March 22 - 23, 2003:  The weekend of March 22/23 has probably been my most successful weekend to date.  I went out on the night of March 22 around 8 p.m. and stayed out until 10:20 p.m.  The conditions were perfect...clear skies, light winds, and low humidity.  I started the night off with a look at Jupiter.  I could see the northern and southern cloud belts easily.  I could even make out edies in the clouds.  Still no signs of the great red spot.  I guess when I go to look at Jupiter it's on the other side of the planet.  Or perhaps I just don't see it.  One thing about Jupiter on 3/22 that puzzles me is the fact that I could see 5 "moons".  I know that the 4 Galilean moons are easy to see, but what is this fifth object?  Maybe it is also a moon.  If it is, it's probably Amalthea, the next largest Jupiter satellite.  There were 3 objects to the left of Jupiter and two objects to the right.  All objects were in the same plane.  I next looked at Saturn.  This planet has been the superstar of the winter skies.  It will sadly begin to disappear for awhile from our skies starting next month.  You can still see the entire outer circumference of the rings and also Saturn's faint shadow on the back side of the rings.  Titan can be seen near the planet at an angle to the plane of the planet's equator.  Next, I set my sights on the comet C/2001 RX14 (LINEAR).  I'm not sure if I saw this comet, but I did see a light near the two stars where it was supposed to be.  I did not see any dust tail, however.  I'm more sure that I saw the asteroid Vesta, which is what I tried to see after searching for the comet.  You can distinguish the light reflected off Vesta from that of surrounding stars.  The next thrill was the Great Orion Nebua in the constellation...you guessed it....ORION!!!!  This nebula is a huge cloud of gas with a few stars in the middle.  That was really the first nebula that I have seen with the new telescope.  The seven sisters (Pleiades) were my next target.  These brilliant stars can be seen setting in the west for the next few evenings.  Sirius continues to flash over the southern skies and I looked at it through my telescope.  Finally, I saw the star SAO 100706 (Tau Boo) and its companion.  This star is believed to have atleast one planet orbiting it.  So that's about it for 3/22.  It was one spectacular evening to go star gazing.

On March 23, I decided to do something odd...find Venus in broad daylight.  And I succeeded.  I don't think I would have been able to do it without the GO TO ability of my telescope.  Even though the telescope was off a bit ,(I can't align the telescope in the daytime because Polaris can't be seen) I finally found the second planet and my old friend from last summer.  There was nothing fancy to be seen.  Venus appeared similar to how it looks at night, however some detail was obscured.  All I could note was that the planet appeared in a half moon shape.  It was basically a bright white dot in a blue sky.  I saw the planet arround 1:45 p.m. in the SW sky.  There were a few clouds that temporarily blocked my view of the planet.  Nonetheless, it was fun to try something that can rarely be done.  My next big project is to get a camera on this telescope.  I would have liked to have taken a picture of Venus to post on the internet, but I'll try to do that the next time I see Venus in the daytime.  On the night of the 23rd, I observed the Spindle Galaxy.  This fuzzy dot was visible high in the south.  Another galaxy observed was the Whirlpool Galaxy.  I've seen this galaxy before.  I saw most of the objects on the 23rd that I saw on the 22nd.  Vesta was seen again and it had moved from the previous night, so I can confirm that I saw the asteroid on both nights.  The mysterious fifth object near Jupiter was seen again.  This time, there were three objects to the right of Jupiter and two to the left.  Saturn and Titan were pretty much the same as the 22nd.  All in all, this was the most successful weekend to date in both daytime and nighttime.


April 13, 2003: I got my first look at Mercury tonight.  It appeared as a reddish-whitish half moon shaped body with a few bumps visible.  I'm not sure if the bumps are a trick of the light or actual surface feature.  If Saturn was the superstar of March, Mercury is the superstar of April.  The planet is visible in the west this month.  Get a look at it while you can...it's a fast mover.  I also saw Saturn, Jupiter and the gibbous moon.  I now believe that the fifth satellite seen on March 22 was a star.  This star is now out of Jupiter's equitorial plane.
 

