News From The Observatory - A "Feel Good" Weekend!

Ahhhh. Another great, relaxing weekend! Fun, fun, fun. That's what it's all about. No complaining, no whining, no worrying about money or spending, just simple inexpensive fun.

Surprise, surprise! Not only did we do our usual Sunday fishing, but we went on Saturday too! McGinnis Lake on Saturday and Patrick's Lake on Sunday:



On Saturday night, the clouds cleared and it was absolutely beautiful stargazing weather! There wasn't much dew, there were no mosquitoes, it was really dark, and everything worked perfectly. I had to pinch myself. I'm not sure where the mosquitoes went, maybe the stuff the crop duster put on the field killed them, that's ok with me. I started to image the Butterfly Cluster, M6. I take a few test shots first to frame the subject how I want it and make adjustments as needed. My first test shot showed not only the Butterfly, but there was also another larger cluster in the same frame! What's this? M7. Looked good to me, a two-for-one cluster picture:


While my Canon Powershot SX100 is taking multiple exposures of a target, I either look through my ETX80 if the camera isn't mounted to it, look through my little 7x35 binoculars, or just sit back and take in the view. There were so many shooting stars Saturday night! All different colors, sizes, speeds, I was awestruck! And there, in Sagittarius, was the Teapot shining brightly, tipped just a little with clouds of steam coming out of the spout, as if it was time for tea. I couldn't resist, and turned the camera on it when the Butterfly was done:


You can sure tell it's EAA time at Oshkosh! The number of small planes in the air this weekend was amazing. Some of them were rather unusual:


Planes weren't the only things flying around:


The flowers are blooming and the garden growing. We've been harvesting our winter onions since spring, and lately cucumbers. Soon we will have tomatoes. The tomatoes don't seem like any big deal, but we never plant tomato plants. We always plant seeds. We have less problems with disease that way, even if other people harvest tomatoes earlier than we do. Considering we grow them from seed, it's pretty good to be getting tomatoes ready to harvest now! The sweetcorn is tasseled and forming nice ears now too. Won't be long for that. Got some nice pumpkins on their way for the fall harvest also:


- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill