Amateur Astronomy
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Great Andromeda Nebula
The "Great Andromeda Nebula", which is no nebula at all but a galaxy like our own Milky Way, drifts across November nights. It is the most distant object we can see with the naked eye; more than two million lights away.
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It's December
It's December. We've made it through another year full of ups and downs and in-betweens and hopefully many, many starry nights.
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A Hole in the Sun, a Small Bite Out of the Moon, and Monitoring a Minor Meteor Shower
It's another eclipse month, with an annular eclipse of the Sun on the 3rd, and a partial eclipse of the Moon on the 17th. Also, there is the possibility, however slight, of unusual activity from a minor meteor shower.
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More of the Same: Planets
September begins where August left off: Jupiter and Venus steal a kiss at dusk, while Spica and the Moon are a couple of Peeping Toms, trying to crash the party.
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Planets and Perseids
This month's highlights are, as usual for August, planets and Perseids. The planets in question are Venus and Jupiter, which pick up the slack from the gathering of Venus, Mercury, and Saturn earlier in the summer. The Perseids are ... well, the Perseids.
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The Usual Planetary Metaphors and Meteor Shower Hangovers
Well, June's gathering of planets becomes July's metaphor for relationships as Saturn, now smitten with the Sun, disappears into its glare early in the month. And then there's the meteor shower hangover...
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A Gathering of Planets
The big deal of June night skies has to be the gathering of planets late in the month.
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Restless Nights in May
This month we have a meteor shower; we have an asteroid; we have the planets and the moon.
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Some Eclipses
We have some eclipses going on in April: a total-annular eclipse of the sun on the 8th, which is visible across the Pacific Ocean, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela, and a penumbral eclipse of the moon on the 24th visible from the western half of North America. What? Annular? Penumbral? What happened to good ol' total and partial eclipses?
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Mercury, Saturn, Gemini, etc.
Mercury, Saturn, and Gemini in March...
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Inspiring Capella and February's Planets
Capella is one of our brightest stars, not quite magnitude 0, but a smidge brighter than magnitude 1.0. It shines down on us from north circumpolar skies at an in-your-face distance of about 42 light-years.
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Highlights of 2005 and a January Comet
Looking ahead, a few night-sky highlights elbow each other aside for attention. As for this, the first month of this new year, the highlight might be Comet C/2004 Q2 Macholz, one of two comets discovered last year by amateur astronomers.
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Folklore, Meteors and Planets
The end of autumn/beginning of winter edition of the night sky is
always a bestseller. I mean, what night sky could offer us more in the way
of folklore than this, the night sky of December?
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Minor Meteor Showers and Morning Planets
Serious students of meteor showers have a chance to hone their skills
as data gatherers, and possibly contribute to our understanding of a
couple of minor meteor showers this month; poets, dreamers and wide-eyed
star-gazers get an early morning treat of bright planets with a sprinkle
of waning crescent moon early in the month. And of course there is the
Leonid meteor shower.
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Halley's Comet One Piece at a Time, and the Draconids (Maybe)
October's moon drops below the horizon in the middle of the night
around the 20th of the month, thus affording us a good look at peak activity
of the Orionid meteor shower during the predawn hours.
You can warm up for the Orionids early in the month with the usually
non-existent Draconid meteor shower.
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Shine On, Harvest Moon...
"Shine on, shine on harvest moon, up in the sky. I ain't had no lovin'
since
January ..." Oops. Sorry. I got harvest moons on the brain. We have a
big one
coming up on the 28th.
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A Good Year for the Perseids
We are coming up on the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, and it falls only 4 days prior to the New Moon.
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The Beginning of Meteor Season
During July, it is possible to see more meteors than during August, when the Perseids peak. But it takes a lot of hours out under clear, dark skies to pull it off. All these meteors are the result of a handful of meteor showers: the Piscis-Austrinids, the North and South Delta Aquarids, the South Iota Aquarids, the Alpha Capricornids, and, of course, the Perseids.
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There's a little black spot on the sun today...
On June 8, Venus will pass in front of the Sun as seen from Earth. It might not sound like much, but the last time this happened was in 1882. In fact, Venus transits the Sun only 13 or 14 times every 1,000 years. It does, however tend to do it in pairs, separated by a period of 8 years. This transit of the sun by Venus will be repeated in 2012.
