Scattered Thoughts . . .

W hen I got up this morning, I immediately noticed that the sun was shining through our windows.  It was very noticeable because this is not something we see all that often and especially not in the dead of winter when it is typically snowing every single day.  The sky appeared blue so it meant I should attempt a quick solar observing session with a new solar filter.  I had received this new filter a few days previously and was waiting for clear skies to use it for the first time. The temperature was in the single digits but there was no wind so I figured that the sun would help keep me warm.  I quickly dressed for the frigid outdoors and collected my astronomy gear.  I headed outdoors for a "first light" with this new filter. As expected with these sort of things, this session didn't go as planned.  It is often difficult to figure out the focus point for a new piece of equipment so I expected to have to play around with different configurations.   Needless to say, I had

This morning, the sun was shining brightly and the sky was cloudless with good visibility so I asked Lukey if he wanted to look at the sun for a little while.  After we set up the telescope and all the associated gear for solar astronomy, we found the sun in the telescope.  We talked a little bit about sunspots, what they are and why there are none visible today.  I explained that we're in the middle of the 11 year solar cycle which is the long period of relatively little activity on the sun.   Since there wasn't much to look at and discuss, we then we swapped out the eyepiece for one of my cameras so Lukey could shoot a few photos... Lukey picked up the remote shutter release and shot his first astrophotography images... He shot just two photos but they came out very nicely!   They were both the same so I'm only sharing one of them here.   The seeing was good this particular morning so we were able to capture some faint hints of the convection cells bubbling to the surface

We have a fairly significant astronomical event fast approaching so I've been trying to get ready for it in case, by some miracle, we have clear skies here.  If we go by statistical data about our climate here on the flats nestled between multiple ski resorts and mountains tells me that the chances that I will have clear skies are relatively slim but I'm hopeful.  On the morning of November 11th, we will have a rare opportunity to watch Mercury transit across the face of the sun.   Mercury is tiny compared to the size of the sun so this isn't anything that will be noticed with the naked eye but it can be seen through a solar telescope if the sky is clear.  I feel the need to make it crystal clear that you must use a solar telescope and not a typical nighttime telescope unless you want to be painfully blinded.   The sun is actually 277 times larger than the size of Mercury so Mercury will only appear as a tiny dot silhouetted in front of the sun as it passes between