[RapidEye]

Originally Posted by atalas

Thanks for the report RapidEye ! always interesting to read other peoples reports and congrats on logging all Messier objects ! hope your skies get better so we can hear more about your Northern perspective.

Louie

Yeah, the summers here in the SE US are horrid! Hot, muggy, sticky, and bugs out the wazoo! Fall is really the nicest time around here, with October and November usually being really great.

I've got a star party scheduled for next weekend, in the SW mountains of Virginia. Its a couple of thousand feet elevation, so it will certainly be cooler than here, and so far <FINGERS crossed>the weather forcast is good!

Originally Posted by asimov

Good reporting Rapid. & well done on logging all the messiers!

Thanks! It took me a couple of days longer than a year to do it, from when I first got my scope and started to learn to starhop. Once I began hunting for Messiers in earnest, it was about an 8 month effort. I could have finished a month earlier, but the friggen weather wouldn't cooperate!

Anyway, what is the most interesting part is that I did it all with just a 4.5" F8 newt! Lemme tell ya - some of those spring galaxies were pretty tough, but after a couple of hard nights of working through the V-C Galaxy cluster, I new it was all downhill from there

If anyone is intersted, here is where I posted the highlights:
http://www.rapideye.us/astro/woohoo.htm

I've got to put a couple of updates on there - like nabbing Mars a couple of weeks ago - thus completing my efforts at all 9 planets too (8 with the 4.5" and Pluto with my 10")! #3 was the easiest - just looked at some trees down at the end of the pasture