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Marc T
member
Reged: 12/08/08
Posts: 12
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Well....the skies cooperated this evening, the best seeing since purchasing my scope about a week ago. It was my 3rd light with my son, first for my daughter. We started looking at Pleiades, then moved over to the double clusters near Cassiopeia (NGC 884, 869). Then I'm trying to find M103; I'm looking through my finder, my kids just staring up at Cassiopeia. All of a sudden a meteoroid shoots across Cassiopeia, a very prominent bright orange/red streak. My kids looked at me and said..."did you see that?"..."what was that?" ..."was it a shooting star?" At first I thought it was a plane, then as it faded away I knew what it was...then realized my kids just saw their first meteoroid. After celebrating with them for a bit (they were totally mesmerized) we moved on to our first ever look at the Orion Nebula. We were able to get pretty good views and kept observing for about an hour. What a wonderful experience to finally put M42 through my own eyepiece and even better, enjoying it all with my two kids.
Happy holidays to all.
-Marc
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Starmaster EL 11" f5.48 | Tele Vue Nagler 17T4
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richard7
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/02/07
Posts: 1672
Loc: Sacramento
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I would love to have seen the look on their faces.
Bet they'll want to go out tomorrow night.
Had a rather good clear sky here. The first I could get some bino's out in.
Didn't take an LM check but figure 4.5-5.0. For around here that's very good.
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Richard Trost
Orion 130st, Ioptron e/r80
Meade 10x50, Konusvue 20x80, Zhumell Tachiyon 25x100
Coffee thermos and cup
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star drop
Guilty as Charged
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 18625
Loc: Snow Plop, WNY
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That observing session was a wonderful Christmas present for the children.
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Ted
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panhard
Mongo
Reged: 01/20/08
Posts: 5378
Loc: Markham Ontario Canada
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And dad as well. 
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PG Lewis
sage
Reged: 09/25/08
Posts: 204
Loc: ~31.5S NSW Australia
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Congrats on a great night... I used to love bonus meteoroids back in the days when I could see anything other than clouds! Seriously though, M42, the Pleiades, and the Double Cluster always get at least a quick peek from me when they're out... even if I've prepared a lengthy target list. They just never seem to disappoint.
M44 is another great cluster that's coming out earlier these days. It can be a little tricky to locate being in region that's poor on bright stars, but worth finding. I've had good luck finding it as a dim but unmistakable glow naked-eye from a suburban location by following lines between stars I can locate. Once you spied it naked-eye it should be a quick shot to get it in the finder.
Glad you can get the quality time at the eyepiece with the kids. Sure beats TV in my opinion.
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Cincinnati, Ohio (~39N, 84.5W)
Currently enjoying the southern milkyway from the mid-North coast NSW, Australia
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JayinUT
I'm not Sleepy
Reged: 09/19/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: Utah
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Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you are building some good memories with your kids. I have to agree that observing beats TV any time, even the worse observing nights.
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Jay in Utah
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Historian Donald Osterbrock called him (Edward Barnard) an "observe-aholic," because Barnard, happiest when he could spend all night observing, was moody and difficult when the sky was cloudy.
My Blog
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