Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Hey Greg,
Got a challenge object for you, NGC 2242, a 15th magnitude planetary in Auriga:
https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jan/NGC_2242.html
I *may* have seen it last night in my 16" with an O111 but the Observer's Guide notes a poor response to an O111 filter but the comment from an observer with a 20" in the above link scope felt that the O111 did help. You've got a 20", how about it?

After months of winds, clouds and rain, the clear sky clock finally predicted a 4 hour window of good seeing and transparency on Saturday evening, so I hustled my 16" F4.5 dob out in front of my house and went to work:
First up in the early twilight: Venus. While it could very well be my imagination, I thought I could detect subtle variations in the cloud density surrounding the planet. If you looked at the image of the day in the astromart a few days ago, there was an image of Venus taken thru a 14.5" starmaster and what I observed looked quite similar. You refractor-apo guys out there should be all over this...
An excellent sign that bode well for the forthcoming evening was the fact that I could could see the companion stars in the trapezium in the deepening twilight before it was truly dark.  It's always cool when you seem them that early. As always, M42 looked awesome with an ES9MM widefield eyepiece and an O111 Filter.
My favorite planetary in Orion is NGC 2022, appearing like an egg floating in space:
https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jan/NGC_2022.html
My top choice for an NGC object in a winter sky from a dark sky location is NGC 2359, better known as Thor's Helmet. Even from my light polluted locale, an ES24MM widefield eyepiece and my Lumicon 0111 filter brought the object to life. It's a must-see:
https://www.constellation-guide.com/thors-helmet-ngc-2359/
Just after observing the Helmut, I swung the scope upward to observe in Gemini, the twins. A twin-lobed planetary awaits you: NGC 2371-2:
https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/feb/NGC_2371.html
This looks like a smaller and fainter version of M76, the little dumbbell in Perseus.
Of course, once in Gemini, you can't possible overlook NGC 2392, the Eskimo nebula:
https://www.constellation-guide.com/eskimo-nebula-ngc-2392/
The last time I saw it was atop Mt Pinos a few years ago thru a ultrafast 24" hubble ultralight dob with Kennedy optics at more than 1200 power!
If you're into open clusters, and you want to see one that stands up well to higher power widefield eyepieces, consider M37 in Auriga:
https://scienceblogs.com/files/startswithabang/files/2012/12/M37-01w.jpeg
It'll definitely take your mind off more earthly problems.
Before turning to galaxies, I took another gander at NGC 2261, Hubble's variable nebula which was the first nebula imaged by the 200" Hale telescope atop Mt Palomar in 1949:
https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jan/NGC_2261.html
The Hubble nebula is a real treat and you'll want to use a moderate to higher power widefield eyepiece and an O111 filter to see it well.
Turning to galaxies, I rounded out the evening by replacing my Lumicon 0111 filter with a Levenhuk CLS filter and a ES24MM widefield eyepiece to cut down on the ambient lighting in order to observe M81/M82 in Ursa Major(always a treat!) and the Leo trio before finally calling it a night. I awoke on Sunday morning with clouds. mist and a forecast for morte rain along with Greg calling me a dumbass! Yup, it's the AM political forum...
16" F4.5 Dob: Ed Jones primary/Antares secondary/Astrosystems structure/Sky commander DSCs.

Originally Posted by Darian Rachal

I bet you're giddy. Do you have a tingle running down your leg?😆

You know where Trump got his propaganda video from, the one he proudly touted at the Coronavirus briefing yesterday? Hannity, of course...
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/media/trump-hannity-propaganda-video/index.html

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

How is it propaganda when it is all factual?? 

You might not like it because it exposes you and your leftist puppet masters for the frauds and liars that they are, but its not "propaganda".

 

That's the problem; it's not all factual:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/politics/fact-check-coronavirus-briefing-april-13/index.html

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

You didn't even read your own posting wood head.  

CNN doesn't present anything that shows the video is false, the ONLY mention of the video in the article, is the "fact check of a Portion of the video", where they take issue with Haberman's statement and they bitch about it because they say the video failed to mention that Maggie Haberman indicated it was the last thing he did.

So what?

I guess that when CNN truncates portions of Trump or anyone else if they are speaking, then they are Misleading the public?

How stupid is that?

So I guess that when CNN reports on a press briefing that Trump gives and its 1 1/2 hours long and they don't print every word, they are lying?

Then virtually everything anyone prints about another is lies, if they don't print every word of it.

Man, you oughta' just keep your mouth instead of proving every second how ignorant you are.   

The ignorance is yours for falling for a BS propaganda video...

What the video left out...
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/04/14/donald-trump-coronavirus-february-tapper-sot-lead-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

Two additional follow-ups on the theory:
https://thebulletin.org/2020/03/experts-know-the-new-coronavirus-is-not-a-bioweapon-they-disagree-on-whether-it-could-have-leaked-from-a-research-lab/
and:
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2020/04/coronavirus-escaped-chinese-bioweapon-heres-what-pentagon-says/164612/

Originally Posted by James Lacey

The latest from researchers is there is no doubt that this virus has a natural origin. If it were engineered or made in a laboratory, there would be tell-tale markers on its genome. Instead, they found plenty of genetic evidence that it evolved naturally. It might be interesting to ask your buddies who work in CRISPR or related fields and technologies what they think?

The cynic in me believes all these stories about it being engineered or accidentally released by the Chinese is just another right-wing effort to absolve Trump of complicity in our inadequate response. I'm looking at you senator Tom Cotton.

James, I don't doubt the virus has a natural origin but there's no doubt the Chinese were working with it in their lab and I'm wondering the the hell they were doing with it in the first place. From one of my previous links, one Chinese lab tech got 12 years for selling research animals to a wet market. I've got to take this one with a grain of salt but Fox is reporting today:"
"The sources believe the initial transmission of the virus – a naturally occurring strain that was being studied there – was bat-to-human and that "patient zero" worked at the laboratory, then went into the population in Wuhan."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-wuhan-lab-china-compete-us-sources

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Researchers will eventually learn the origin of the virus as they did for SARS, which surfaced in 2003. It did take many years, though. It's incredible what they can learn from studying the genetics of the virus as it's collected from different regions. So, I do not doubt we will learn about the viruses' origins. I also don't doubt the Chinese were working on Coronaviruses in their labs. Lots of researchers all over the world work with coronaviruses in their labs. We will see, of course, but I remain highly skeptical there is a nefarious origin to this virus.

I think there's one constant here that we, and virtually every MD who has spoken on the subject will agree, "you can't trust any information coming out of China"... 

Meanwhile, coming back to the actual topic:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/04/16/china-transparency-covid-19-spread-pkg-culver-lead-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/coronavirus/