Observatory & Personal Updates (Now at the bottom of the page)
March 2007
5th: Don't worry......still alive !
August 2006
2nd: Bad boy for not updating this site more often! I am working on
updating the 'links' page and removing dead links.
July 2005
7th: Posted a recently reported visual observation of the challenging planetary
GJJC1 within the globular cluster M22. The report was sent in by
Dennis Means and the date of observation was June 11, 2005.
15th: Imported Kent Wallace's updated SECGPN, Version 7. The link to
these files can be found here.
December 2004
21st: Posted the 15th Pease 1 observation report.
This latest report sent in by Fred Hissink from the Netherlands.
November 2004
20th: Image of the Eskimo Nebula sent in from
Laurence Wormald of London, England. This image was taken using the
Faulkes 2 meter telescope in Hawaii which was being remotely operated from the
University College School in Hampstead, England.
August 2004
4th: Color image of Mz3 (Mz
3, Menzel 3, the Ant Nebula in Norma). This was contributed by Scott Alder, an
amateur in Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
14th: Added 12 new images from Scott Alder. These appear in the Image
Gallery
October 2003
17th: Added the 608th PN image to the Image Index
page. This completes the project to add an image of every SECGPN
object which has a size of 10" (ten arc-seconds) or larger. Many of
these images are processed from the Digital Sky Survey II (DSS2) and annotated
with object I.D., size, and constellation. These images are linked to from
both the SECGPN database and the equivalent observing report(s).
September 2003
30th: Added a link to the Northern Virginia
Astronomy Club's great PN pages.
August 2003
23rd: Added the 500th PN image to the Image Index page. Most of these new
images are from the DSS2 (Digital Sky Survey- II). There are also links
to these images from the observation report pages.
2nd: New downloadable data file - A
modified Version 6 of the SECGPN that Kent Wallace compiled. This modified
file includes Distance, Type, Central Star Magnitude, and Surface Brightness
data when available. This file now duplicates the 23 data tables found on this
here site.
July 2003
26th: Added 35 non-ngc/ic PN images to Image Index
page. Brings total PN images to 266. The goal is to add images of all non-ngc/ic
PN's larger than 10 arc-seconds.
18th: Posted 49 new LRGB (color) images into the Image
Index page from Mr. Adam Block at NOAO (Kitt Peak). Many of these images
have replaced ones of much poor quality that were from the POSS plates.
May 2003
21st: Due to a server change, the web site was off-line for a few
days. Then I had to upload the whole site to the new server. There
MAY be some pages that are still not responding or loading right - after my
return from the RTMC astronomy expo in Big Bear, California (Memorial
weekend), I will review the site and make any necessary corrections.
17th: Posted an observing report of LoTr5
(in Coma Bernices) from Wolfgang "Howdii" Howurek in Austria.
November 2002
10th: Posted a new Pease 1 observation report
from Charles Rose in Mississippi.
July 2002
19th: Added new M27 tricolor image
by Dave Jurasevich (Calif.)
3rd: Updating the SEC data tables, one at a time, to ensure they agree
with Version 6 of Kent Wallace's PN database. This may take a few weeks!
Information on PN files that may be downloaded from this site can be found here.
March 2002
11th: Discovery of a new comet (now named Comet
Snyder-Murakami C/2002 E2); story and images on my Arizona
web site.
October 2001
2nd: Added a new link
to Rich Jacobs astro-imaging web site, CCD
Amateur Astronomy. Rich images the full range of celestial objects
in color, and offers a page devoted to planetary nebulae. A must see site!
September 2001
19th: Added 12 new images to the image
index page. Eleven of the images are additions to the existing ones
of IC and NGC objects, only these eleven are to supplement the images taken
from professional surveys. Many survey images of PN's are greatly over
exposed and do not show faint inner and outer structure or detail. The eleven
new images, taken here at the observatory, were exposed for much shorter
times, and processed to bring out any nearby details. They were imaged
using an ST-8 CCD camera at high resolution, and with an LX200 10" SCT
operating at f/10.
