Happy 9th birthday, Celestial Sphere!

So, this is the 9th birthday of Celestial Sphere! I started blogging about my amateur astronomy hobby on 29th of June 2008, since then, I have been running this blog almost continuously! The first incarnation of this blog was on Blogspot, and it was called Taivaanpallo. Back then I was still writing in Finnish, but …

Happy Summer Solstice 2017!

Shortest night (and longest day) of the year is here again! Happy Summer Solstice 2017 for you all!

Observing season 2016-2017

So, observing season 2016-2017 is now finally over! During the season, I was mostly working on my visual deep sky observing/sketching program. Besides this, I was also doing some visual variable star observing during Autumn 2016, but I had to give that up because of too much workload and other things that were demanding my …

Observing 29./30.3.2017 in Ulvila Observatory

Date: 29./30.3.2017 Time: 22:00-00:30 Observing site: Ulvila Observatory, Finland Instrument: C280/2750 mm (11” Catadioptric) NELM: 6.2 SQM: 20.61-20.80 Darkness of the background sky: 3 Seeing: - Transparency: – Weather: Clear sky, calm, no Moon, no snow, 0 - -2C, aurora belt/arc in northern sky Objects observed: NGC 3640, 3641, 3810, 3655, 3900 and 3912 This …

Observing 28./29.3.2017 in Ulvila Observatory

Date: 28./29.3.2017 Time: 22:00-00:00 Observing site: Ulvila Observatory, Finland Instrument: C280/2750 mm (11” Catadioptric) NELM: - SQM: 20.6 Darkness of the background sky: 3 Seeing: 2 Transparency: – Weather: Clear sky, calm, no Moon, no snow, 0C, aurora belt/arc in northern sky Objects observed: NGC 4151, 4156 During this night I was again at Ulvila …

Observing 27./28.3.2017 in Ulvila Observatory

Date: 27./28.3.2017 Time: 22:00-00:00 Observing site: Ulvila Observatory, Finland Instrument: C280/2750 mm (11” Catadioptric) NELM: - SQM: 20.01-20.63 Darkness of the background sky: 3 Seeing: 2 Transparency: – Weather: Clear to partly cloudy sky, moderate breeze, no Moon, no snow, +4C Objects observed: NGC 3377, 3412, 3489 and 3593 This night was my second observing …

Observing 25./26.3.2017 in Stormälö

Date: 25./26.3.2017 Time: 22:00-00:00 Observing site: Stormälö, Parainen, Finland Instrument: N250/1200 mm (10” Newton) NELM: 6.6 SQM: 21.32 – 21.36 Darkness of the background sky: from 1  (a scale from 1 to 5, 1 best, 5 worst) Seeing: - (a scale from 1 to 5, 1 best, 5 worst) Transparency: – Weather: Clear sky, calm, …

Observing 21./22.2.2017 in Ulvila Observatory

Date: 21./22.2.2017 Time: 19:00-23:00 Observing site: Ulvila Observatory, Finland Instrument: C280/2750 mm (11” Catadioptric) NELM: 5.7 SQM: 19.85 Darkness of the background sky: 3 Seeing: 2 Transparency: – Weather: Clear sky, no Moon, snow on the ground, -3C Objects observed: NGC 5474 During this evening there was the weekly club meeting of Porin Karhunvartijat in …

Observing 17./18.2.2017 in Stormälö

Date: 17./18.2.2017 Time: 22:00-00:15 Observing site: Stormälö, Parainen, Finland Instrument: N250/1200 mm (10” Newton) NELM: 6.4 SQM: 21.22 – 21.35 Darkness of the background sky: from 1  (a scale from 1 to 5, 1 best, 5 worst) Seeing: 2 (a scale from 1 to 5, 1 best, 5 worst) Transparency: – Weather: Clear sky, calm, …