Last night was part of a series of clear nights we've been having in the area, so I did some stargazing, using an app to find some constellations/stars easily. Mars was bright. Looking at it with my very low-powered telescope, you could really pick up on the reddish-orange color and I could see the shadowed curve of the sunlight. Crazy stuff.

Turns out, this week is a good week to see planets, as they are in formation one on side of the solar system (as opposed to scattered in their orbits). So the planets will be visible during nighttime hours.

A horrible photo I took of Mars last night:

In 1987, when I was working for my cousin in his upholstery shop in Oceanside, CA, we visited the Palomar Mountain Observatory. It was fascinating. In the visitors center there were amazing pictures, big ones of the night sky. The tour guide showed us how to spot the planet's that were visible with the naked eye. Mars is the one I still remember.
   WhWhen* our kids were young, we would take them camping at Roan MtnMtn,* Tennessee. It warmed this Dad's heart to point out Mars and see his 5 & 7 year olds "ooh" wonder when I showed them Mars. I truly miss those days, when Daddy was the keeper of all knowledge.
 With teenagers, it hit and/or miss. Some days I'm wise, others I'm out of touch. It takes great effort to listen and not indulge my bad habit of dominating the conversation.
* My Kindle Fire keyboard has a stutter.

In my youth I had a decent 60mm telescope. It got me an "A" in high school physics, not least because it was better than the one the school owned. In Alaska there we different things to see, but when we moved back down to Oklahoma, more of the planets were visible. I can recall spending hours gazing at Jupiter, for example. Even with Mars, I could see enough to note the orange color and some of the dark spots. I gave it to my father-in-law shortly before he had to quit work, so he got more use out of it than I did.

I've been up to Palomar, too, Iain. Drove up late in the day. Looked back down and saw the city in darkness while we stood in the late sun. It was closed that day, but we enjoyed the scenery well enough.

Ed - how did you end up with a better telescope than the school's?

(09-11-2018, 01:31 PM)Ed Hurst Wrote: In my youth I had a decent 60mm telescope. It got me an "A" in high school physics, not least because it was better than the one the school owned. In Alaska there we different things to see, but when we moved back down to Oklahoma, more of the planets were visible. I can recall spending hours gazing at Jupiter, for example. Even with Mars, I could see enough to note the orange color and some of the dark spots. I gave it to my father-in-law shortly before he had to quit work, so he got more use out of it than I did.

I've been up to Palomar, too, Iain. Drove up late in the day. Looked back down and saw the city in darkness while we stood in the late sun. It was closed that day, but we enjoyed the scenery well enough.

   I remember the twisty road to the top, cousin Roger had a sweet Nissan 280zx and it was the only time he ever used the great handling and zip of that, now classic sports car. Roger was then and still is a tight gluteus maximus but, he's blood so I would offer succor. I'm the only one in my family with any inkling of true Biblical living, which makes me clan chieftain by default.

(09-12-2018, 06:11 AM)jaybreak Wrote: Ed - how did you end up with a better telescope than the school's?

It had a bigger objective lens and had more attachments. The whole thing came in a huge wooden case that my parents found at some store in Anchorage, Alaska. It had been specially ordered and the customer never picked it up, so the store dumped it cheaply rather than ship it back to the warehouse somewhere down on the other side of Canada.

(09-13-2018, 12:42 PM)Ed Hurst Wrote:

(09-12-2018, 06:11 AM)jaybreak Wrote: Ed - how did you end up with a better telescope than the school's?

It had a bigger objective lens and had more attachments. The whole thing came in a huge wooden case that my parents found at some store in Anchorage, Alaska. It had been specially ordered and the customer never picked it up, so the store dumped it cheaply rather than ship it back to the warehouse somewhere down on the other side of Canada.

That's actually a neat story. And for some reason I felt like there was an unusual circumstance around it, other than "we just bought it."

My life is full of such stories, Bro.