The twelfth image added is of a planetary in Cassiopeia designated Sh2-176,
and which is very large, and extremely difficult to observe. This image
can also be found on the image index page.
Another item added to the site is David Healy's observation
report of Pease 1 in M15. Dave is a good friend, and a neighboring
amateur well known for his work in astrophotography.
August 2001
31st: Added 22
observation reports from Steve Gottlieb - twelve of these are observations on
objects that Steve had not previously seen or looked for. The remaining
ten are updates to his earlier visual's on these objects.
Did a major overhaul of external links throughout the site - had to eliminate
several as I couldn't find them on the NET; added some new ones, and verified
all others. This might be valid for about 1 day!
From the Hubble/ESA pages ( http://hubble.esa.int/hubble/gallery/
), I've added the latest information and image about the 'Rotten
Egg' Nebula.
July 2001
Two new files added to the FTP folder. Three hundred PN reports
(with an 8" f/10 SCT) in WORD format from Kent Wallace, and Kent's
EXCEL file of the SEC Database (same DB used on this site). Click
Here For information on FTP'ing.
June 2001
Added the contribution of two more great observing reports of the challenging planetary
nebulae GJJC1 found within the globular cluster M22. These reports
are from Jay Reynolds Freeman, using a 10" Mak, and Eric Honeycutt with a
22". I have also included a report from Jay on his observation of
Pease1 in M15.
Updated Kent Wallace's reports on about 20 PN's. These were observations
made with his 8" SCT and include such objects as the Egg Nebula, Frosty
Leo, and the Footprint Nebula. There are no specific pages for these
updated or new reports. They are linked from the SEC Database, and
should be able to be located by using the site's search feature.
May 2001
Wow, am I slow or what? No updates since the last millennium! Well, I hope
to get caught up before heading off to the Texas Star Party on May 13. I've
added some additional reports (Abell 30 from Alan Davenport, LoTr5 from Eric
Honeycutt), and have many updates from Kent Wallace to post. I've also
updated several web page links, but still some are 'dead-links', so I'll
attempt to correct those. Benji Mauclaire has also send me an English
version of the contents of his fantastic CDROM on planetary nebulae - I've
added that to the pages, so if you haven't ordered your CD yet (from Benji),
you're missing a great astro asset.
November 2000
6th: From Howdii Howurek in
Austria, an additional Pease1 report! This report
is with his 18" f/4.4 and occurred near the end of October. Includes more
useful information on confirming the sighting.
October 2000
25th: Two more Pease
1 reports added! - One from California (sent in by Christine
Churchill) includes a CCD
image, and one from Austria (Wolfgang Howurek) in which an 8" telescope
does the job!
Several more new links added to the Astro Links page
too.
7th: Extensive changes
to the FreeFind Search
engine used on this site; object searches should be much more successful now -
see the information on the 'search-me'
page.
Added a Pease1 observation report from Dave Jurasevich
in which he uses the Mt. Wilson 60" reflector!
Eric Honeycutt has started an email type discussion/news Egroup for planetary
nebulae. You're welcome to join in at Egroups.com
.
September 2000
7th: Added a finder
chart for the globular cluster Palomar 6 - Supplied by Kent Wallace.
The extremely difficult planetary nebulae JaFu1 is located within the
boundaries of Pal 6, which is in it self difficult to locate! Kent also
send in nine new (positive & negative) observations using his 20" f/5
of some very small and/or faint PN's; these have been added to the observation
pages (see below for designations). I have included my positive report
on a very large and faint PN in Cepheus named IsWe2.
Last but not least is a new image of Pease1 (aka
Kustner648) in the globular M15. This is a close up image taken by the Hubble
Space Telescope. Awesome! We'll never see it like that in our amateur
'scopes!
