A Night to Remember

Actually all of yesterday was a Day to Remember: a perfectly beautiful early spring day in Missouri. We went back to Bray Conservation Area outside Rolla and hiked the Full Moon trail, about 2 miles I think. Of course we were geocaching and we found Rick and Joy's Golden Ammo Can at about the half way mark near the sinkhole feature. Yesterday evening I took advantage of the crystal clear moonless skies to observe Venus next to the Pleiades. I've been observing several Venus conjunctions this year as part of my BRGVSP outreach sessions but this one was different, and very pretty in binoculars. Leo looks like it is trying to catch Jupiter now and Jupiter makes a nice pairing with the Beehive cluster nearby. Early this morning I got up at 5:00 am to see if Nova Sagittarii 2015 No 2 was still visible.  It is and is still about magnitude 6 by my estimate. S&T claims it varies in brightness between 4.5 and 6 so I'll need to try again if we get any more clear mornings.  It's overcast again today (haze was coming in at 5:00) so one never knows.  This IS Missouri after all!

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2