I just got the blog software running on my host.  The plan is to put something up when I go out with the scope or see an interesting news item.

I’ll just make a note about the two interesting experiences I’ve had recently.
Last week I noticed on Phil Plait’s blog that the massive sunspot AR1944 had managed to last a full solar rotation and was back in view.  I had managed to catch just the very end of its last appearance, and I wanted to get a good view of it.  So, I grabbed the Canon 18x50IS binoculars with Baader Solar Film that I use for quick solar viewing and headed out for a look.  I have never seen such a large sunspot complex.  AR1944 (now AR1967) has a couple very large spots and a bunch of smaller hangers on.  Very impressive.

So the other thing is that a couple weeks ago I took my 20″ Starmaster out to have a look at the supernova in M82.  I was really surprised by how bright the supernova was.   If you’re familiar with how M82 looks in your scope, it would have been obvious.  I managed to take some photos with my Fujifilm EX-1 camera through the 20, but the lack of equatorial tracking made the supernova and nearby stars really blobby.  It wasn’t bad for a first attempt though.  I also tried to grab some images of M42 and Jupiter, but I definitely need some practice before I produce anything good.

M82 & SN2014J