The new observations from Kent are: K3_6 (+), Abell47(-), Pe1_14(-), K3_33(-),
K3_41(+), K3_43(-), K3_17(-), K3_20(?), HaTr14(-). A '+' indicates seen, '-'
indicates not seen, and '?' means probable, but not totally positive.
August
2000
23rd: Kent
Wallace has sent in only the fourth positive sighting of the challenging
PN located within the globular cluster M22: GJJC1. Kent was using his
20" f/5 under dark skies at Navaho Flats in California. Kent also tried
to view the extreme challenge PN's JaFu1 and
JaFu2 without success. A great challenge for large telescopes (20"+).
I have posted a new photo
of the typical night skies here in SE Arizona during the Summer -
WOW!
13th: An excellent Pease1 observation report from Dave Jurasevich down in San
Diego, CA country. Along with this new report (the 7th one received for
Pease1), I have modified one finder chart and added a new one to help locating
this planetary in globular cluster M15. Michael Heinick in Maryland has
sent in a amazing image of NGC7008 in Cygnus taken with his ST7E
CCD and a Celestron C11.
Many
folks have been signing the Guest Book since the appearance of a picture of
this site's homepage in September's (2000) issue of Sky & Telescope, along
with some nice comments. So I appreciate that 'promotion', and my
many, many thanks to all who have taken the time to sign the guest book. And
thanks to Dave and Michael for their contributions!
I'm still not satisfied with the site search engine and have written the
owners about additional features. Have not heard back from them yet.
4th: An additional 29 faint PN
reports from K.W. Of these 29 objects, Kent had 2 positive observations
(Haro1-39 & Th4-11) with his 20" under a dark sky. All of these
reports are now linked from the database.
2nd: A terrific PN CDROM offer has been received from
Benji Mauclaire - read the details here.
Benji also sent in his sketch of PN K1-20 and an
observing report on this object.
Kent Wallace has submitted an observing report on
IC4677, which is now known to be an outlying segment of the Cat's Eye
Nebula in its outer shell region. Not that difficult in moderate sized
telescopes.
And not linked here, but added to the site are at least a dozen Steve Gottlieb
reports (updated observations) on PN's he has recently re-observed in 2000.
July 2000
25th: Added Eric
Honeycutt's web site to links page. He has a great page on observing Abell
planetaries, in addition to other PN and DSO projects.
6th: Incorporated a new
site search engine which will hopefully work
better than the default one. If you're looking for something or a
particular planetary, please try out this search routine and let me know if it
works for you or not. Thanks. (I'm testing it out too).
3rd: A positive
observing report of GJJC1 in the globular cluster
M22 (Sagittarius)! This report sent in by Barbara Wilson and Larry Mitchell.
Also, from Benjamin Mauclaire (France), a report on K1-17
(Sagitta) along with an associated sketch of this
PN. Benji also sent in a fine sketch of planetary He1-5
in Sagitta. This PN is also known as FG Sagittae.
June 2000
25th: An additional 50+
reports from KW; these are mostly on very small, faint, and difficult objects
(the best kind!). Most of these are negative sighting rpt's with his 20",
but we'll keep trying.
20th: Added over 500 PN
observing reports; mostly from Kent Wallace while using his 20" f/5
telescope in California, and some from Maurice Clark using a 12" f/18 in
Western Australia. Thanks, guys!
5th: New links
added to links page, including Universe Today.
May 2000
7th: Added my observation
report for the challenging planetary GJJC1 located within the globular
cluster M22. This was a tough one!
April 2000
22nd: Wonderful poems by Sara
Teasdale added to Star Haven.
5th: From a request I placed on the
'amastro' egroup, received 4 positive observation reports from 3 amateurs
regarding the PN LoTr5. These reports from Art Russell, Jens Bohle and Jay
McNeil are now posted.
March 2000
30th: Added PN's LoTr5 in Coma
Berenices and Abell 34 to the Image Gallery.
