Psychwolf Moon

It was enjoyable to gather at Ottawa Lake State Park this past Thursday, 4/13 for a star party under darker skies.  With enough time to pack and prep, it is amazing to see how many telescopes I can fit into a 4 door car and then set up for the star party in time for sunset. I'm glad I did, as we all got to look through these scopes. Pictured above are: Unistellar eVscope 114mm imaging reflector, for live stacking (EAA). Favorite view, M51, as well as the Black Eye Galaxy: Vixen FL90s 810mm refractor on a manual mount with a telrad sight. Favorite view: Cruising through the Cancer Constellation, 25mm Takahashi Mewlon 210 uncorrected Dall Kirkman on a Meade LX85 Go To. Favorite view: M3, noted to add a reducer next time. Vixen AX103s reduced imaging refractor (575mm), connected via ASIair Plus for live stacking (EAA). Favorite sight: M101 live stack of just 15 minutes. Another person at the star party also brought a 12-inch Orion dobsonion, with a Nexus DSC pro and a selection o...

We're just getting started on a stretch of clear sky this week + excellent temps, so what more could you ask for? Well, sleep - it's going to be a rough work week to also get through, but enjoy the stars while you can! As we work to bring Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA) options to the Milwaukee Astronomical Society, to allow minimal post-processing to get photos of deep sky objects like these, I wanted to mark a few cool objects I was able to observe using the Unistellar eVscope which live stacks my images as we look at them, and essentially gives me a photo output in just a few minutes using no further image processing, which I'll share below. This scope will be making a lot of trips out to the club this year once again, and many got to experience c/2022 e3 with this scope during winter while huddled inside where it was warm!  I took these photos in my backyard, in Milwaukee, under Bortle 8 skies, which are brighter skies than at the MAS so it's an example of h...