the west (upper right) of Venus. The two were separated by almost a degree and were quite a sight to greet the eyes of early risers.

I took some film photos at approximately 11:45 UT on Saturday morning with my Pentax K1000 and a 50mm lens mounted on a tripod, followed by some prime focus shots using my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 refractor. As seen through the ST80 at 13x (30mm Ultima) and (17mm Tele Vue Ploessl), the two planets and a nearby star formed a nearly perfect right triangle. I used a 7mm Nagler T6 (57x) for a closer view of Jupiter and 3 of its moons.

Before calling it quits I also viewed Saturn and the Moon with the ST80.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/02...enusjupiter.htm

http://www.jackstargazer.com/scripts0SG0443.html

Dave Mitsky