For LoTr5, includes an
image from the discovery paper published in 1980. This is a very large and
extremely faint planetary. Abell 34 is no piece of cake either!
February 2000
27th: New page added: Nebulae
Simplified. Differences between the
types of nebulae found in the night sky. Received many requests for a simple
explanation of PN's and other nebulae.
19th: Addition of 7 new PN Sketches from Michael Büchner in Gallery
9. Michael has now contributed 21 excellent and detailed sketches he has drawn from
his observing site in Germany. Most of these planetaries are difficult to view
visually from any site!
10th: Addition of 17
observing reports from Maurice Clark in Western Australia using a 12" f/6 Newtonian.
These reports are of southern sky objects and were forwarded to me by Kent Wallace.
December 1999
8th: Installment 20 !! of
Andrew James' "Neat Southern Planetaries". This
installment concentrates on IC4191 in Musca and its surrounding clusters and double stars.
7th: New Index Page Graphic - Cursor Controllable Cube - Comments on loading speed?
5th: Jay McNeil's list of 450+ Planetaries is now available via FTP from my domain,
blackskies.org. This is a comma-delimited text file that can be imported into a
database. There is also a readme file that you should download. To download these
files, you can read about it on the page where I start Jay's list,
or go directly to my FTP site by clicking
here. Download the files mcneilpn.txt and pnreadme.txt.
November 1999
30th: Tom Polakis' Abell PN Data Table associated with the image mosaic now linked
from that image. his table also shows Tom's success in observing these planetaries.
30th: Tom Polakis' image mosaic of 82 Abell Planetaries (actually only 81 are PN's) is now
linked from the Image Index. This image, courtesy of Tom,
shows all the Abell objects in one file!
28th: Kent Wallace has updated all 23 SEC database tables appearing here on the
site. This includes updated positive/negative sightings, corrections to
positions, magnitudes, and numerous typos. The table includes all 1143 planetaries
appearing in the Strasbourg- ESO Catalogue available on the VizieR web site.
22nd: Latest in the series "Neat Southern Planetaries"!
This is installment #19 from Andrew James, Planetary Nebulae Section Leader of the
Astronomical Society of New South Wales.
21st: Integrated 72 Damien Ponsot observation reports & 9 Yann Pothier reports into
the main observation report sections. Previously, these were on individual pages.**
21st: Added 200th image to Image Index. More Abell PNe's to be
added soon.
21st: Observing Reports: Added 26 southern object reports from Maurice Clark
from Western Australia. Links provided from the SEC database.
21st: NEW Challenge Pages: Added 2 more PNe's located
in globular clusters.
17th: Kent Wallace's Planetary Nebulae Book is available and is
great!
15th: Unique image by Stan Moore of M15 distinctly showing
Pease1's location.
13th: Added 34 observation reports from Steve Gottlieb; these are 1999 reports.
13th: Image Index now contains 190 images of Pne; many linked
to Obs. reports.
12th: Pease1 report from Steve Gottlieb. This is the 6th
observation reported to this site. This PNe in M15 is quite the observing challenge and
Steve found it in his 17.5".
7th: Added links to two
new papers that arose out of the conference 'Asymmetrical
Planetary Nebulae II: From Origins to Microstructures'; when these papers are viewed
in PDF (Adobe Reader) form from the links, you are also shown the discussed images.
1st: From my new
Arizona home (Sierra Vista) I have completed the addition of 98 southern sky observing reports from Kent Wallace. Many of these reports are
the first known visual sightings of these planetaries.
October 1999
21st: Posted updated NGC
6543 (Cats Eye) drawing by David Knisely - now includes the faint knot IC 4677 neighboring
the PN. (Image Gallery 8)
21st: Pease1 report from Kent Wallace in California - Kent has
contributed another excellent Pease1 report, and he is also highly regarded as a advanced
PN observer (Co-compiler of the SEC Database used here on this site.)
21st: Updated the Astronomy Links page - addition of three great
new sites.
