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Midnight Christmas Eve



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 25th 17, 08:01 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Marty[_3_]
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Default Midnight Christmas Eve

For right about 50 years, it has been my personal tradition to be outside at midnight on Christmas. Either midnight will do, it's a busy time of year, but I usually make both. These strolls aren't intended to be "astronomical observing sessions," but tonight I brought out a Christmas present that arrived early... Out of the blue, a friend from the "Cloudy Nights" group, Billy, gifted me a vintage pair of Sears 10x50 wide angle binoculars. And tonight, "it came upon a midnight clear."

The night was cold at 10 degrees F, but it felt even colder. At about 11:50, I dressed up WARM and stepped outside. I walked down to the bottom of the hill beside my house to avoid the light pollution from the nearby church parking lot, the cold snow squawking under my shoes. The ground swept smoothly away to my south, a layer of starlit white. The trees on my southern horizon were barely visible against the dark sky, but those closer were silhouetted against the snow. Above were the stars of Christmas, right where they've been at midnight for centuries. Orion stood bright and proud just west of the meridian, Leo rose in the east, and the Big Dipper stood up on it's handle in the northwest. I raised the binoculars and took in the Great Orion Nebula... delicate swirls of nebulosity curving down from it's brighter center. Reason enough by itself to own binoculars. I swung up to Orion's three starred belt, swarmed with dimmer stars, and then followed up to catch the Hyades cluster, and finally the Pleiades, bright and beautiful. Probably the cluster that got me hooked on the night sky many years ago. Canis Major followed the great hunter, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, twinkling merrily in the unstable air. Below it was the open star cluster M41, and then I admired the curious little curl of stars curving around the star Wezen and up under the two omicrons. (I've never really understood why one constellation has two stars labeled "omicron" two degrees apart.) A little higher in the sky was Canis Minor, a constellation with only two main stars, but with the binocs, they made a respectable Christmas candle, a gaggle of dimmer stars curving above it like a bit of smoke blowing to the east from the cold western breeze. Off the corner of Gemini, I checked out the star cluster M35, floating between two irregular lines of stars. Ahead of Leo, the Beehive Cluster shown as a coarse clump of stars, barely visible tonight without the binoculars. Then, I decided to stretch things a bit... I turned to the north to see if I could spot the two galaxies, M 81 and M82, floating above Ursa Major, despite the light dome flaring up from my small town... On old charts, the two galaxies would be right by the great bear's right ear... I starhopped up to the right location, and there they were... M81, Bode's Galaxy was pretty easy, an oval area of sky not quite as dark as the sky around it. M 82, the Cigar Galaxy, was more difficult, but it occasionally became detectable, it's thin oval showing at an angle above it's slightly brighter neighbor. Two island universes... Light that had been traveling 186,000 miles a second for 12 million years was rattling down through Billy's binoculars to enter my eyes and stop.

I checked my watch, and it had been Christmas for five minutes. I turned to go back into the house, then turned back to take a look at the star 2 Ursa Minoris... On some old charts, it marks the tail of the obsolete constellation Rangifer the Reindeer... But clouds had appeared in the north. I watched as several streaks of clouds spread down to the south into Gemini and northern Orion. Oh well, it was a pretty night and I got to sail through the Christmas sky.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this good Earth!

Marty
  #2  
Old December 25th 17, 04:50 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
palsing[_2_]
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Default Midnight Christmas Eve

Thanks again, Marty...
  #3  
Old December 26th 17, 03:01 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
RichA[_6_]
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Default Midnight Christmas Eve

On Monday, 25 December 2017 02:01:45 UTC-5, Marty wrote:
For right about 50 years, it has been my personal tradition to be outside at midnight on Christmas. Either midnight will do, it's a busy time of year, but I usually make both. These strolls aren't intended to be "astronomical observing sessions," but tonight I brought out a Christmas present that arrived early... Out of the blue, a friend from the "Cloudy Nights" group, Billy, gifted me a vintage pair of Sears 10x50 wide angle binoculars. And tonight, "it came upon a midnight clear."

