Welcome Spring 2023

By Cloudy, April 24, 2023

We’ve been staying extra busy as we clean up the yard for spring so I can get out there to play, guard, and roll around in the grass.  It’s been such a long winter.  I’m so tired of not being able to hang out outside to grill, bark at people (especially delivery people), roll around, and just enjoy the fresh air.  I love the snow but there were too many storms this winter.  We are ready for spring now.

We went out for a hike last week! My mom said we had to get up extra early to avoid the crowds and because it was going to get hot later in the day.  Here I am yawning in the car because we had to get up early! Plus we were up late the night before imaging Bodes and Cigar galaxies and the Leo Triplet!

We had a great hike too!  I got to smell all kinds of new things.  I am hoping we go back to the same spot to hike again.  Here is my mom and I:

Oh btw, I totally forgot to mention that we got to see the green comet in February which was cool!  It took a while for my mom to find it in the telescope, but eventually she found it.

Last week we got out there and my mom got new images of Bodes and Cigar galaxies, the Leo Triplet, Whirlpool Galaxy, and the Sombrero Galaxy.  The Bodes and Cigar galaxy is a special target for us because that was the first target my mom and I planned together two years ago.

This is what Bodes and Cigar looks like when being captured in real time:

And this is what it looks like after my mom and I have stacked and processed the data:

We also caught a glimpse of the Leo Triplet, Whirlpool and Sombrero galaxies.  Here is the Whirlpool and Sombrero galaxies in real-time:

The Leo Triplet looks like this:

I always help my mom with image acquisition and image processing!  This is a hobby we love doing together but I have to admit, sometimes it’s a little hard to stay up late for astronomy. Here I am out in the field with my mom!  She got me a little red light for my jacket so I don’t scurry off to eat a rabbit or something else.

But here is the proof that I help my mom with planning astronomy sessions and with post-processing too:

Our next astronomy session might not be for a while as its looking like a lot of cloudy nights ahead.  We are planning on imaging Whirlpool Galaxy next time.  Even though we have cloudy nights ahead, we stay busy processing images or sometimes we just like to have movie night!

We always stay busy and yay for spring!!! Until next time!