Archive for the ‘SVP News’ Category

S.V.P. Comet News - C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

Thursday, September 26th, 2024

Comet C/2023 A3 is in the news over the last few weeks and with a lot of due excitement. It was discovered independently by two different observatories in early 2023 and also goes by the proper name of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS to recognize the co-discoverers. It may end up being one of ...

S.V.P. Star News - How far are they?

Sunday, September 28th, 2014

Recently, I found this article on the history of measuring distances to the stars. Accurately measuring the distances to closeby stars allows astronomers to further calibrate their models of stars. This branch of astronomy is known as astrometry. In august of this year, this topic got a bit more interesting with ...

S.V.P. Star News - Pleaides

Thursday, August 28th, 2014

A recent measurement, made using radio telescopes, has resulted in a new determination of the distance to The Pleaides. The Pleiades, also know as M45, is a fairly close by open cluster. Its close enough such that the distance to it's stellar members can be measured with different methods. So, ...

S.V.P. Star News - Solar Maximum minimizes

Friday, August 8th, 2014

Our Sun continues to brighten our days and that is a really good thing. It has a characteristic cycle of activity that repeats every 11 years. But it gets a little "moody" now and then, not quite behaving as normal. NASA had a recent article on the mysterious state of ...

S.V.P. Star News - Subaru!

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013

Welcome to today’s S.V.P. Star News! Today's topic, Subaru! I am sure you will like this little sky tidbit, especially as we get into the Autumn, when this object is becoming visible again. The Pleiades (also known in Japan as Subaru) is coming up in the east and getting ...