What were you doing just after sunset? I saw 3 planets. Two up close.

By | 2013-09-24

The skies were clear tonight at sunset. When I noticed Mercury just above the setting sun on the horizon, I thought I’d look for Venus. She was lined up perfectly for a view with my scope, albeit through the leaves and tree branches. Then I spotted Saturn. Good view tonight – for the area. Bad ‘seeing’ though and the low angle off the horizon makes for a lot of distortion. I could still make out the gap in Saturn’s rings.

Here are the pics I took, some through the telescope lens, a 14mm 100 degree FOV Explore Scientific piece. Look on the telescope for it. It’s a 12″ Meade Lightbridge Dobsonian mount Newtonian. Fully manual. I like finding everything with maps, no automated DC servo drives involved here.

The last image is the LADEE rocket launch from Virginia last week. I drive to Ocean City MD just to see it. Then I drove home. 3 hours each way. For a moment. Worth every second.

 

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