Astronomy Picture of the day

The shot for the 30th is definitely a neat one. According to the caption: " Clouds of glowing hydrogen gas mingle ominously with dark dust lanes in this close-up of IC 1396, an active star forming region some 2,000 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. In this and other similar emission nebulae, energetic ultraviolet light from a hot young star strips electrons from the surrounding hydrogen atoms. As the electrons and atoms recombine they emit longer wavelength, lower energy light in a well known characteristic pattern of bright spectral lines. At visible wavelengths, the strongest emission line in this pattern is in the red part of the spectrum and is known as "Hydrogen-alpha" or just H-alpha. Part of IPHAS, a survey of H-alpha emission in our Milky Way Galaxy, this image spans about 20 light-years and highlights bright, dense regions within IC 1396, likely sites where massive new stars are born."

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050930.html

I haven't been out observing since, I hate to say it, but I think its been since June! I did get a couple of new books the other day that I'm looking forward to diving into. I hope to have a slightly more active observing life in the Autumn and Winter. I've got to remember to get to a sporting goods store to get a bunch of the chemical hand warmers. You want those puppies in you boots and in your pockets on a cold winter night, believe me. I didn't have them last year, and it limited the amount of observing I could do in the winter.