Here we are again, light from those distant astronomical objects has travelled another whole light-year towards our mirrors and lenses. And I must say that astronoimcally speaking, 2006 was a great one for me. I learned a lot, especially about imaging technique, and had a whole lot of time under the stars. With a bit of luck 2007 will be even better!
The past week has been busy with lots of family and holiday activities, but I have been able to get out for a few sessions as well. This is the result of the past two nights with my 4" refractor, the Horsehead nebula in narrowband, using the Hubble palette to map SII=Red, HA=Green, and OIII=Blue. Click here for a larger version of this image as well as some extra info.
So I did ring in the New Year with my telescope. Shortly after midnight, I stepped outside to make sure that all the loud booms from fireworks were not too close to my yard; I was greeted by a large cloud formation moving across the sky. It was also heavily dewing out so I decided to call it quits.
Here are a few of my astronomy-related New Year Resolutions:
-Get more active with spectroscopy;
-Get active with photometry;
-Catch up on the backlog of image processing;
-Attend as many TAAA and HAC meetings as possible;
-Attend lots of star parties;
-Finish reading all those books that I've started but never finished;
-Construct another observatory to house the refractor.
Yep, I've been planning to build Xanadu West (to the West of the original dome). This may take a while but it's needed, since setting up the gear takes a considerable effort.
So stay tuned for another year of blogs relating all my astronomy adventures, and best wishes to everyone else out there for clear skies, steady seeing, clean optics, and plenty of astro-energy!
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