We went out to Glacier Ridge park to see the lunar eclipse. They had three nice telescopes and nicer-still astronomers helping people look up. Victoria had a hard time seeing through the telescope at first, which she expressed with a whiny panic: "I can't see, it's not working, what is the--WHOA! I see it! That is SO COOL!"
We saw Saturn and imagined we saw a couple of moons (I'm worse than V with a scope of any type, albeit less noisy), we saw Mars and the Orion Nebula. One very patient astronomer with a very bright laser pointer told constellation stories over and over. With so much going on, ninety minutes flies by before you know it. You hardly even notice the cold.
We saw Saturn and imagined we saw a couple of moons (I'm worse than V with a scope of any type, albeit less noisy), we saw Mars and the Orion Nebula. One very patient astronomer with a very bright laser pointer told constellation stories over and over. With so much going on, ninety minutes flies by before you know it. You hardly even notice the cold.
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Tonight (Wednesday) I looked at the lunar eclipse. I could see it getting started out the window of the Community Center while teaching a class. By the time the class was over it was in totality. I walked out of the CC and Rodney Roberts walked out a moment later while I was looking up at it. I pointed it out to him and another fellow came along and mentioned there was a viewing party at Northway fields.
So after I went home and enjoyed the food John had brought back from Chef's Secret (dinner with Stacy there), I dressed warmly and headed out to Northway field. There was a small group of friendly astronomy buffs with impressive telescopes. I got great views not only of the eclipsed moon, but Saturn (saw the rings), Orion nebula, the Pleiades, and Mars. It was lovely.
Does anyone know of a video of some/all of the eclipse? M (age almost 7) was asking about it. I think he will be old enough (depending on the time) to go to an astronomy viewing for the next full in a couple years. But it was perfectly clear last night, doesn't happen often around here.