Would have posted last night, but net wouldn't connect

[gemfyre]

Wow

This evening during migration watch I put my scope on the moon. It was the first time I'd ever looked at it through a decent scope. My God. The craters, the mare, the streaks of dust.

Just then we took some scopes outside with a couple of guests who know a bit of astronomy.

I was almost in tears. It's one thing to see pictures of the bands on Jupiter and rings of Saturns and read about the moons, but it's totally mindblowing to actually look through a telescope and see them with your own eyes.

Also took a look at the Jewel Box, the binary star in the pointers (forget the name) and the faint glow of omega centauri as well as some other stuff. Absolutely humbling to know there is so much out there that you can't even see with your eyes. You look through an instrument that magnifies it and still it's just a faint glow but you know if you could magnify it even more you'd see hundreds more stars upon stars.

Comments

My God! It's full of MLP's!

[frith]

Burning question out of the blue: What kind of deer is in your avatar??

BTW, awesome MLP collection in your stable!

Re: My God! It's full of MLP's!

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I think it was a fallow deer. Possibly a red but pretty sure it's a fallow. Hungry fella, thought my camera looked good to eat. :)

Re: My God! It's full of MLP's!

[frith]

If he had spots, he could have been a fallow or a sika. How tall was he? Red deer are about a meter and a half at the shoulder and fallow deer about a meter or less. It's been awhile since we've had fallow deer, but I think that nose is too wide... Ooops, no: I found my Wild Deer in Britain book and fallow look like the closest match. 8-)