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Comet NEAT, a Lunar Eclipse, and the Endless Dance of the Planets
Comet C/2001 Q4 NEAT is nearest the Earth on the 6th, and at perihelion on the 15th, during a New Moon. Comets, of course, are always difficult to predict, no matter how much we think we know, (Anybody remember comet Kohoutek in 1973?) but comet NEAT just may be a decent naked eye object.
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Planets, Pleiades, and Some Lyrid Meteors
We get some otherworldly loveliness – that is more than the usual - during the first few days of the month when gloriously bright Venus sails within less than ½0 of the stunning Pleiades.
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Dim Lynx and Bright Planets
March nights feature some pretty empty skies. Cancer, between the twins and the lion, is nothing to get excited about at all. Leo Minor? Canes Venatici? Forget about it. And then there's Lynx, another gathering of faint stars, stretched out between the Dig Dipper and Capella and Castor and Pollux.
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Gegenschein and Zodiacal Light
Clear moonless nights during late February are the best times to look for Gegenschein and Zodiacal Light.
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Things to do and see in 2004
...let’s look ahead and see what 2004 has in store for us sleepless stargazers, fanciful dreamers, and lovelorn … well, maybe not the lovelorn. Anyway...
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December’s Hodge Podge
December’s another hodge podge of starry stuff. There are planets. There are meteor showers. There’s the moon and Comet 2P Enke and the winter solstice in the north, the summer solstice in the south. And there are the beautiful winter constellations; arrangements of stars so striking even Joe Average recognizes some of them.
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Leonids Past; a Little Self-Indulgence
I’m going to be a little self-indulgent this month pondering the Leonid meteor shower. Oh sure, there’s other stuff going on in the night sky during November, but I've got Leonids on my mind.
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Comet 2P Enke and Other October Sights
On the 28th, Comet 2P Enke is at opposition; this is the beginning of what might be a very nice visit with this very regular visitor. It will not, however, be a great ghostly moth like Hale-Bopp. It will be, at best, a fuzzy smear of light visible to the naked eye, but certainly no spectacle. Not to Joe Schmoe down the street anyway. To star gazers like you and me, it’ll be another starry sojourner to track among the constellations.
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September Odds and Ends
During September two minor meteor showers are favored by relatively dark skies; the Harvest Moon rises on the 10th; Mercury pops into the morning sky, and is at greatest western elongation on the 26th; Mars is still a gaudy jewel.
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... Mars ...
Perihelion and opposition, these are two very important words this month. Mix in Mars and, well, we have a spectacle that is not only a once-in-a-lifetime event, it’s a sight that hasn’t been this good in more than 50,000 years!
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Mars and Meteor Showers
Mars grows brighter and meteors streak across the sky.
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Me, June, and a Meteor Shower
A little about me and the late-in-the-month, little-observed June Bootid meteor shower, which has a predicted peak on June 27th. Because the moon is just two days shy of new, it is an excellent year to investigate this small shower, possibly making a contribution to what we know about it.
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The Orion Nebula
The birth of stars and planets.
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The Amateur Astronomer's Christmas Wish List
Some non-essential equipment we would like from Santa and links to sites to shop online.
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Algol: The Eye of Medusa
One of the more famous eclipsing binaries.
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The Pleiades, the Hyades, and the Double Cluster
Explore some open clusters, the jewel boxes of the sky.
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'It's All Greek to Me': Reading Charts
Deciphering the symbols and numbers on sky charts.
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The Leonid Meteor Shower
Info and tips on viewing the Leonid Meteor Shower.
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Sky Surveys (Hubble Isn't the Only Show in Town)
I highlight a couple of sky surveys that also offer nice images.
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The Most Spectacular Images on the Web--Part II
A continuation of my list of favorite images on the web.
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The Most Spectacular Images on the Web--Part I
This is a collection of some of my favorite images with links to the images and some facts and figures.
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The Cosmic Distance Scale: Comprehending the Incomprehensible
Here I give an analogy to try and bring incredible distances down to a level we can better envision.
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The Andromeda Galaxy: The Rodney Dangerfield of the Night Sky
Some interesting facts about the largest galaxy in our Local Group.
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Buying That First Telescope--Part Two
An explanation of terms related to telescope mounts, lenses, eyepieces and accessories and recommendations for the beginner.
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Buying That First Telescope--Part One
This is a basic introduction to the types of telescopes available and their relative virtues.
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