There was a “star” shining in my eyes this morning. I was lying in bed, one eye open just enough to spot it through the screen. By the time I got my telescope out, the sun had risen and obliterated it, but I checked the charts and my “star” was Saturn.
The chart said that you can see the brightest asteroid (asteroid, not meteor) this week, Ceres. Who knew they were observable ! “Easily spottable with binoculars” says Sky & Telescope's Sky at a Glance.
That led me to John Beadreau's awesome photos of planets and other things.. He's using a pretty big telescope and all the photo/filter technology available and getting photos that I thought weren't possible from home, or even from the ground:
Check out 7 moons visible in a single shot here:
Imaged with a monochrome CCD-modified Philips ToUcam Pro webcam @ f/7 through a TEC140 APO Refractor. North is up.
Abi wondered how you could see anything in New York? Were you upstate? When she was there, she was amazed at the light pollution.
Posted by: Denise | August 18, 2009 at 02:35 PM