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

Mars will NOT be as big as the Moon... E-mail hoaks

Image represents about 4 am CST from San Antonio, Texas looking West on Jan. 29th.

No the planet Mars will not be as big as the moon. You'd be amazed at how many times people at public star parties come up to me and say with complete confidence that Mars will be as large, as close as the moon. I don't know who started this rumor but I've been hearing that line from the general public at star parties for years. On January 29, 2009 Mars will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. This is the best time to view and photograph Mars. But sorry is isn't going to be as big as the moon in the sky.

PBS Special- Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice

I watched this documentary titled "Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice", a PBS video. This video focuses on preparation of the Mars Phoenix Mission. It was amazing to see all the work and the human side of the mission. I wasn't aware that during the planning there were open houses to help get the public involved. This video focuses mostly on the test and build phase of Phoenix. This mission was the first time that NASA has allowed off site control of a mission such as this. This is because much of the mission once there will be run by scientists at the University of Arizona.

This video was educational, but I didn't find it as entertaining as the some of the NOVA documentaries I've seen on the Rover missions. At times, this video seemed slow and redundant.

The mission was successful and I would have liked to have seen more about the actual mission once on mars. This video does state that it is "to be continued".

I really feel that we are very fortunate to live in a day and age that hobbyist astronomers have access to videos such as this, and information on the internet. We truly are living in the golden age of information. Despite this information we have access to it was surprising to see in the video a member of the press asking if the lander had astronauts on board...


You can watch this video right here:

Watch more PBS Specials videos on AOL Video

Toys on Mars??

I've been thinking about Mars lately. I've learn lots about the Mars explorations over the past years. In 2008 I was selected to be part of a team of educators from NASA Explorer Schools to go to Yellowstone National Park to study the water cycle and extreme-o-files. While there we did many video conferences with Mars exploration scientists to learn about how studying the water-cycle on Earth and extreme-o-files helps with the exploration on Mars. (more on that later)

Mars truly seems to be the next great frontier. We have been to the moon... hopefully we will go back but that depends on the economic and political conditions of our planet. *yes the entire planet*

I look forward to the LCROSS lunar project coming up this Friday and further exploration of Mars and the Moon. I look forward to the day when there is great enthusiasm by the general public. We saw and example of this when Hot Wheels produced an action set of the Mars Rovers. My readers might not know that I'm a past Hot Wheel collector and I have about 4 of these Rover sets still in the package. My Hotwheel days are behind me but it is good to see that I even had an interest in astronomy back then.

Nova: Welcome to Mars; My Reflections

I decided to use my netflix account to educate myself in the area of astronomy. I watched "Nova: Welcome To Mars" a documentary on the Mars rover Spirit and Opportunity. I found this video to be excellent. The film crew was there on hand during the crucial moments at NASA's JPL. I was in college during the the launch and landing of the rovers.. but at that time I wasn't that interested in astronomy.

I found this video very entertaining and educational. My wife was asleep on the couch when I started he video but she woke up and decided to watch it. That is saying a lot for this video.


Nova did a great job with narration of this film. Also, great care was given to get interviews with appropriate people. They had access to lead investigator Steve Squires even during key moments in the rover missions.

The visuals in this video are "out of this world" (haha), but seriously it was great seeing the NASA computer animation and more exciting access to images from Mars.

Watching this video makes me want to go out and spend some quality time observing Mars. I wasn't around when humans landed on the moon but I sure that people who watched those first steps must have felt compelled to take a second look at the moon. I know I'll take a second look at Mars next time I observe.

I really liked the humanistic side of the video. They explore how the JPI rover teams adjusted their schedule and lived on Mars Time. They even interview a couple who both work on the Rover Mission and how their schedule affects their children. They even state that due to the stress of the work many of the JPL scientist switched their diets to ice cream.

I found this video excellent and recommend it to anyone interested in Mars, astronomy or science.

In fact you can watch the video right here:

Nova: Mars Dead or Alive

First things first: The peak of the Perseid meteor shower is today.

I recently watched "Nova: Mars Dead or Alive", a documentary on the Mars Rover missions. This was the second time I watched this video. Both times, I found this video both educational and entertaining. I'm really impressed with the video. It was really great to see the development and struggles of Spirit and Opportunity. I found this documentary to be the of the highest quality. I highly recommend it.