Mt. Bigelow Domes

A view almost directly north at the Mt. Bigelow Station. The domes are illuminated by the lights of Tucson 6000 feet below and an unidentified satellite slices through the sky over the Schmidt dome.

The 61" was busy observing variable stars while the Schmidt continued its yeoman service discovering Near Earth Asteroids. In just this week, the Schmidt discovered about 20 new NEOs, 2 new comets and an object that very well may be the Apollo 10 Lunar Module "Snoopy". Further study will be needed before we will know if it is in fact Snoopy. (Snoopy is also the only Lunar Module to fly in space that is still intact. All the others have either crashed onto the moon's surface or burned up in Earth's atmosphere.)

A great start to the 2006 - 2007 observing season!

Canon 20D - 30 seconds, 20mm @ f/1.8, ISO 800