The wife was walking the dog today and noticed some new activity with the hawk nest. I just came in from a look with binoculars and indeed the hawk is sitting on the side of the nest now, looking in the nest quite a bit. This suggests there could very well be little hawks. As I get time I will be out getting some pics.
Tonight is supposed to be the peak of the Lyrids, and it will hopefully be clear here. I have to be up and about from 12- 2 AM anyway tonight, so I will definately be dedicating some time to catch the action. I do hope it is lively. Last year we had a pretty good show with around 2-3 meteors a minute for as long as I was out there looking up. If it’s half that good I will take it.
So if any of you are up late, go out and look up! Sometimes these things can be really awe inspiring. Especially if you manage to catch a fireball (self explanatory) or a bolide (exploding meteor). Both of which I have seen at one time or another. They are spectacular.
EDIT: Lyrids damnit. Lyrids (Not Leonids). The goof has been corrected. I blame my odd hours of late and the lack of sleep. I turned off the alarm clock this morning @6:00 AM and fell back asleep for 30 min. If I hadn’t heard my boys shuffling around I’d still be lying there asleep… Doing too much through the day and not getting much sleep in between makes for a zombified way of living.
Oh and the shower was a bust at my location. Nuttin. I mean absolutely nuttin in the 25 minutes I spent looking up. Heck on any regular old night I can usually catch at least one meteor in 25 min. With that lack of sleep already mentioned I packed it up and hit the hay. Will perhaps try again tonight but doubtful, I have a genuine opportunity to get some sleep tonight.
Evidence Based Reality 
Can I borrow your set of telescopes. I would love to have a view of the night sky with a proper gadget 🙂
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How many you want? 😉 I have 5 telescopes, 4 pairs of binoculars, and all kinds of tripods, mounts, eyepieces and assorted gear to make it all work. When you get hooked it becomes a journey. No one optical system is the perfect system. They all have trade offs, and when you understand these trade offs, you realize you have to cover all the bases eventually…or something like that lol.
You can do astronomy with very meager equipment. Starting with naked eye learning constellations, and you can actually see a few faint fuzzies with no gear at all when you know where to look. Then one can also jump right in with binoculars, or telescopes.
You would be surprised what you can see with a pair of 10×50 binoculars. They will show you many open clusters, several galaxies, planets, some nebula, and a few globular clusters. Granted some of these objects won’t be spectacular views in bins, but you can see them. But some of these objects can blow you away with a good set of bins.
If you (or anyone who happens to read this) decide to get some equipment, talk to someone who has been in the hobby a while before you go out and buy a deparmtent store telescope, or one seen on E-Bay etc. There are many pitfalls for beginners that can be avoided with a few pointers from a seasoned hobbyist.
Consider my advice offered at anyone’s request.
Mak, between the two of us, you with the awesome sanannah skies, and me with some gear, we would make a good team. 🙂
If you really have any interest in the hobby, I highly recommend strating by getting some binoculars. They will serve you in many ways, and stay with you no matter how many telescopes you may aquire. I use binoculars almost on a daily basis looking at birds, my pet hawks, the sky. I toss em in the truck anytime I am heading out to the river, or a long trip. You just never know when you are going to want them handy.
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A man can always start from somewhere. The photos of the night sky that have seen are enough to inspire to want to watch. I will see where to start.
Thanks for the advice
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