2012 Astronomy Day – Clouds throwing shade

Not literally. But since October 20, 2012 is Astronomy Day, I decided to take my telescope out after several months of being inside its box and look up to the heavens. Any amateur enthusiast or professional astronomer must do something astronom-ish for the night. LOL However, the wonderful clouds went in the way and I wasn’t able to see other things, except for the Moon.

Crescent Moon - October 20, 2012

Don’t get me wrong. I am in LOVE with the Moon, but I was hoping to catch a glimpse of other celestial bodies. I took this photo of the moon almost half past six, and Jupiter wasn’t due until about  almost ten from where I was located. I borrowed my brother’s bridge camera, just to try my luck in capturing Jupiter, because I had been having a hard time with my point and shoot camera (which I used for the photo above — but I was also wondering why my photos using the same camera this time were not that good as before). As I went out of the house four hours after, I immediately saw Jupiter almost above me and unobstructed — perfect condition because it meant less turbulence in the atmosphere for my optics to penetrate through. But as I was already searching for it, first with the 25mm eyepiece, then with the 9mm eyepiece, I could no longer see it. Thanks to the clouds. Ugh. I was cursing under my breath, no, loudly and Mon had to remind me to lower my voice. We were in the middle of our street.

It’s no longer the rainy season but I just hope that those dense cloud formations would give way for me just to get a good glimpse of the Orion Nebula, Pleiades and Jupiter. >_<