What's Up

My telescopes—Part 2

This is the 100^th article I have written under the name “What’s Up” for Cloudy Nights and I am now going to call a halt.  It has been fun and I thank all the folks who have sent me messages saying that they enjoy my writing. 

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What's Up - My Telescopes through the years—Part 1

This is the 99^th article I have written for the Cloudy Nights website.  So, I thought I would do something special.  What follows is a listing of images and text about the telescopes I have owned.

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What’s Up - M 5 in Serpens

Charles Messier discovered this cluster in 1763 while following a comet.  His telescope did not have the size to resolve any stars. 

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What's Up - M 104 in Virgo

This bright galaxy is one of the more unique objects in the sky. The bright core of the galaxy has a prominent ring of dark material around it. This flat disk of material looks like a Mexican hat and therefore gives the galaxy its name—the Sombrero Galaxy.

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What's Up - M 41, Open Cluster in Canis Major

M 41 has been a favorite of mine for many years. If you are making a table of the best open clusters in the sky and M 41 is not on that list I believe you have made some poor choices.

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What's Up - M 42 the great nebula in Orion

So, you wouldn’t think I would start a set of articles about the best objects in the sky without including the Orion Nebula, would you?

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What’s Up - Double Cluster in Perseus

There are several places in the sky that are unique and once you have spent some time at these locations you will never mistake them for anything else. Certainly one of these places is the Double Cluster in Perseus. Either of these clusters would be a Messier object all by itself, but to have them be just 30 arc minutes apart center to center is remarkable.

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What's Up: NGC 253 in Sculptor

NGC 253 was discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel.  She was searching for comets.  When her nephew John took the “Large 20 foot” telescope to South Africa to complete the sweeps of the sky he wrote glowingly of this galaxy.

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What's Up: Stephan's Quintet

I have always enjoyed viewing galaxy groups and Stephan’s Quintet in Pegasus is one of the most famous.

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What’s Up - NGC 7000 and NGC 6997 in Cygnus

How many astronomy texts have had a shot of the North America Nebula included?  How many brand new imaging rigs have been pointed at this amazing object?  We may never know the answers to those questions, but we can say that this part of the sky have been observed, photographed and imaged for centuries.

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