Archive for the ‘Observing’ Category

Moon tools Pt 1 (The Intro)

Monday, December 16th, 2019

I'm a tool kinda guy. You know .. Swiss Army knife, a good flashlight, some vice grips, and, of course, a good astronomy app. Web based tools and apps for astronomy and stargazing are really the good stuff. This series is going to delve into various tools I've found on ...

Magnitude? Yes! (apparently)

Monday, April 1st, 2019

Yes, indeed! Apparently! That's how we see a star's brightness form our perspective here on Earth. We use the term "magnitude" to describe the brightness of a star. We call the measurement of the brightness from Earth the "apparent magnitude". The effect of this apparent brightness leads us to the ...

Finding Polaris

Tuesday, February 26th, 2019

A common question arises about sky watching that I wanted to address, namely, "How do I find Polaris, the North Star"? It's a great question as well as it is often asked. For many people, the first assumption about Polaris is that it is a bright star so it should ...

Lunar Eclipse - January 20-21!!!

Sunday, January 6th, 2019

This year starts off nicely with a lunar eclipse on January 20. This is a Sunday night during the MLK 3 day weekend and it will be visible to all of North America. The first stage with the penumbra visible is starting Jan 20 at 10:10PM (22:11) EST and last ...

SVC Tip #5 - New Features

Tuesday, September 4th, 2018

Here's another update in the series on using Sky View Cafe (SVC) and some details on the recent upgrade of this tool. Kerry Shetline has released the latest upgrade as of July 2017 with a slightly different look but it replaces the legacy Java version. There have been some refinements ...

Naked Eye Lunar Observing Pt 2

Thursday, November 30th, 2017

In this post, we'll continue the discussion of naked eye targets on our Moon. In the first post, we looked at some of the larger mare that present themselves during the week from new moon to 1st quarter. Let's "follow the terminator" and look for some more challenging objects to ...

Naked Eye Lunar Observing Pt 1

Saturday, October 14th, 2017

This is the first of (hopefully) several posts that discuss naked eye targets on our Moon. Instead of a map or a geographical approach, I'll "follow the terminator", the shadow line that progresses across the moon's surface as the phases advance. For some easy targets, why not start with the Lunar ...

How long is a month?

Wednesday, March 9th, 2016

If you check deeper into the meaning of "month", you quickly find Earth's moon right at the center of the explanation. It turns out that the ancient Babylonians pretty much started this examination in the years around 500BC. These early mathematicians and astronomers took extra care in watching and noting ...

Autumn targets sans planets

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

These last couple of months have seen the gradual westward track of Saturn. It's way too early in the year for observing Jupiter. Uranus and Neptune are up later but they aren't easy to get in a small scope. The evenings are getting dark a little sooner now, so, ...

The Lunar 100

Friday, August 14th, 2015

If you are on a mission to discover our Moon and your looking for a detailed observing guide, one of the best ones to start with is Charles Woods, Lunar 100. For a number of years now, Charles has written a frequent column about the moon in Sky and Telescope ...