Leonid Meteor Shower

[FishermanTim]

Originally Posted by PRBuzz

When out at night, I always keep one eye (sometimes both) to the sky as you never know what you'll see. One of my most memorable views was of the comet Hale-Bopp back in '97. I just happened to be in the wilderness of Idaho so no light pollution, also no moon, of any kind. The view of this comet was unbelievable. The forked tails literally stretched across 40% of the sky.

The numbers of other celestial objects (stars, Milky Way galaxy, planets, etc) are also unimaginable when one removes light pollution.

Back in the early 90's my brother and I both picked up telescopes.
His was a bit more elaborate than mine, but both were good models.
Mine is can double as a field spotting scope, but it is more telescope than anything else.
Having this telescope (still have it to this day) I also saved and picked up a number of magnification lenses as well. My favorites are a pair of Barlow 2X lenses. These lenses basically double the power of any lens used in conjunction with them.

Now this is where the fun begins: I "piggyback" these 2 lenses so that it gives 4X the mag, and I can see the craters on the moon, as well as the mountains on the outside perimeter of the moon. I can see the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the gas nebulas that are just below Orions belt.

When the comet was visible, I was able to see the ice ball that the comet was comprised of. It was awesome.

I have started to show my neices and nephews some of the easy-to-view objects in the evening sky. They think it's cool, and so do I.

Thanks for jogging my memory, I needed it today!