Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Back to Jupiter and a few DSO's

A day after the race, my back began to show signs of trouble and sort of seized up on me on Sunday while eating in a restaurant. It wasn't too bad. Nothing Advil couldn't take care of. Of course that same evening, the monster severe thunderstorm attacked Mississauga. While my back is getting better, I decided to practice in the Dragon Boat just to stretch it out a bit. Now I am tired. Of course, even with a touch-and-go back, I was able to get the Pronto (in AZ mode again) out for a bit tonight mainly to look at Jupiter and see what is going on.

As usual, the seeing stinks. It figures. Add to the fact Jupiter is quite low. Over the next few years this is going to change as Jupiter will climb ever so slowly higher as each year passes. That will be welcomed. The moons we shuttling again. Two looked liked a neat double star again. That looks really cool. This time it was Europa and Callisto.

There are still a few unknowns about this Pronto. I have not given much thought to it's deep sky potential and I cannot really remember how my old Pronto was either. It was too long ago. Tonight, despite the light pollution, I did spot M31, the Andromeda Galaxy and NGC 457, the Owl (or E.T.) cluster. What is known is that the wide field potential of the Pronto is awesome, but boy, was I craving a darker sky for M31. I think it will look great. Thankfully, I have StarFest next and that is a dark sky.

M:)

1 comment:

  1. Sore back and hazy weather.......this is going around. Have the same here but without the Pronto!

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