01/13/2023
Some pictures of our wonderful waning gibbous coming into this most interesting Friday the 13th! The moon is heading into its last quarter phase. We will have a new moon phase starting January 21st!
Also visualized tonight was Acturus which is the brightest star in Boötes known as the herdsman of the sky. It is easy found when you look to the Little Dipper . Boötes is flanked by the constellation canus venatici- his trusty hunting dogs. In short Boötes and his pups form an easy to spot kite in the sky, very easily visualized in the spring. Boötes other claim to fans is nothing. Literally. It is a kind of Bermuda Triangle out there with only a small handful of galaxies.
The Quadrantid meteor shower that kicks off each year comes out of this constellation. I do not have the set up to photograph these stars quite yet, but they are visible to the naked eye and can be seen quite crisply through my telescope! Part of the learning curve is that the light from the moon creates interference that makes astrophotography in general a bit more difficult. I’m learning so much each time I track the sky!
Another cool bonus up here is that we can see via telescope certain satellites and the international space station! As these are literally speedy moving targets I’ve only caught a momentary glimpse so far.
