Converts

Had a bunch of new relatives converted to astrophiles. Hemant and family were down from Bangalore. Spent a quick 45 minutes viewing Jupiter (not very clear, most probably due to localised heat-caused turbulence) and Saturn (beautiful and sharp - one of the best times to view this planet).

The Orion Nebula looked all pretty too, but I wish it had the colours it showed in this recent NASA pictures

Of course, no amount of wishing will make my telescope produce anything close to this. This is because of the Telescope Monetary Principle, which says that the amount of detail you see is directly proportional to the fourth root of the cost of your telescope. My Orion XT8 Classic Dobsonian cost about $500. The Hubble cost about $2500000000.