[dragnet2]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would expect that we would begin to see numerous other military "experts" chiming in, either backing or undermining the General's assertions.

I am a military veteran, but not a military expert.

I am not a professional astronomer, but I do spend quite of bit of time looking up, since I was old enough to walk... In fact, I spend a lot of time obtaining digital images of astronomical objects of all types.

This includes daytime planetary imaging, solar imaging and night time deep space imaging of nebula, galaxies, binary systems, etc, etc.

I even built a small observatory to preform imaging of objects in the sky. The observatory can be completely computer controlled remotely from the home.

This is what I have imaged from my humble backyard observatory.

Inside, at the business end of the telescope.

M27 Planentary Nebula - 1360 light years away

M42 Orion is a stellar nursery where over 700 stars at various stages are being formed within the central core of the nebula.

Veil Nebula is an old supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. It is the remains of cataclysmic explosion of star that exploded between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago. This nebula is about 1,860 light-years distance.

My opinion, for what it's worth, after spending many years examining, observing and imagining objects in the sky, is the event that occurred off the coast of California recently, was a missile launch.

((JMO))

[Tolsti2]

I talked to bigfoot and he told me it was one too.

[tanknetter]

... from my humble backyard observatory.

Pardon my French, but holy sh*t. That is soooo incredibly cool.

[eyedigress]

Thanks for the cool pictures and kudos for such a fascinating hobby. The Obama admin will never say what this was. It seems it was a test they needed to keep close to home. The contrail spin was thought of long before the launch.

[brytlea]

Oh, I am so jealous!

[antceecee]

Beautiful images!

[TXnMA]

"My opinion, for what it's worth, after spending many years examining, observing and imagining objects in the sky, is the event that occurred off the coast of California recently, was a missile launch."

Thanks for calibrating your opinion for us... '-)

~~~~~~~~~~~

FWIW, the closest I've come to "playing" with a "toy" like that is my friends 17" Dobsonian...

IMHO, your "Veil" is not too shabby -- even when compared to Lopez's 01 DEC 09 APOD .

~~~~~~~~~~~

But you're still kidding yourself about that aircraft contrail...

[Sto Zvirat]

What model of Meade is that? I have a 10” LX200GPS, but I gotta lug it out somewhere to get to dark skies..would kill for a nice dark sky and observatory...

[Chesterbelloc]

Wonderful photos!

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

I ————— am————— speechless.

I really would like to say something, like:

Maybe we’re related so we’re coming out for Thanksgiving.
That is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen on Free Republic.
Now *that* should be for sale on Hammacher Schlemmer!
How long did that take to design and assemble?
My husband’s eyes started twinkling when I just showed him & he’s incredibly envious.
He says we’ll bring all the food.
And beer.

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

Great, great photos of the Universe. Thanks

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My opinion, for what it’s worth, after spending many years examining, observing and imagining objects in the sky, is the event that occurred off the coast of California recently, was a missile launch.

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I agree.