[Chaos-l] My First Galaxy!

[Mark Lerch]

Awesome Anthony, thanks for sharing.  : )
 
Believe me, the joy of discovery is directly proportional to the difficulty of the search.  My greatest observational memories are of splitting difficult double stars found with my Meade 8" using a finderscope to hop to the general area then detailed star charts to continue hopping through the eyepiece.  For whatever reason the discovery that way is filled with adreneline while using GOTO doesn't even come close.  I sometimes think I'll sell my $10K+ worth of scopes & imaging equipment and return to the backyard lawn chair with binoculars and a sketchpad.  The satisfaction for me is so much greater and the intimacy with which you know the sky can't compare.
 
On the other hand you can't contemplate the mysterious beauty of the Veil that way..so maybe I won't.
 
*sigh*   : )
 
Mark

________________________________

From: chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org on behalf of Anthony Caporale
Sent: Sun 10/29/2006 4:56 AM
To: Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
Subject: [Chaos-l] My First Galaxy!




Bagged my first galaxy tonight, and my second right afterward -- M81 and 82,
from my deck in Woodcroft.  Started out with a pair of binoculars and a copy
of Sky & Telescope, and ended up at my 8" Orion reflector with a blanket
over my head and an eyepatch on, but I finally got them!  I know this isn't
that big a deal, but I feel like I conquered Everest -- this was the
culmination of dozens of hours of searching, not really even knowing what to
look for, with no luck and then there they were!  Easily on par (well,
almost) with seeing Saturn for the first time!  None of my friends will
appreciate this, so I had to share it with people who care.  Sorry to gush,
but it's about 5A and I'm still pretty excited.

Hopefully I'll be able to make it out to the dark site some time soon and
learn from folks who actually know what they're doing.  Love reading the
posts, though!
-Anthony

Sincerely,
Anthony Caporale
Executive Producer, Art of the Drink
Lion's Cathedral Productions, LLC
919-490-8603
919-605-6098 Mobile
919-401-3565 Facsimile
acaporale at artofthedrink.com
http://www.artofthedrink.com

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