July 26, 2003:  I got my first look at Mars tonight around 11:30 p.m. local time.  Mars will be closer to Earth next month than it has been in several millenia.  I did not see the ice caps through the telescope, just some black splotches representing surface features.  I was in a hurry, so I probably missed several features.  I will get a better look next month as it gets closer.  I have now seen all of the planets except Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. 

August 17 and 18, 2003:  On early Sunday morning and early Monday morning, I took some pictures of Mars with my webcam hooked up to the telescope.  The photos don't really do the planet justice, so you should look at it directly through a telescope.  The resolution of the human eye is a lot better than my webcam's.  I had to set my computer up outside each night to get these shots.  The southern ice cap really looks good through the 9.7mm eyepiece at about 122X magnification. I can really see the darker surface features as Mars gets closer.  It will be the closest to Earth on August 27.   

Week of August 19, 2003: I observed Mars nearly every night this week with friends and relatives.  The planet sure has changed since that first glimpse I got on July 26.  More detail can be seen now.  The southern ice cap is the most visible feature.  I took some more pictures of the planet on early Sunday morning.  I also got my first look at the tiny disks of Uranus and Neptune.  I could barely pick Neptune out.  It was right where Astronomy magazine said it would be, north of a faint star.  Uranus appeared as a blue green disk.  Both planets were near opposition and closest locations to Earth.  I have now seen all of the planets except Pluto.  NOTE: The pictures taken on August 24 were the closest pictures of Mars that I took.

October 17-18, 2003:  The night of the 17th was highlighted by three planets: Mars, Uranus, and Saturn.  Mars is getting more distant and features are becoming harder to see.  On this night, it appeared as a gibbous shape with the dark side on the right.  The dark side is actually on the left, but because I use a refractor it appeared on the right.  See the sketch for more details.  From Mars, Earth would rise in the east just before the sunrise.  Uranus appeared as a blue-green disk.  Not much more of Uranus can be seen because it is so far away.  As I was turning away from Uranus, I could see the Pleadies rising in the east.  Through the scope, the cluster appeared as a large scattering of beautiful stars.  Around 11:30 p.m. I went inside taking the telescope with me.  Around 12:30 a.m. on the 18th I could see a star to the right of the Moon.  I decided to view it through my scope through the window and found that the star was actually Saturn, my old friend from last Winter and Spring.  It was blurry through the window, but I could make out the rings.  On the night of the 18th, I again set my sights on Mars.  It showed the same features as the night of the 17th.  Since Mars rotates in 24h, 37m, the same features are visible each night only 37 minutes later.  Uranus looked the same.  To top the weekend off, I decided to look at Neptune.  Neptune was just a tiny dot in a sea of stars.  It was hard to distinguish it from the other stars, but I think I saw it.  I didn't expect to see Saturn up at 11:30 p.m., but it was.  This time, I got to see it outside of my window through the telescope.  Its rings were magnificent, however because it was low in the sky, the atmospheric turbulence caused Saturn to appear blurry.  I could not see fine detail like the Cassini Division.  I could see Saturn's moon Titan.  I got to view several deep sky objects.  The Andromeda Galaxy appeared as a fuzzy cloud in the scope.  It's the nearest galaxy and the only one visible to the naked eye.  The Double Cluster appeared as two star clusters visible in the same eyepiece field.  Messier 34 was another star cluster viewed on the night of the 18th.  I again looked at the Pleadies or Seven Sisters.  Messier 38 was another beautiful star cluster.  The Ring Nebula was the final object viewed of the night.  It appeared as a fuzzy ring in my scope.  This was another great weekend of star gazing. 

November 8, 2003:  This evening I watched the total eclipse of the Moon from about 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.  The eclipse was disappointing due to thick cloud cover.  I did get to see the Moon in totality during some breaks in the clouds.  It did get fairly red reminiscent of other lunar eclipses that I've seen.  Photographing the eclipse was next to impossible because of the clouds.  I also turned my attention to the fading Mars.  I couldn't make out any surface features because of the clouds.  It was nice to see parts of the eclipse.  There won't be another one like this in the USA until the evening of October 27, 2004.