A Little South of Sanity

Well, I had great weather both nights, and the air was very still. I plan on compiling a list and some info on the new stuff, as well as future targets.

Well, we're going to be off to Ma's this weekend. The sky is good and dark down there, so I'm going to try to find some faint stuff and maybe do some astrophotography.

Well. My new barlow lens (X3) arrived in the mail today. If it stays clear I'm gonna take it down tonight and have a run at Saturn. I'll hit Jupiter too, if I'm still up that late.

Thought I'd list out some of the things I've managed to spot in the night sky recently. I have a 6" Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount. It's hard to see much in the city, but some of the brighter stuff is still easily visible. Planets look just as good here as they do anywhere else. Anyway, the list:

1. Saturn - Saturn is in Leo right now, just a little way away from Regulus. Even through my small telescope and low magnification the rings are very prominent.

2. Jupiter - Jupiter is in Sagittarius. I haven't seen it from town yet, because it's is still coming up later than I care to stay up on work nights. I have seen it from where I grew up out in the country. My 6" still shows 2 or 3 prominent bands. I can also easily see Europa, Io, Callisto, and Ganymede.

3. M101 - An 8th magnitude spiral galaxy located in Ursa Major. Its located just above and between Alkaid (the last star in the dipper's handle) and Mizar (the second to last star in the handle). It's quite large. 1/4 degree across. Distance: 28 million light years.

4. M94 - An 8th magnitude spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cor Caroli. It is just toward Ursa Major. This one is fairly easy, as it's very compact and bright. Distance: 27 million light years.

5. Zeta Ursa Majoris - When you look at the handle of the big dipper, the second star from the end of the handle is Zeta Ursa Majoris. The most immediate star you see is Mizar. If you look closely though, all you need is decent eyesight to see that it has a faint companion called Alcor. I can't remember if it is a true double or a visual double by chance alignment. I seem to remember it being the latter.

6. M97 - The Owl Nebula. A faint, oval shaped planetary nebula in Ursa Major. It is just below the bottom, forward star (Beta) in the bowl of the dipper. It was a bit of a pain to spot, but through the 6" I just could make out the two darker "eyes" of the owl. Might have been easier further from light pollution.
Size: 3 light years across. Distance: 3 000 light years.

7. Wolf 359 - Yes, I know. 10% of the mass of Sol. The star is a run-of-the-mill 14th magnitude red dwarf located near the constellation Leo. It is not visible from town, but I can see it from the woods. Other than the fact that it is the third nearest star to Sol, there is no reason that I can find to pay much attention to it. Describing why I looked it up will disclose my inner geek. I looked it up to see if I could see the Borg ship. In Star Trek: the Next Generation, Wolf 359 was the pivotal battle that stopped the Picard/Locutus led borg offensive of 2367. I know. Laugh it up. Distance: 7.7 light years.

8. M4 - A 6th magnitude globular cluster in the constellation Scorpius. It is just right of Antares (Alpha Scorpius), a red supergiant 600 light years away. 6" was enough to make out individual stars in the cluster. Distance: 14 000 light years.

9. Mars - It's mars, and right now it's about halfway between the constellations Leo and Gemini. I don't have enough eyepiece to see details on the surface. Barlow on the way... I can make out the white area of the polar ice cap on what I think is the southern pole.

10. The Moon - I need an entire entry for lunar stuff. Individual details are visible on the moon like no other body. even a pair of 7x50 binoculars deliver insane amounts of detail. A good 6" has left me drooling and trying to identify the ridiculously huge number of features I can see. When I get a good number of features detailed, I'll put something up about that.

I read a book when I was around 12 or 13 years old called The Mote in God's Eye. The book was joint authored by Larry Niven (a personal favorite, he also wrote Rainbow Mars and books set in the "Known Space" universe. The Ringworld guy) and Jerry Pournelle. I have looked for years to find a copy of it, since the one I read back in the day was borrowed. Now that I think about it, I should have just looked at Amazon or somewhere for it. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it and it's sequel The Gripping Hand at the new Barnes & Nobles they opened about five minutes from my apartment.

The thing that sticks out most about it was my mother tentatively asking if it was a religious book when she saw me reading it. I don't believe the copy I read actually HAD a spaceship on front, so it may not have been an obvious sci-fi novel. They seem to have corrected this issue in the latest publication. The new cover art is very much like the old, with the prominent addition of a spaceship (that actually looks nothing like what is described in the book) in the middle of the "Eye of God" (a view of the Coal Sack region from a different world that is supposed to resemble a huge eye).

The cover art looks like a huge nebulous eye. With a red giant star where normal eyes would have a shiny spot. The red giant is humorously called "Murcheson's EYE."

If you're into the whole sci-fi thing, I strongly suggest reading this book. I have read many books in my life. I've been reading my dad's novels since I COULD read. Very few of my childhood literary adventures has stuck to me through the years the way this one did.

Well, well. It's a summer miracle.

Actually, the juice that I found out got spilled on my machine finally dried out. My computer is back up and running, minus a dvd drive. I guess I can live with that.

Maybe the machine coming back online will inspire me to write some stuff for this thing. I have plenty.

Well, the old computer died. I'm posting from a half-assed backup. Wii's weren't meant for this and they're a real pain to type on. This sucks...

    Well, I seem to catch a lot of "Why are you picking on Christianity, and not all of these other religions?" when I discuss religion with folks. Well, it's not that I have anything particularly against Christianity. I just happen to be more familiar with it. I do live deep in the Bible Belt, after all. There is a Christian church on virtually every street corner. For many down here, their church visits are the only socialization they get.

    To make the point of Christian versus Everyone Else, I looked up some numbers to post so I can look smart

Tuscaloosa County, Alabama:
*Total Land Area - 1 324 square miles.
*Total Population - ~171 030
*Number of Christian Churches - 379

    Now, for those of you who are here to read and would rather not do math, that works out to 1 church for every 3.5 square miles. Let's compare:

X to land area ratios:
    Churches per Mile - 1:3.5
    Mosques per Mile -   1:1 324
    Synagogues per mile - 1:1 324
   
    It's clear in Alabama that Christians by far hold the vast majority. Current statistics put 79.8% of the U.S. population as (self-identified) Christians. That means that out of 171 030 people, approximately 136 800 are Christians of one flavor or another. I have never had one local adherent of any other faith wake me up early on a Saturday to tell me about their dead guy. I've had plenty of evangelical types, as well as Mormons and JW's.

My conclusion: I guess I spout at Christianity more because I happen to live in an area where anyone who is not a Christian gets it shoved down their throat morning, noon, night, and sometimes early on Saturday. Billboards, door-to-door, little crosses by the road (that's public land. Isn't there a First Amendment issue in there somewhere? Never mind, the First Amendment is barely even a suggestion in Alabama).