This is not the first time I took pictures of this cluster, but it is the first time I took a lot of exposures to insure I had plenty of data.

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This is not a particularly pretty picture, especially compared to some, but like the others, its starting to show promise.  This was taken from a dark location north of Cape Girardeau, MO on a very warm and muggy early summer night.

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Well, the recent burst of image processing from my June images has revealed a few issues with my AstroTrac's performance.  Up until now, I've attributed the errors I've had to the tripod and head on which I mount the AstroTrac.  However, at this point, I'm not sure that's the whole story.

This is one of my favorite areas of the sky and I first fell in love with the rich variation of color and texture after seeing an image taken by Akira Fuji.  Ever since then, It's been high on my list of areas I'd like to image.  Unfortunately, it's also rather difficult to do that from the northeast US and here in Brooklyn, well you can  "fuggedaboutit."[1]

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St. Anselm's Troop 13 took its annual trip to Boy Scout camp Ten Mile River during week 2 of the summer camp season.  I was signed up to be an astronomy counselor and loaded the car with numerous props to use as enrichment items with whomever was doing the normal classes.  What I didn't quite realize was that I was going to end up teaching the class. 

The summer is always busy for us as traveling has to be done when the boys are out of school.  I'm going to backfill a little of what we have done this summer as life hasn't always slowed down enough to let me write!

In late June, we left NYC a week before school finished in order to squeeze a trip to Missouri into the plans.  This year we drove.  We spent four days going there, nice and casual, but drove back in a hurry taking only two days (very long days for driving).

This has been the rainiest June I can remember.  While I've really been too busy to have much time to get out under the stars (such as they are here in Brooklyn), even when I did have time it has rarely been possible.

We will be trying (attempt number 6!) to hold a stargazing session in Shore Road Park. The moon will be in the first quarter phase, and Saturn will be high in the south after sunset. Because sunset comes so late this time of year, we won't be able to start until about 8:45, although the moon will, of course be visible pretty much all day.