It's Fall in the Northwest, and the weather is, well.....fallish. That is to say, cold, cloudy, windy and rainy. Being an amateur astronomer in this neck of the woods is a little frustrating. It seems that every time I purchase a new piece of equipment (camera, telescope, software) it rains for at least a week. As a matter of fact, about a week ago, I built a weather-proof case for my All-Sky Camera. I use the camera to monitor the sky for meteors. It was clear for a few nights, then it clouded up and has been lousy for viewing since.

I did manage to get a shot of Comet Holmes on a clear night. This has been an interesting comet to watch. It started out not even visible to the naked eye, then literally overnight, it flared up to naked eye visibility. This image was taken with a CCD camera and a 135 mm zoom lens, mounted on my 10" telescope, which was tracking the sky. This is a 15-minute exposure taken on November 5.....