Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Disclaimer: this post has both deep and shallow sky content.

As far as observing conditions were concerned, Wednesday night was easily the best of the summer and may well have been the best of the entire year. The transparency was so good that Tony Donnangelo and I were able to log some very difficult targets with his 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob including the globular clusters Palomar 9 and Djorgovski 2 in Sagittarius, even though we were at one of our lesser dark sky sites. In the category of the shallow sky, we looked at 3 asteroids we hadn't observed before as well as Pluto and later the Moon, Mars, and Saturn. (Tony has seen 99 of the first 100 asteroids discovered.) Tony and I were also treated to some very brief auroral activity in the north around 10:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 UT).

The seeing wasn't bad either. Some detail was visible on Mars at over 800x, while magnifications in the 400x range provided very pleasing views. If only the Moon had not risen so early, yada yada yada! (The Milky Way was still readily apparent despite the moonlight.) Well, at least the two of us were able to make some use of the lunar presence by each discovering previously unknown sunset lunar light rays. Mine was in the crater Busching.

I don't have my taped notes transcribed yet so a more complete report will have to wait.

Dave Mitsky

Last Saturday night I saw "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at an IMAX theater. I've seen plenty of IMAX movies in the past but never a feature film. At first, the novelty of the huge screen and the aural quality of the sound system were impressive but by the time it was over I didn't care all that much for the film. (Close-ups are not very flattering on such a big screen by the way.) Tim Burton is an interesting director but I wasn't wowed by his visuals this time around. I usually find Johnny Depp to be a fine actor but his extremely mannered portrayal of Willie Wonka was rather off-putting. (I liked Gene Wilder a lot better in the role.) Despite the high technology and the catchy songs of the Oompa Loompa clones, I preferred the original version.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/charlie_and_the_chocolate_factory/

Dave Mitsky

Is the answer why isn't this posted in the Puzzles section?

Dave Mitsky

I watched "Constantine" last night on DVD. I didn't expect too much so I wasn't very disappointed. The movie had some good CGI (and Keanu was his usual dumb yet lovable self) but "Constantine" seemed poorly paced and the plot was rather muddled. All in all, it was a pleasant enough waste of two hours.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/constantine/

Trivia question: what other film did the male and female leads of "Constantine" also star in?

Dave Mitsky

Here's a shot of the western sky and what it held on Tuesday evening.

Dave Mitsky

A day later and here are the changes that its passage has brought to the western sky.

Dave Mitsky

Here's a 5 minute long shot of NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, that I took at this year's BFSP with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel SLR and a 135mm f/2 Canon EF lens. My thanks go to Tom Bakowski for the use of his lens and equatorial mount.

Dave Mitsky

The Andromeda Galaxy and friends, the elliptical galaxies M32 and M110, are portrayed in this 5 minute exposure at f/3.2 via my Canon Digital Rebel SLR and Tom Bakowski's 135mm f/2 Canon EF lens.

Dave Mitsky

Here's a five minute exposure of a good chunk of Orion at f/3.2 using Tom Bakowski's 135mm f/2 Canon EF lens and my Canon EOS Digital Rebel SLR. It's gratifying that in addition to M42, the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1973-5-7), and the inner part of Barnard's Loop can be portrayed in a relatively short DSLR exposure. With a little effort, even the Horsehead Nebula (B33) is visible.

Dave Mitsky

This is another 5 minute exposure at f/3.2 using Tom Bakowski's 135mm f/2 Canon EF lens and my Canon EOS Digital Rebel SLR.

Dave Mitsky