Paul Cézanne's Astronomy Observing Reports

Last night I almost made it completely through the Virgo Cluster with my Canon 15×50IS binoculars. I posted my experiences in the Cloudy Nights binoculars forum where I asked, “Just how difficult is M91 anyway?” More than one person reported making the find, but all assured me that it was a hard one, probably the [...]

Most astrophotographers don’t take pictures of the Full Moon, quite frankly because the partial moons have such interesting shadows along the terminator. But after I shot the moon rising over the Pilgrim Monument I set up the telescope to both observe Saturn and shoot the Full Moon once it got higher in the sky.

Introduction
I heard about the NexStar 50 Club years ago when I first found Mike Swanson’s excellent NexStar site and them promptly forgot about it. About a week ago he annouced 2 new members and I had the germ of an idea. I’ve always like the Messier Marathon idea, and if the skies are ever clear [...]

This is a photo of an original NexStar 8 hand controller LCD panel, showing the graphite FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) attached to the glass pane of the LCD display.

In preparation for the Messier Marathon at Larry’s house, I wanted to run a practice one, too see what setup is like, to see how long it takes to get align from when the first stars come out until you get your first slew.
I setup on the 3rd floor deck at the apartment in Provincetown. [...]

So, the Messier Marathon was supposed to happen this weekend but we were clouded out both Friday and Saturday. Sunday night was clear and moonless so I figured I get some MM practice time in, as well as shoot some widefield shots of constellations. So off to YFOS I went.

I was, of course, running [...]

I arrived at YFOS around 5:45pm, maybe a little later. The skies were perfectly clear but the moon, a few days before full, was extremely bright. I knew the moon would interfere with the seeing but after Monday’s disappointing visit I just didn’t care. It had been so long since I had been out that [...]