22nd: New Page Featuring A New HST (Hubble Space
Telescope) Image of the RottenEgg Nebula.
24th: Started adding 98 Southern Sky observing reports from
Kent Wallace. Kent lives in California, but took a trip to Australia earlier in the year
to do some serious PN observing.
August 1999
17th: Wow! Another excellent Pease1 observing report -
From Phyllis Lang & Eric Honeycutt.
21st: Installment NSP18 posted. A continuing outstanding series
of articles by Andrew James.
21st: Added images of He2-90 (Centaurus) and Mink2-9 (Ophiuchus) to Image
Index.
July 1999
11th: Added image & info to image index for
Kohoutek 1-20 in Andromeda.
19th: A new Pease 1 observing report from Mike Wirths in
Ontario, Canada.
June 1999
17th: Andrew James' Neat Southern Planetaries: Installment
NSP 17.
February 1999
7th: Andrew James' Neat Southern Planetaries: Installments
NSP15 and NSP16 !!
A wealth of information that you've just got to read. Includes new images.
7th: Damien Ponsot has sent in 55 new Observation Reports. Excellent !! These reports are
now integrated into the observation report pages.
7th: Even More Observing Reports from Yann Pothier - Includes Abell, Minkowski,
Henize. These reports are now integrated into the observation report pages.
7th: New image of Abell 12 taken with a C8 and
MX5 CCD by Antonio Giambersio, Italy.
This image shows a great amount of detail surrounding the planetary. Very Nice!
1st: Started working at a new job doing web page design and networking administrator.
January 1999
19th: New Java Applet on Graphical Index page - Galaxies and Stars.
8th: From Damien Ponsot in France: 17 new & excellent Observation Reports!
These reports consist of many faint
and difficult objects (Abell, IC, Jones, etc.). These reports are now integrated into the
main obs. report section.
8th: New Pease 1 Observing report and a sketch of it
within M15! Daniel Restemeier.
8th: On the Graphical Index page, a new HST image of M57, The Ring Nebula. A full
size image of this nebula can be found on the STScI web site.
7th: Not directly related to this web site, but I finish all my exams and have now
earned the title of Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer! Now to find a JOB!
<g>
December 1998
7th: New Gallery Images (25+):
Rich Jakiel, Frank Loch, Tim
Hunter & James McGaha
7th: Updated Image Index to include latest images and sketches.
4th: 3 New pages: Jay McNeil's data on 450 PN's -
Challenges for all levels of observing!
November 1998
24th: Observation Report from Jay McNeil On the
Challenging GJJC 1 In M22.
22nd: New page on Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 3132 (Eight
Burst Nebula)
10th: Added 26 new MIDI's. Okay, so not all of them are
astronomy related. :)
2nd: New Gallery Page! - Brad Ehrhorn's CCD tricolor
imaging of four beautiful planetaries.
1st: Added Image Gallery Contributor Index to
highlight those whose efforts are seen here.
October 1998
23rd: Placed latest HST images of NGC 6210 into existing
feature page of this PN.
18th: Neat Southern Planetaries: first fourteen articles
complete.
11th: Added page featuring new image of M27 from ESO's Very Large
Telescope.
11th: First eight installments of Southern sky planetaries complete.
2nd: In Data Base, added column for Surface Brightness
for over 1000 PNe's.
September 1998
30th: New series on Southern sky planetaries - contributed
by Andrew James (Australia)
5th: Installed visitor counter to index page (12pm)
1st: Added Link to SETI@Home - this
adventurous project is great & wants participators!
August 1998
31th: Image Gallery 10: Ten new PNe sketches by Rich
Jakiel added on a second page.
28th: Five new images in Image Index page (M76, NGC1501,
NGC1535, Mink 2-51, Shapley1)
25th: Added new primary
Index page so viewer has choice of plug-ins or not.
19th: Added Image Gallery 10 - Deep Sky sketches of 10
Planetaries by Rich Jakiel.
