Filippenko Researches M82 Supernova

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227092448.htm

Waning Gibbous Moon In The Early Morning Mist

Cell phone picture taken of waning gibbous moon at 8:00 AM February 18, 2014. Photo by Eric Laing

It was just a moment, only visible through the clouds as I was driving into work.  There was a soft layer of mist and delicate colors that dressed up the moon in the morning light.

Stephen Hawking New Theory

Here's a few links that seem somewhat informative about the new theory:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/hawking-meant-black-holes/

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129543.000-stephen-hawkings-new-theory-offers-black-hole-escape.html#.UwQ-vfldVNQ

http://www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-holes-1.14583

Messier Marathon Planner

I will be using a Messier Marathon planner I found at: http://members.shaw.ca/rlmcnish/darksky/messierplanner.htm Although it is 18 pages long, it has a photo of each object along with a full set of data. Jim

AR1967 and AR1968 Sunspots

Got a great glimpse at AR1967 and AR1968 sunspots before a cloud covered them. Now I'm just waiting for the cloud to go away for another glimpse. I'm using a 90mm ETX with a Baader film solar filter latched on the nose of the scope and a 40mm 1/4" eyepiece. I'm using no additional filters at the moment, but I do have this green (540nm) filter to put on the eyepiece that supposed to give more contrast that I'll try when the sun comes back....oh wait there it is...I'm back out there.