The night was cold at 10 degrees F, but it felt even colder. At about 11:50, I dressed up WARM and stepped outside. I walked down to the bottom of the hill beside my house to avoid the light pollution from the nearby church parking lot, the cold snow squawking under my shoes. The ground swept smoothly away to my south, a layer of starlit white. The trees on my southern horizon were barely visible against the dark sky, but those closer were silhouetted against the snow. Above were the stars of Christmas, right where they've been at midnight for centuries. Orion stood bright and proud just west of the meridian, Leo rose in the east, and the Big Dipper stood up on it's handle in the northwest. I raised the binoculars and took in the Great Orion Nebula... delicate swirls of nebulosity curving down from it's brighter center. Reason enough by itself to own binoculars. I swung up to Orion's three starred belt, swarmed with dimmer stars, and then followed up to catch the Hyades cluster, and finally the Pleiades, bright and beautiful. Probably the cluster that got me hooked on the night sky many years ago. Canis Major followed the great hunter, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, twinkling merrily in the unstable air. Below it was the open star cluster M41, and then I admired the curious little curl of stars curving around the star Wezen and up under the two omicrons. (I've never really understood why one constellation has two stars labeled "omicron" two degrees apart.) A little higher in the sky was Canis Minor, a constellation with only two main stars, but with the binocs, they made a respectable Christmas candle, a gaggle of dimmer stars curving above it like a bit of smoke blowing to the east from the cold western breeze. Off the corner of Gemini, I checked out the star cluster M35, floating between two irregular lines of stars. Ahead of Leo, the Beehive Cluster shown as a coarse clump of stars, barely visible tonight without the binoculars. Then, I decided to stretch things a bit... I turned to the north to see if I could spot the two galaxies, M 81 and M82, floating above Ursa Major, despite the light dome flaring up from my small town... On old charts, the two galaxies would be right by the great bear's right ear... I starhopped up to the right location, and there they were... M81, Bode's Galaxy was pretty easy, an oval area of sky not quite as dark as the sky around it. M 82, the Cigar Galaxy, was more difficult, but it occasionally became detectable, it's thin oval showing at an angle above it's slightly brighter neighbor. Two island universes.... Light that had been traveling 186,000 miles a second for 12 million years was rattling down through Billy's binoculars to enter my eyes and stop.

I checked my watch, and it had been Christmas for five minutes. I turned to go back into the house, then turned back to take a look at the star 2 Ursa Minoris... On some old charts, it marks the tail of the obsolete constellation Rangifer the Reindeer... But clouds had appeared in the north. I watched as several streaks of clouds spread down to the south into Gemini and northern Orion. Oh well, it was a pretty night and I got to sail through the Christmas sky.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this good Earth!

Marty


I'd have done the same, except for the six inches of snow then still falling!
  #4  
Old December 26th 17, 05:04 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
StarDust
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Default Midnight Christmas Eve

On Sunday, December 24, 2017 at 11:01:45 PM UTC-8, Marty wrote:
For right about 50 years, it has been my personal tradition to be outside at midnight on Christmas. Either midnight will do, it's a busy time of year, but I usually make both. These strolls aren't intended to be "astronomical observing sessions," but tonight I brought out a Christmas present that arrived early... Out of the blue, a friend from the "Cloudy Nights" group, Billy, gifted me a vintage pair of Sears 10x50 wide angle binoculars. And tonight, "it came upon a midnight clear."

The night was cold at 10 degrees F, but it felt even colder. At about 11:50, I dressed up WARM and stepped outside. I walked down to the bottom of the hill beside my house to avoid the light pollution from the nearby church parking lot, the cold snow squawking under my shoes. The ground swept smoothly away to my south, a layer of starlit white. The trees on my southern horizon were barely visible against the dark sky, but those closer were silhouetted against the snow. Above were the stars of Christmas, right where they've been at midnight for centuries. Orion stood bright and proud just west of the meridian, Leo rose in the east, and the Big Dipper stood up on it's handle in the northwest. I raised the binoculars and took in the Great Orion Nebula... delicate swirls of nebulosity curving down from it's brighter center. Reason enough by itself to own binoculars. I swung up to Orion's three starred belt, swarmed with dimmer stars, and then followed up to catch the Hyades cluster, and finally the Pleiades, bright and beautiful. Probably the cluster that got me hooked on the night sky many years ago. Canis Major followed the great hunter, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, twinkling merrily in the unstable air. Below it was the open star cluster M41, and then I admired the curious little curl of stars curving around the star Wezen and up under the two omicrons. (I've never really understood why one constellation has two stars labeled "omicron" two degrees apart.) A little higher in the sky was Canis Minor, a constellation with only two main stars, but with the binocs, they made a respectable Christmas candle, a gaggle of dimmer stars curving above it like a bit of smoke blowing to the east from the cold western breeze. Off the corner of Gemini, I checked out the star cluster M35, floating between two irregular lines of stars. Ahead of Leo, the Beehive Cluster shown as a coarse clump of stars, barely visible tonight without the binoculars. Then, I decided to stretch things a bit... I turned to the north to see if I could spot the two galaxies, M 81 and M82, floating above Ursa Major, despite the light dome flaring up from my small town... On old charts, the two galaxies would be right by the great bear's right ear... I starhopped up to the right location, and there they were... M81, Bode's Galaxy was pretty easy, an oval area of sky not quite as dark as the sky around it. M 82, the Cigar Galaxy, was more difficult, but it occasionally became detectable, it's thin oval showing at an angle above it's slightly brighter neighbor. Two island universes.... Light that had been traveling 186,000 miles a second for 12 million years was rattling down through Billy's binoculars to enter my eyes and stop.

