Time Lapse Star Party

This is a video I found with some nice time lapse photography in Italy. Enjoy!



ps. It looks like someone on the right side kept using a white light during the star party!

Geminids Meteor Shower - December 13-14, 2010

Amateur Astronomers of Rhode Island Reports: "The most reliable meteor shower of the year, the Geminids are characterized by their multi-colored display--65% being white, 26% yellow, and the remaining 9% blue, red and green."

Parent Comet: 3200 Phaethon

To prepare you for this I found this wonderful resource that has been posted numerous times on my blog:


For more information:
http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

Esparza Elementary School – Tuesday, November 16:

The school event on Tuesday, November 16 was perfection. The weather is
clear and the viewing was steady. Despite a few misdirected lights in
the distance that area we sat up at was relatively dark for an urban
school. The children and the parents that viewed through my scope were
really well behaved and polite. Many had detailed questions about the
object I was showing with my telescope. I brought my scope named “Big
Red” and showed NGC457 the Owl Cluster a.k.a “E.T.” ; “Wall-E”
to the crowd of 175 or so. SAAA members present were: Don B., Bill B.,
Jay M., Danielle R., John and Amy E. and I. The school fed us Subway
Sandwiches.

Orionids Meteor Shower- October 21-22, 2010

Amateur Astronomers of Rhode Island Reports: "This shower produces a peak rate of 20 yellow and green meteors per hour, which are fast moving at 41.6 miles per second and are known to produce fireballs."

Parent Comet: 1P/Halley
Moon Phase: Full

To prepare you for this I found this wonderful resource that has been posted numerous times on my blog:


For more information:
http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

2010 Perseid Meteor Shower Report

2010 has not been good for astronomy around my area it's just been to cloudy and wet. Things might be changing:

Aug. 13- Unfortunately, I had my jeep at the dealer all day for a computer reprogram as part of a software update...cars now days!

Anyways, I didn't get it back until 6:30 so Tina and I couldn't make it to the viewing party that the Sky Observers group was holding at a private viewing area.

Not all was lost Tina and I did head out highway 16 to the Bandera/Medina county line and watched for about an hour 11:50pm-12:50am. We saw only five meteors. Two of them were an estimated magnitude -3 or bighter (using Jupiter as a reference). Each was slow with a nice green hue and trail.

From our spot we could see magnitude 5.6 stars the Milkly Way was clearly seen.

It is a great spot. I have gone there before I usually drive the Jeep way off the highway or up a hill and it gets us away from passing headlights and we just sit with the top off the Jeep watching... works out really well; astronomy without getting out of the Jeep!

I guess it's the next level of astronomy we have had arm-chair astronomy; Now we have drive through astronomy! Haha

Excellent Exo-Planet Video

Jennifer's Light Tresspass (Video 5/7)

STICK UP For Dark Sky in 2010!

Most Commonly Ignored Problem on earth

Video 1 of 7.
Are we in the Denial period?

I'll admit it is a little slow and the cue card reading is obvious but if you close your eyes it is better. (ignore the lawnmower)



Next Video will be posted Tomorrow!

Jet in front of the moon!

Cool video:

Early Days of Hubble- Video by Phil Plait

Found this wonderful video on youtube and thought I'd share:

Filters Anyone?

No More Ground based Astronomy in 2050???

Interesting.. sorry for the voice... but this is interesting. I really don't think this is the case but it is possible. Perhaps another reason to go green!

Fred Watson on Dark Matter

New Eyepeices Anyone?

Sidewalk Astronomy Event Timelapse

Travel Picks: Top 10 places to sky watch

I found this little article while surfing around, maybe you can use it to plan your next vacation. Click here to READ THE TOP 10.

Aperture Mask

Well I got around to making an aperture mask for my 16" Meade Lightbridge. It really helps with viewing details on planets. Rick and I made the mask our Sunday telescope making project. We usually do some telescope making project about once a month. As you can see the masks has an opening for the secondary screws, this is really just because the screws are up above the secondary spider mount. The secondary blocks out any light that comes in the center hole. This mask vastly improves the details Mars by taking out the diffraction lines and central obstruction that normally isn't an issue with Deep sky objects. Also stopping the aperture down allows image to not be washed out. I spent about 2 hours looking at Mars and the moon tonight with and without the mask. I seem to like it!

I decided that I'd mount some Velcro on the top of my rocker box to hold the mask when it isn't in use

Sketching- A Worthwhile Effort- Recommended.

Outreach Videos: #5

Getting Started in Astronomical Outreach - Video 4

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is today's outreach video: