Minute by Minute

     

Antares, a red supergiant and Uhura's musical inspiration.

        I went out last night after over a week of staying in. The June Solstice was last week and SE Arizona is in full summer mode. We're going over 110 each day, and that "dry heat" business just doesn't mean a thing once you get past 100 or so. The oven in your kitchen is a dry heat too, but I don't see anyone crawling in with Mom's cookies. 

        The moon was waxing also, obscuring the view for everything. Summer twilight just lasts forever even without a moon. The sun set around 7:30 last night but I didn't see my first star until just after 8pm, with constellations not becoming more apparent until 8:30. Still, it's better than back in Illinois. Nautical Twilight - when constellations appear - is much later, going on 10pm thanks to DST and a more northerly latitude. 

        Which is going to be my future. We will be moving back to Illinois - probably within the next several months. The views are breathtaking here in Tucson, but all the natural beauty of the landscape is getting developed into car washes and ugly apartment complexes. And water is becoming a big concern here thanks to anthropomorphic climate change. Which I guess will make us climate refugees of a sort. We also have friends and family we miss very much. So stargazing in a parka and long johns will be a thing. 

        I did go out once early last week to get more familiar with the new Dob. The increased focal length and aperture are affording me some better looking views. 

        Although the moon is an easy target to observe, I'm still struck by the detail brought out by the sun striking it at an angle. But it's been too hot to work the Lunar Challenge comfortably. 

        Last night, I made a point to log some Messier objects whether I had seen them already or not. I wanted to get another view of M104, the Sombrero, with the new Dob. It took some back and forth but I was able to finally lock it in. Next was M80 in the scorpion: 

        Without the EQ mount, I have no clock drive tracking. So I'm limited to 5 second exposures. Good enough for a blog or Facebook, but Webb has nothing to worry about. 

        I knew there was something near the hunting dogs, and a check of my Orion book confirmed this. An easy Telrad target towards Cor Caroli (which I did NOT picture!) split the double nicely with my 9mm. The Messier target was right nearby. M94 showed up easily: 

        Another cluster, or so I thought. I tore down shortly after and read up on these objects. I was delighted to learn M94 is a galaxy! Looking at galaxies is like looking into the potential for an infinite number of stories. What lives there and how do they interact? Or maybe 'did' is a better word. That light is 1.4 to 17 million years old. So what I'm seeing happened a very long time ago.

        So minute by minute, the days are getting shorter. About a minute per day right now. The Sun/Moon app on my mobile tells me this is mostly in the morning. I'll take what I can get. Someday soon, staying up very late or getting up very early to observe the universe will not be a detriment to my lifestyle any longer.