I checked my watch, and it had been Christmas for five minutes. I turned to go back into the house, then turned back to take a look at the star 2 Ursa Minoris... On some old charts, it marks the tail of the obsolete constellation Rangifer the Reindeer... But clouds had appeared in the north. I watched as several streaks of clouds spread down to the south into Gemini and northern Orion. Oh well, it was a pretty night and I got to sail through the Christmas sky.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this good Earth!

Marty


Did Ja buy Coca Cola from Santa?

https://cached.imagescaler.hbpl.co.u...79D365B921.jpg

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/...6093.jpg?w=960
  #5  
Old December 27th 17, 02:51 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Marty[_3_]
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Posts: 132
Default Midnight Christmas Eve

On Monday, December 25, 2017 at 1:01:45 AM UTC-6, Marty wrote:
For right about 50 years, it has been my personal tradition to be outside at midnight on Christmas. Either midnight will do, it's a busy time of year, but I usually make both. These strolls aren't intended to be "astronomical observing sessions," but tonight I brought out a Christmas present that arrived early... Out of the blue, a friend from the "Cloudy Nights" group, Billy, gifted me a vintage pair of Sears 10x50 wide angle binoculars. And tonight, "it came upon a midnight clear."

The night was cold at 10 degrees F, but it felt even colder. At about 11:50, I dressed up WARM and stepped outside. I walked down to the bottom of the hill beside my house to avoid the light pollution from the nearby church parking lot, the cold snow squawking under my shoes. The ground swept smoothly away to my south, a layer of starlit white. The trees on my southern horizon were barely visible against the dark sky, but those closer were silhouetted against the snow. Above were the stars of Christmas, right where they've been at midnight for centuries. Orion stood bright and proud just west of the meridian, Leo rose in the east, and the Big Dipper stood up on it's handle in the northwest. I raised the binoculars and took in the Great Orion Nebula... delicate swirls of nebulosity curving down from it's brighter center. Reason enough by itself to own binoculars. I swung up to Orion's three starred belt, swarmed with dimmer stars, and then followed up to catch the Hyades cluster, and finally the Pleiades, bright and beautiful. Probably the cluster that got me hooked on the night sky many years ago. Canis Major followed the great hunter, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, twinkling merrily in the unstable air. Below it was the open star cluster M41, and then I admired the curious little curl of stars curving around the star Wezen and up under the two omicrons. (I've never really understood why one constellation has two stars labeled "omicron" two degrees apart.) A little higher in the sky was Canis Minor, a constellation with only two main stars, but with the binocs, they made a respectable Christmas candle, a gaggle of dimmer stars curving above it like a bit of smoke blowing to the east from the cold western breeze. Off the corner of Gemini, I checked out the star cluster M35, floating between two irregular lines of stars. Ahead of Leo, the Beehive Cluster shown as a coarse clump of stars, barely visible tonight without the binoculars. Then, I decided to stretch things a bit... I turned to the north to see if I could spot the two galaxies, M 81 and M82, floating above Ursa Major, despite the light dome flaring up from my small town... On old charts, the two galaxies would be right by the great bear's right ear... I starhopped up to the right location, and there they were... M81, Bode's Galaxy was pretty easy, an oval area of sky not quite as dark as the sky around it. M 82, the Cigar Galaxy, was more difficult, but it occasionally became detectable, it's thin oval showing at an angle above it's slightly brighter neighbor. Two island universes.... Light that had been traveling 186,000 miles a second for 12 million years was rattling down through Billy's binoculars to enter my eyes and stop.

I checked my watch, and it had been Christmas for five minutes. I turned to go back into the house, then turned back to take a look at the star 2 Ursa Minoris... On some old charts, it marks the tail of the obsolete constellation Rangifer the Reindeer... But clouds had appeared in the north. I watched as several streaks of clouds spread down to the south into Gemini and northern Orion. Oh well, it was a pretty night and I got to sail through the Christmas sky.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this good Earth!

Marty


"Did Ja buy Coca Cola from Santa?"

I like Coke, but I'm more of a Pepsi man.
Marty
 




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