Today we started on the big telescope. I was very excited to begin. The drive up the mountain was absolutely beautiful, and the temperature was not too bad considering what we're used to in Kenosha. The snow on the mountain appeared suddenly on the drive, and was not a welcome sight... I've heard many nasty things about the snow in Kenosha. I'm glad that we don't really need to worry about it.
Above and later below are our first images of Jupiter that I have processed. These images still have a long ways to go, and are only our first experiments with our webcam. We will soon be using a better lens, and eventually figure out a precise focus that we wish to work with. Soon, these images will go through more thorough processing and we will find ourselves with much nicer quality, and eventually we will be able to move on to Saturn and some planetary nebulae.
We learned how to dewier for the CCD camera with liquid nitrogen and Melissa was the first student to attempt it. I have never worked with liquid N2, but I have a feeling I'll be volunteering myself for the next refill.
A shame we couldn't get any images of Saturn yesterday, but today promises to be rewarding, to say the least.
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