Great Orion Nebula M42 First Light

Wow! This is my first Diffuse Nebula and all I can say is I couldnt belive how much it jumped out at me! This is also the first time I have been able to see Orion with my Telescope and I had absolutley no problem finding where to point, and what to look for with my "Night Watch" and "Turn Left at Orion" books in hand. The Nebula itself was fairly easy to see in my 114GT, I could also see about 3 stars within the Nebula. It was an amazing experience, and now I know why even though they are called 'faint fuzzies' they are a sight to behold!

The Orion Nebula is about 1500 light years from earth, and is the brightest Diffuse Nebula in our Sky. From what I gather, stars are born within these Nebula's, and during my observation this night I was able to spot 3 stars within the Nebula, this is called The Trapezium cluster and there are 9 stars within this cluster named A-H (H was actually found to be a double star). These clusters of stars are known be the youngest known to us and possibly with newer stars being born.

Date: 29/11/04
Time: 11:30pm EST
Location: Frontyard of 111 Reed
Seeing: Good
Site Conditions: This was my first attempt at locating M42
Eyepiece Used: 9, 15, and 32mm
Instrument: NexStar 114GT

Montes Apenninus

Here is my first real observation session of the features of our Moon. The moon in this image is 21 days old and the terminator gave me lots to choose from. I choose the Montes Apenninus region for my first study. Although I did not know the name or specifics of this area, it really looked interesting.

By looking at the make up of this area, I had guessed it was a mountain range, and I was correct! According to the Virtual Moon Atlas progam this mounatin range is about 5400m high and is the Southern wall to Mare Imbrium. Mare Imbrum is the Mare north of this Mountain Range and is very flat, and holds my favorite Crater which i named "Jenny" its 'old' name was Plato which is the Northern tip of Mare Imbrium. The large creater to the South is called Copernicus, which I wrote about lower down in my weblog.

Date: 11/4/2004
Time: 12:15 AM
Location: Backyard of 111 Reed
Seeing: Good
Site Conditions: The weather was calm and still, but very cold, almost freezing as the frost built up on the wooden deck, making it slippery.
Eyepiece Used: 9mm
Instrument: Nexstar 114GT with 4330DX

Saturn

On this date I saw Saturn for the first time this season. I havent seen it since we were living in guelph Febuary or March of 2004.

The seeing was good which made for some nice visuals, i could swear i was seeing 'hints' of the cassini division, it was fading in and out of view possibly due to the atmosphere, or it may have been my mind.

On a Side note: Saturn is easily one of my favorite objects to observe, and it also happends to be the VERY FIRST object that I looked upon through my scope, it was not skill, by any means, just pure dumb luck i pointed the scope to the brightest object i could find in the limited sky from our apartment, and there it was a bright large smear of light with my 25mm eyepiece, i then zoomed in a bit more and was able to see Saturn's rings, "it's Saturn!" I shouted.

Date: 11/4/2004
Time: 12:02 AM
Location: Backyard of 111 Reed Drive
Seeing: Good
Site Conditions: The weather was calm and still, but very cold, almost freezing as the frost built up on the wooden deck, making it slippery.
Eyepiece Used: 9mm
Instrument: Nexstar 114GT with 4330DX

21 Day Old Moon

The is a full shot of a 21 Day old moon. The seeing was exceptionally well and it was one of my best views of the moon that i can remember, especially when viewing around the terminator.

In this image, Most of Mare Imbrium is in view withthe top portion of 'Ocean' covered by the Terminator. In the lower-south-east of Mare Imbrium, Montes Apenninus rises up to be a very large Mountain Range. Following the Apenninus Mountains west we see the large famous Crater called "Copernicus". Copernicus is a young impact crater with very Bright Ray's all around itself. The Ray's are formed when ejecta from the impact gets blasted away from the imact. Coprnicus's Rays spread as far as 800km away from the impact crater, and as you can see in my image are very easy to see, even with binoculars!

Date: 11/3/2004
Time: 11:00 PM
Location: Backyard of 111 Reed Drive
Seeing: Good
Site Conditions: The weather was calm and still, but very cold, almost freezing as the frost built up on the wooden deck, making it slippery.
Eyepiece Used: 25mm
Instrument: Nexstar 114GT with 4330DX