Archive for the ‘Observing’ Category
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
This time of year is always a little bit of a challenge when it comes to listing good targets for public observation sessions. The last of the globular clusters have moved off, the galaxy scene is sparse and if the moon isn't up all you can hope for is a ...
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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
When it comes to deciding what objects are the most spectacular in the Winter sky, it's difficult to understate the beauty of the constellation of Orion, The Hunter. Regardless of whether you are observing just casually or more seriously, naked eye, binoculars or telescope, there is so much to offer ...
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Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
Really colorful stars are popular during outreach events. They typically get some good reactions due to their uncommon nature. Some are well know but others are also worth checking out and adding to your repertoire.
In the Winter time, one good telescopic target is Hind's Crimson Star. Otherwise know as R ...
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Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013
One of my favorite tools on the internet is Sky View Cafe (SVC). Its a Java applet that runs in a browser session and its free to use online. It's so useful that I hope to publish the occasional tip for using it. So here is the first tip, using ...
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
Another fun night at Fernbank Observatory spending time with Jupiter. New moon that night and a nice crowd of fellow sky lovers. The GRS was up later so we would miss it but Europa was going to pop into view at 21:52. I had already noted the time using SVC. ...
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Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
Jupiter is really showing it's beauty now that it has climbed higher in the sky in the last few weeks. As always when the king of planets comes around, I am always eager to get a look at the Great Red Spot (GRS). The view from Fernbank Observatory on December ...
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Saturday, August 4th, 2012
When you plan your upcoming sky viewing, it's always a good idea to check what planets are going to be visible. There are a number of ways to layout a plan for the constellations and because they are regular and predictable, it's easy to get prepared. "Well", you might say, ...
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Monday, May 21st, 2012
Over the last decade or so, the internet has brought forth many great resources for the hobby of astronomy. Amongst the many pieces of free software I have found, one of the most useful is Stellarium, a downloadable "planetarium" program. Stellarium runs on Windows, Mac and even Linux and gives ...
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Saturday, April 14th, 2012
The northern sky has several memorable asterisms and the favorite one is probably the Big Dipper. It's actually only part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It's easy to spot when it swings into view in the early evening this time of year. And the further you are to the ...
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
This season, the planets are coming around into view again in the evening sky. But, what about trees in the title of this blog? Ahh, if you're viewing from the suburbs, trees tend to get in the way of objects only a short angular distance from the horizon. The point ...
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