Saturday, February 25, 2006

Trying to observe, last night, was a lot like trying to cross a busy street. Though the low level winds had subsided, the upper level continued to push through batches of clouds that had me swinging the scope all over the sky.
Despite that, the transparency over Grimsby was quite good and the sight of Saturn sitting adjacent to a pretty combination of stars and moons made the effort worthwhile.
The sucker holes also afforded me brief glimpses of Nebulae M42, M43, M78, NGC2071, and open clusters NGC2244, NGC2112, and NGC2232.
A nice comparison, right now, is Aldebaran and Mars. Exhibiting nearly the same colour and brightness, if you observe Aldebaran first, the roundness of Mars is a good example of what to look for when identifying Uranus and Neptune among their neighbouring stars.
I just had time for a quick visit with M81 and M82 before the “busy street” turned into a parking lot but it was nice to finally do some observing.