#6 A Celestial River, A Beautiful Galaxy and A Double Cluster

So this has been a wonderful day; and, cap it off with a wonderful viewing of some of the late winter gems in the night sky with beloved family.  My in-laws are out visiting, and my father in law Mike took an instant interest in the "Big Daddy" of telescopes, my 8" Dobosian.  So, we started with viewing the planet Jupiter in the western horizon.  Our solar system planets endorsed the Roman names, I wonder why?  Imagine calling Jupiter Zeus? That, I think, would be kind of neat, but Jupiter does have a royal sound to it.  So, our largest planet is aptly named after the stormy and gas-filled god of Olympus.  Jupiter boasts up to three red spots, immense gas storms with intense winds and lightning (Zeus' trademark.)  Through my telescope it appears as a small sphere with multi-color bands.  Brown, tan, and yellow bands give Jupiter its distinct color.  Four "bright stars" complete the viewing: the four Galilean moons Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede.

The nice surprise of tonight was that Uranus was close by.  This was my first time being able to see Uranus.  Uranus and Neptune are really just for being able to say that you saw a small greenish speck in the sky, something like a star that does not twinkle.  And, of course, my family had fun with all the Uranus jokes!  Uranus is the grandfather of Zeus, god of the sky and heavens, and husband of Gaea/Gaia, the goddess Earth and the father of Saturn/Cronus, the god of time and agriculture.  I will expand on the other planets as I view them.  Do you know what god Pluto is?  Hades, the god of the underworld and darkness, probably perhaps because it is so far out in the solar system it is in the icy shadowy darkness.

We then viewed the Orion Nebula M42; I am now jazzed up to get myself a set of filters for the telescope, especially an OIII filter to sharpen the contrast on nebulae.  My mother in law and I found a few for sale which are certainly now on my wish list.  My mother in law Cheryl then prompted us to take a look at the Pleides M45, the most noticed open star cluster in the night sky.

Then enter a beautiful spiral galaxy: Andromeda (M31/32) Take a moment to take a look above.  The galaxy is the closest to us to view, and on a collision course with the Milky Way galaxy.  The viewing was very clear, even with the waxing Moon and light pollution.  Once again, I believe the filter would be able to bring further contract to the core and arms of the spiral galaxy.  My father in law Mike made the comment that it "blew his mind that we are looking at light that was generated at the time of the dinosaurs."  This is quite profound, and true in some cases, especially viewing the Virgo galaxy cluster.  The light and/or stars we are viewing may already be dead by the time the light reaches us; hard to imagine huh?

Lastly, we shared a well-known twin star cluster known only as the Double Cluster.  Surprisingly, this magnificent deep-sky object is not cataloged in the Messier objects, as Messier had started the catalog to help guide scientists from mistaking deep-sky objects for comets.  These clusters are available for viewing as well to the naked eye in dark rural areas, and a nice way to ponder the density and vastness of the universe.  I usually describe them as "two buckshots" or "two scatter plots."

I really enjoyed being able to spend time with my family and share my love of the stars.  It was quite the gift.  The day before I had planned just to share about Eridanus, the Celestial River that is not well known and usually glanced over; a very dim constellation that runs North to South, starting at Orion's foot and ending in the Southern Hemisphere.  If you are able to trace the Northern part of the river, you have great eyesight.

I was not sure how much time I would have to share my stargazing, but enjoyed the time and support given by my family to my interests, and the time spent together.  Now I know that truly, love is "Universe-al."  Happy Valentine's Day everyone.