Those Dern Faint Fuzzies over Austink
As everyone knows, I, Crumby Ovate, in average amateur astronomer mode, sport a Lumicon O-III filter. The O-III gets used a lot. So much use. It has already had to undergo a fingerprint wipe or two. Apart from the shocking results the O-III provides on tight, bright doubles like Sirius the Dog Star, the O-III allows me to espy some heavenly bodies that are otherwise invisible. Some, but not all. For example, I have espied the Crab, Helix and Owl nebulae plus NGC 1501 by employing the O-III. Otherwise, in the heavily polluted sky over the backyard, those objects are invisible. However, most of the other heavenly bodies I am supposed to be able to espy with the O-III, like the Veil Nebula, remain invisible.
While the O-III allows me to espy some faint fuzzy heavenly bodies, the O-III does not allow me to espy those objects, well. No. I can barely see them. Plus the O-III kills or almost kills the associated low magnitude stars. So all I typically espy, in these examples, are gray or grey spheroids.
But that is OK. Gray or grey spheroids are better than nothing. Lots better than looking at the location where some heavenly body is supposed to be, and espying the frigid vacuum of stygian darkness, tiny stars or an airplane.
Yes. An average amateur astronomer like me is liable to be frightened by airplanes suddenly appearing in the ep, field of view (FOV). One night, not long ago, I was attempting to espy M 110 in Andromeda. It was one of those nights when the usual light pollution was reinforced by a search light or beacon or whatever you call those lights that appear to probe up into the sky, sweeping this way and that way. Perhaps that light is located at Camp Mabry. Anyway, there I was, wishing somebody would turn off that extra annoying light or shoot it out, and simultaneously searching fruitlessly for M110 when suddenly a fighter jet flew into the FOV of my ep, filling up the FOV at about 30x. Mercy! For an instant, the whole fighter jet was in the FOV, blotting out the stars. I surely hope that fighter jet doesn’t bomb me or shoot a missile at me, I thought.
Now I hold the opinion that fighter jets and those search lights are inextricably linked. But since those fighter jets have not bombed me, or shot a missile at me, I have not pursued the matter any further.
Mostly, I espy commercial jets in the ep FOV, satellites, rarely birds. One time I saw a bat. Occasionally, meteors streak across. The night sky is a busy place.
Good Goddess All Righty! The daylight is broad and I need an Obama yard sign. That’s right. I need a yard sign to commemorate the upcoming. How the heck do I get a yard sign? Mercy! The upcoming may be over before I can get a yard sign.
What a Druid dialectic! This seemingly interminable election cycle is almost at an end, maybe. Five more days, after today. I have five days to stave off death and get a yard sign before I get to vote.
Yes. Which would I rather have, a yard sign, or five more days?
While the O-III allows me to espy some faint fuzzy heavenly bodies, the O-III does not allow me to espy those objects, well. No. I can barely see them. Plus the O-III kills or almost kills the associated low magnitude stars. So all I typically espy, in these examples, are gray or grey spheroids.
But that is OK. Gray or grey spheroids are better than nothing. Lots better than looking at the location where some heavenly body is supposed to be, and espying the frigid vacuum of stygian darkness, tiny stars or an airplane.
Yes. An average amateur astronomer like me is liable to be frightened by airplanes suddenly appearing in the ep, field of view (FOV). One night, not long ago, I was attempting to espy M 110 in Andromeda. It was one of those nights when the usual light pollution was reinforced by a search light or beacon or whatever you call those lights that appear to probe up into the sky, sweeping this way and that way. Perhaps that light is located at Camp Mabry. Anyway, there I was, wishing somebody would turn off that extra annoying light or shoot it out, and simultaneously searching fruitlessly for M110 when suddenly a fighter jet flew into the FOV of my ep, filling up the FOV at about 30x. Mercy! For an instant, the whole fighter jet was in the FOV, blotting out the stars. I surely hope that fighter jet doesn’t bomb me or shoot a missile at me, I thought.
Now I hold the opinion that fighter jets and those search lights are inextricably linked. But since those fighter jets have not bombed me, or shot a missile at me, I have not pursued the matter any further.
Mostly, I espy commercial jets in the ep FOV, satellites, rarely birds. One time I saw a bat. Occasionally, meteors streak across. The night sky is a busy place.
Good Goddess All Righty! The daylight is broad and I need an Obama yard sign. That’s right. I need a yard sign to commemorate the upcoming. How the heck do I get a yard sign? Mercy! The upcoming may be over before I can get a yard sign.
What a Druid dialectic! This seemingly interminable election cycle is almost at an end, maybe. Five more days, after today. I have five days to stave off death and get a yard sign before I get to vote.
Yes. Which would I rather have, a yard sign, or five more days?
posted by ray pistrum at Thursday, October 30, 2008
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