If you wonder where the blog . . . the event at Moorpark College was the big draw that precluded the writing venue. Telescopes and how to use them was the topic, until someone mentioned binoculars, which are fabulous for seeing many of the deep sky fuzzies mentioned by VCAS president Hal Jandorf. As the sky darkened and parking lot lights went off, everyone headed to the observatory pad peppered with telescopes. Wouldn't it be . . . our cloud bait brought murky skies. The seeing was just sufficient for veteran Ventura County astronomers to aim and capture dim nebulae like the Lagoon and the Ring (the hard way) to the music of fancy (easy way) computerized scopes buzzing their way to their destinations.
Was it worth standing in the dark over our eyepieces for more than two hours? Lets put it this way: when you didn't notice it was already past ten thirty, it must have been good. At least from this amateur's perspective, it gave us the chance to re-discover how to match star maps with forgotten distant lights in the night sky. The summer Milky Way is full of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment