Sunday October 7th I joined Richard Brown and Ms. Bedie Post, his friend and astronomy teacher at R.L Turner High School in Carrolton, and two of her students, Justin and Christin in observing the night sky at our observing site. We spent the night looking at all sorts of Ms & NGCs through Richard's 20" Obsession (seen in the background), and a club 12.5". Overall the night sky was quite good. This was Christin's first time looking through telescopes of this size. Justin has been a frequent visitor to Copper Breaks. One thing the kids impressed me with was that they kept careful logs of what they had viewed.

By the way, Justin, who is a 6 foot+ basketball player at the school, and one of Ms. Post's most accomplished students, spent his summer at Space Camp

We finished up right after Saturn and the Moon had risen, which gave Christin her first view of Saturn. It's always neat to hear first time Saturn viewer's responses!

M8--Here is a shot of M8 (Lagoon Nebula) in Sagittarius. This is a composite of 15 stacked images each 45 seconds long. Although we associate M8 with Messier, star clusters in the nebula were know as early as 1680. M8 is approximately 5,200 light years from earth, but this is a bit uncertain. M8 can easily be seen above the spout of the teapot in Sagittarius. If you want to see the object, hurry because it is almost gone. Taken 16 Oct 01.

M16--I thought we'd be a bit patriotic and show a wide wide view of M16 (The Eagle Nebula) in Serpens. The Eagle can be seen here flying with what some say is a fish dinner in it's claws. M16 is 7,000 light years distance and was discovered by Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745, but you know who got credit in 1764. This is the nebula that NASA released a famous image from Hubble several years ago as a stellar nursery. The image is a composite of 15 stacked images each 45 seconds long. Taken 16 Oct 01.