A new visual intimacy – with the universe and others

To understand my enthusiastic reaction to a new, tiny, and inexpensive 2.5-inch LCD video monitor, you have to understand my fundamental goal – helping people connect with the universe. In doing that I have been very suspicious of putting too...

Video, sketching, observing and education

My focus of late has been on how to best integrate video astronomy into my educational programs - and personal observing - so I retain the sense of intimacy - the connections - with the night sky. I'm skeptical of...

Size 'em up!

Dave Buhrman just sent me a wonderful link to a site that does an excellent job of comparing the sizes of the planets, Sun, and other stars. Of course anyone can do this - but not everyone can do it...

Epi, epi, epicycles!

Boy if you ever wondered about those crazy epicycles that folks had so much trouble explaining when they assumed we were the center of the solar system (universe?) and not the Sun, take a look at this Astronomy Picture of...

Weather lessons, electronic eyepieces and finding stuff

Preface: A Messier Marathon is an event held near the end of March, the one time of the year when you can actually see all the Messier objects in a single night. There are 110 Messier objects and a...

Notes on looking up . . .

Another hour or so beneath the Orion 80 ED on a p-mount has given me more insights into this business of straight through viewing - looking up to see the stars. (See earlier post.) What's more, I just did a...

Where we were November 11, 2006

I love trying to get a grip on reality - and it's not easy when it comes to looking at the sky from the perspective we get on the surface of this tiny planet. Really understanding what we are seeing...

Lessons learned from Orion's sword

One of the more enlightening moments I had last year was when a visitor to Driftway Observatory peered into the 15-inch and asked me if the three stars in a row she saw were Orion's Belt. It was a good...

Going round and round . . .

I've added this simple North Star disc – 2-feet in diameter – to the Observatory tools. When you face it, you’re also facing north, and it spins gently so you can adjust it to the current positions of the...

Old dogs, new tricks, and O-III filters

Well, I learned something new last night. For most of my amateur astronomy life I have regarded the moon as an enemy and the full moon as Satan. Why? Because a bright moon drowns out most of the interesting things...

Blind and no bluff

Contour drawing, I’m talking about – but with no contours, either. Still, it helps – I’m convinced you see more when you do it. As usual, when I plan to get up early I end up getting a whopping 6-hours...

Twinkle, twinkle little nuclear explosion

I had a father and his10-year-old son come for their first visit to the Observatory yesterday and this time I think I started them off right. I’ve learned a lot during this first year of public observing sessions and...

Of hawks, craters and galaxies

Sometimes I learn things the hard way. No, I always learn them the hard way – sometimes I just carry that approach to the ridiculous. This is one such time. But I think I’m a little wiser, though not...

Sun, Moon, Twilight tables

You can callculate tables giving you sunrise, sunset times - as well as moonrise and moonset and astronomicaland civil twilight times - for any location on earth by going to the US Naval Observatory site here. I used this site...