18th: Combined data from DB2(600) with DB1(1143), and eliminated DB2.
13th: Added a 2 page feature on an extremely challenging PNe in M22 - GJJC1.
10th: Added a Link to a new web site featuring the
latest in astronomy & space news.
6th: Linked the ESO database of 1,143 objects to the appropiate 400+ Observing Reports.
1st: Observing reports from David Knisely (NGC6543,
Cat's Eye) and Steve Gottlieb
(Y-C
2-32, a challenging PNe in Sagattarius) - Excellent reports, gentlemen!
1st: 10 Great PNe sketches from Michael Büchner on a new Gallery
Page (#9)
1st: Added To The Links Page: a new abstract on the
discovery of 100+ new planetaries.
July 1998
++31st: 4 Great PNe drawings from David Knisely on a new Gallery Page (#8)
Also included on this page is a PNe Spectral Line
Diagram by David.
++18th: Added 4 of my CCD Images to Image Index(ngc's 6210,
6804, 6894, 7008)
++16th: Added Search Page to assist
in finding information - it's not perfect, but hey!
++15th: Feature Page on NGC 7662, the Blue
Snowball (Images, Data & More!)
++10th: S.E.C. Database with pos / neg
sightings added: 23 pages, 1,143 Entries.
++ 5th: Thirteen new Midi's added to Index page and midi-list page.
++ 3rd: Added Text Version Index Page: this will help those without
graphical browsers or with their Java turned off to hopefully navigate the site more
easily. Let me know!
June 1998
++ 7th: Added Image Index
Page: one page with hyperlinks to all NGC, IC images and several
additional
planetary nebulae catalog images appearing on this web site.
++ 19th: New version of Index page designed to reduce browser load time.
September 18, 2001: Photos of the Palominas Observatory, and some film sky shots taken from our backyard can be found at our community site, http://www.palominas.com .
May 6, 2001: Utilizing the Palominas Star Haven Observatory as much as possible, and have received an observatory code of 925 from the Minor Planet Center in order to send in position observations of asteroids. (Yes, in addition to PN's and other deep sky objects).
October 25: Rain & Clouds! Hey, I'm suppose to be living out in the desert of Arizona, not in a rain forest! The observatory is still not 100%, although some progress has been made in getting the 10" LX200 and attached CCD to be operated remotely from the 'warm room'.
October 7: Palominas Observatory is operational, but lots of work still being done to complete the southern wall 'flap' and to improve the roof roll-off process. The three telescopes inhabiting this structure are the Obsession 20", the Meade LX200 10" (with CCD), and a Celestron 8" Dobsonian. ( Recent Photo )
August 23: Here is a photo of the summer weather here in Southeastern Arizona - the building in the photo is the Palominas Star Haven Observatory.
August 13: Latest photo of the up & coming observatory. The roof still doesn't roll, and nothing is finished inside, but at least it's now a building! And don't you love that desert landscaping? Or how about those wonderfully clear skies?
August 2: No photo posted yet, but the roll-off roof for the observatory has been build and all walls are up. Now working on the support structure for the roof when it rolls off to the north. Hopefully, it won't roll off the building and just KURPLUNK onto the ground!
July 5: Here
are two photos of the up & coming observatory here in Palominas,
Arizona - I haven't quite decided on the name yet. The photo file name
includes 'Orion Terrace Observatory', which is what we named the street our
house is on (Orion Terrace). The other name I'm considering is
'Palominas Star Haven Observatory', which includes the name of the community
we live in. What do you think?
The top photo shows most of the foundation, except for the area within the
warm-up room (since been poured). This view is looking towards the southeast
on a nice sunny day. The bottom photo is most recent, with all the (6
ft) walls up, and just the very start of how the roll-off roof extensions will
look. Taken on a very rain threatening day, which is almost every day
now that the summer monsoon is under way. I'm not so sure this will be done by
the end of this month! Some of these winds, rain, and lightning storms strike
fiercely and can last for several hours at a time. I can see why there
are so many flashfloods here in the SW U.S. during the summer. And we
didn't bring along our boat from California!
