<html><head></head><body><div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><div><p class="ydp903ec9fMsoNormal"><span>Yes, it\u2019s true. I was actually out in the night and saw stars in
the sky. I know it\u2019s hard to believe these days, but I swear, it really
happened!</span></p>
<p class="ydp903ec9fMsoNormal"><span>The attempt at stargazing yesterday actually began at 4am, when I got up,
went to the window to see if the sky was clear, and if it was I was going out
to catch a Titan shadow transit on Saturn. It was cloudy. Nothing new there, so
back to bed it was.</span></p>
<p class="ydp903ec9fMsoNormal"><span>Then in the early afternoon Steve L. stopped by and we spent a
couple of hours investigating the Sun with a variety of telescopes and specialized
solar observing equipment. That was great fun and the Sun did not disappoint.
There\u2019s a large active region labled AR4114 that has recently flared, and has also
been on the verge of flaring again since then.</span></p>
<p class="ydp903ec9fMsoNormal"><span>Later in the afternoon it clouded up and the home page on my phone
said \u201crain likely tonight.\u201d But after supper and around the time of sunset I
saw a big opening in west/northwest sky, so it was off to the Nip to see if I
could catch a glimpse of the conjunction between the alpha star in Leo, aka
Regulus, and Mars. Yes, this latest apparition of Mars still continues to
deliver, but unfortunately the clouds had other plans, and shortly after my
arrival at my favorite lake on the edge of town the viewing window closed and
the mosquitos moved in for the kill. I was out of there in a flash.</span></p>
<div><span>Later on, as I was wrapping up the day and about to hit the hay I
noticed that the clouds had thinned somewhat and I could see a few bright stars.
Could I still get it? Surely Mars and Regulus had set by now. I took a walk out
to the street for a better look to the west.</span></div></div><div><span><br></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><img title="Inline image" alt="Inline image" src="cid:59e2b641-429c-3ee8-1ea6-ea5b5840e075@yahoo.com" class="yahoo-inline-image" draggable="false" style="max-width: 800px; width: 100%;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true" data-id="<59e2b641-429c-3ee8-1ea6-ea5b5840e075@yahoo.com>"></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Well I\u2019ll be. There was Leo just about to dive into the treetops,
and several of his brighter stars were visible. I scurried back to garage for a
pair of binos.<span><br></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">
<p class="ydp3fe61312MsoNormal"><span>While I was gone just that short time the sky had improved even
more. After a gaze at the conjunction both through the binos and with the naked
eye, I grabbed a quick cell phone shot of the scene and headed back to the
driveway. With every step I took the sky seemed to improve more and more.</span></p>
<p class="ydp3fe61312MsoNormal"><span>What followed was literally my first glimpse of the deep sky in
what has seemed like an eternity. Hoisting the 10x50\u2019s up to the sky, first it
was off to open cluster IC 4665 in Ophiuchus, aka the Summer Beehive. From there
it was down to the base of the serpent bearer and then a brief westerly jaunt over
to Serpens Caput, where M5 lives. One of the finest globular clusters in the
northern hemisphere sky, I am really hoping for a good clear night soon to put
M5 in the eyepiece of a telescope.</span></p>
<p class="ydp3fe61312MsoNormal"><span>11:30pm is always a good time for a flexibility test, so backwards
I bent until I landed the very nearly overhead globular clusters M13 and then
M94 in Hercules in the fields of view. As I lowered the glasses to a more
comfortable angle we could be found carousing Lyra where we saw the
Double-Double binary group, then imagined that we saw M57, the Ring Nebula. In Cygnus
we saw the open clusters M39 and M29, looked for NGC 7000, the North America
Nebula, then saw the famous double star Albireo (not split at just 10x
handheld). In the area we also saw, not in Cygnus but close to it, that most
famous planetary nebula, M27, the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula.</span></p>
<p class="ydp3fe61312MsoNormal"><span>Heading northward we saw a hint the Whirlpool Galaxy, aka M51 in
Canes Venatici, then we moseyed over to Ursa Major where we imagined that we saw
the galaxies M101 and M\u2019s 81 & 82 (the sky wasn\u2019t <i>that</i> good, but we tried anyway) but we definitely saw Mizar and
Alcor for sure.</span></p>
<p class="ydp3fe61312MsoNormal"><span>Never happy unless we\u2019re getting dizzy on these tours, we then spun
on over to Bootes where we landed the mighty globular M3 in the view, then
dropped into the grip of the scorpion where we attempted to catch the globular M4,
but didn\u2019t, so climbed back up and eastward where we definitely landed us a
flock of Wild Ducks (M11) in Scutum. On the way we stumbled across of couple of
mystery nebulous patches as we crossed the Milky Way, but I wasn\u2019t in the frame
mind to work out their identities.</span></p>
<p class="ydp3fe61312MsoNormal"><span>Finally, we headed on up to Altair, the alpha star in Aquila,
where I knew that if I traced a straight line towards Vega I Lyra that I would
come upon Brocchi\u2019s Cluster, aka the Coathanger. Upside down in the view as
though it had been tossed on her bedroom floor by a normal teenage girl, it was
a fine time to consider wrapping it up and heading to my own bedroom. I
actually got a star fix, the first one for me in quite a while, and it was a
fantastic way to wrap up a mid-June day if I do say so myself!</span></p>
<div style="margin-left:5.5in;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Lucida Handwriting"">MTM</span></div></div><br></div></div></body></html>