June20: Construction has finally begun on the observatory (20 ft. x 25 ft), and weather permitting (our monsoon season is here - the earliest recorded start of it), we hope to complete it by the end of July. I'll be posting some photos of its progress.
March 17: Being a relatively new member of the Huachuca Astronomy Club of Southeast Arizona, I have been attending meetings and the local star parties. By good fortunate, I was also appointed 'webmaster' of their web site. I have been spending quite a lot of time developing this new site, and if you would like to visit it, we sure would appreciate it! The URL is http://c3po.cochise.cc.az.us/astro . I am in no way abandoning this site, and will continue to update it also. Another piece of news is that I am planning out our backyard observatory. This is no small matter, as the observatory will be at least 20 feet by 20 feet square (6m x 6m), and maybe larger. So I'm busy working on the plans for it too. I hope that construction will begin no later than the middle of April. (May 7):Well, now maybe by the middle of May!
Feb. 27: The new 20" telescope has been broken in now, and is definitely a winner! I have used it here at the house, under very dark skies, and also transported it to a star party where it was a big hit. It is excellent in collecting the faint light from some very distant and challenging objects - planetary nebulae, galaxies, and some other nebulae that require filters. So I'll be out using it every chance I get, and wish you were here!
Well, the phone joy only lasted a
few days! On the 3rd day of having the one phone line, a backhoe operator was
digging a trench a ways from the house and cut the entire phone cable! So it has taken
several more days for the phone company to come out and re-splice the cable. Today,
2/10/00, we were fortunate enough to have the second phone line activated.
Hopefully, this is the end of our phone service problems (yea, right). My connection
speed to the Internet is a blazing 26.4K (In California, it was 46K to 50K). There
is no cable modem or DSL service out here, but I'm happy to be on at all!
The 20" f/5 Obsession Telescope has arrived here in the desert, and I'm putting it
through its paces in assembling it and checking all the components. I'd be out with
it now, only its cloudy tonight (what else could be expected when you get a new scope?)!
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! On February 2, 2000, after 50 days of no Internet service, we finally got a phone line (and one more to go). There are well over 500 email messages to sort through, and getting the web site updated! That will commence now, but might take a few days. In addition to getting back online, I will be receiving the new 20" Obsession Telescope within a few days! And unlike living where I was in California, I can do all my observing from the backyard instead of traveling two hours to a dark site. I'll have more later, you can be sure - and for all that have sent me emails, I will be answering them soon! Thanks, and many Aloha's to you!
Wow - Here it is Dec. 14th, and yes, we are moving into the new house under the dark skies of Arizona tomorrow. Unfortunately, the area where the house is, is so new that there is no phone service yet! So this is my last night for a while with access to the Internet, and that really bum's me out. I will not be able to update the pages until I reacquire access, and the same goes for email. My email address will remain the same though douglas@blackskies.org ) and I thank you for your support and visit. Until then, I wish you all the very best for this holiday season and into the upcoming year of 2000!
On the road with Doug: As of Oct. 15, we have made our 'headquarters' in Sierra Vista. As of Dec. 15, we will be living in Hereford, AZ (down the road from Sierra Vista). And there is even a new telescope on order! More later. Clear Skies!
** To locate the pages that 'named' reports are on, you can use the SEARCH THIS SITE feature and just enter in the first (or full) name of the person you want to find. All pages with that name in their contents will be listed. This SEARCH feature will also work for some objects such as NGCxxxx or ICxxxx, but for objects that normally have a 'hyphen' in their designation, you must use an underscore character ( _ ) rather than the hyphen, and do not put any blank spaces in the search designation (for example you want to find all references to the planetary He 2-300; in the search box, enter He2_300 )
