Dave's Universe - Astronomy Magazine - Interactive Star Charts, Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes

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English Astronomers: Touring London

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Our group of 25 Astronomy magazine readers, led by Melita Thorpe of MWT Associates and accompanied by me, started our English adventure Thursday, August 8, 2013, after resting for a day following our flights, mostly from the United States. We will get into the astronomy starting tomorrow; today was a day for orienting folks with the city of London and offering some of its prime attractions for sampling. Our tour began with a thorough viewing of the Tower of London, including the magnificent Trai...

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Visiting the 2013 EAA AirVenture

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

On Friday, August 2, Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I traveled north of Milwaukee some 90 miles to the site of the world’s largest airshow, EAA Airventure, which takes place each July/August in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Some 10,000 aircraft of all types flock to the event along with tens of thousands of enthusiasts, making the control tower in Oshkosh the busiest in the world for this short span. Aerospace companies and organizations like NASA are also on hand, conducting outreach for their la...

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Check out my Huffington Post blog on comets and oceans

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

For some years beginning in the 1990s, it became trendy for scientists and the public to jump on the bandwagon of the idea that comets supplied huge amounts of water to early Earth. Conferences included considerable talk about the notion. Writers pounded out books suggesting the idea was ironclad. Several studies cropped up adding apparent weight to the evidence that much or most of Earth’s water — and the conditions friendly to abundant life — rained down from outside the atmo...

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On the road: London, Bath, and Oxford, England

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

I’m counting down the days to the magazine’s trip to England to explore haunts of English astronomers and scientists — Herschel, Halley, Newton, Harrison, Wren, and others. I’ll be delighted to go along as a tour guide and speaker; the trip details are being handled by Astronomy magazine’s tour partner, MWT Associates. The trip departs Tuesday, August 6, with flights to Heathrow, and we will spend the remainder of the next day resting and adjusting t...

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Dave Eicher to speak at Harvard College Observatory

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

I’ll be delighted to speak on the 40th anniversary of Astronomy magazine at Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Thursday, September 19, 2013. The talk will be part of the institution’s Observatory Nights put on by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), in which public talks precede telescopic observing from the observatory’s roof. The Harvard-Smithsonian CfA sponsors free programs for the public on the third Thursday of every month, excludin...

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Astronomy will help host NYC Central Park star party

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Last autumn, the Astronomy magazine crew were on hand to help host a big New York City star party put on by the Amateur Astronomers Association (AAA) of New York, one of the world’s largest astronomy clubs. It was really a joy, and Rich Talcott and I helped hundreds of folks in Central Park discover that you can see a lot more of the sky from New York City than you might expect.Last year, some 30 telescopes were set up in a line along a portion of Sheep Meadow in Central Park, a great area...

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Dave Eicher to speak at Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Last year, Alan Traino, one of the driving forces behind the Northeast Astronomy Forum, left that great telescope show and began his own in Tucson, Arizona. Called the Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo (ASAE), the new event is held in November and is planned to be an annual show, with exhibitors, talks, and more fun of all kinds in what is undoubtedly the astronomy capital of the United States. This year’s show will be held at the Tucson Convention Center on November 16 and 17. I’m ...

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Astronomy to again co-sponsor Advanced Imaging Conference

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

For the past 10 years, the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) has grown into the largest of all meetings centering on astrophoto techniques for amateur astronomers. This year the meeting will take place once again at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, in Santa Clara, California, in the heart of the beautiful Silicon Valley. Astronomy magazine will again serve as a sponsor for the AIC. Several hundred astroimagers will spend October 11–13 attending magnificently detailed talks, seeing new produc...

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Congrats to David Fuller and “Eyes on the Sky”

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Last year, I blogged about an enthusiastic young man named David Fuller who produces nice videos about astronomical observing. I met David at ALCON in Chicago last summer, and he’s really a very nice guy. Congratulations are due this week to David for reaching the milestone of having produced his 100th “Eyes on the Sky” video. “Along the way,” said David, “I have tried in almost every video to highlight the importance of dark skies and/or good outdoor lig...

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Watch out for ALCON 2017!

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

You may well know about the big event that’s happening in the sky August 21, 2017. If not, you’re going to hear lots about it over the coming months. A total solar eclipse will sweep across the United States through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. At greatest eclipse, in eastern Kentucky, totality will last 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Because of the eclipse fever that will invariably sweep across the U.S., the Astronomical L...

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"Civilizations in the universe" redux

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

In the January 2013 issue of Astronomy, I wrote a little piece about the likelihood of civilizations in the cosmos. That caused a big flow of letters from readers about their opinions, and I shared many of these several months ago. I got a straggler just a few days ago from reader Suzanne Searby, and I wanted to share it too. So here goes . . . “The other day I happened to chance upon an old much-read copy of the January 2013 issue of Astronomy. It was fascinating reading. I was parti...

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Star & Sky magazine, and how things were nearly different!

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Most astronomy enthusiasts know about the two big magazines covering the hobby in the United States. Astronomy magazine, of which I’m the editor, is the largest (in the world!), with a circulation in print of 108,000 and an online readership of 380,000+ each month. With 62 percent our circulation, Sky & Telescope is second in size. But not all amateur astronomers know that years ago a third magazine also claimed the spare minutes of enthusiasts, and its name was Star & Sky. —...

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Comet ISON and Comet Hale-Bopp: an excerpt from my upcoming book

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

My book COMETS! Visitors from Deep Space will be published by Cambridge University Press this October. Here’s a taste of one of the observational chapters, describing history’s last truly great comet, Hale-Bopp. Enjoy!As we patiently await Comet ISON (C/2012 S1), we all know that comparisons will be made to the last really stunning comet, Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1). On July 23, 1995, while observing the globular star cluster M70, two observers in the southwestern United States ...

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See you at the Okie-Tex Star Party

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

I will be going to the 30th annual Okie-Tex Star Party near Kenton, Oklahoma, and delivering a talk Saturday, October 5, “Comets: Visitors from Deep Space.” The Okie-Tex takes place in a remote area of the Oklahoma Panhandle that features magnificently dark skies. Hosted by the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club, this year’s event runs from September 28 through October 6 at Camp Billy Joe, just a few miles east of Kenton. Several of my old friends from days past at Okie-Tex and the T...

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Comet PANSTARRS imaged as it recedes

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Check out this fantastic picture of Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) taken by Damian Peach of Selsey, England, on the morning of July 10, 2013. Although the comet is now receding from us and from the Sun, it still retains a nice tail in this shot. Damian used a 17-inch CDK scope at f/4.5, a FLI-PL6303E CCD camera, and composite stacked exposures. When this photo was taken, PANSTARRS glowed at about magnitude 11.3 and was some 2.4 astronomical units (223.1 million miles [359.0 million kilometers]) fro...

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Plunging stars: an excerpt from my upcoming book

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

My book COMETS! Visitors from Deep Space will be published by Cambridge University Press this October. Here’s a taste of one of the science chapters, describing how various effects knock comets inward toward the inner solar system. Enjoy! What about the troublemakers? The objects that perturb Oort Cloud comets, sending them inward toward the Sun, have been objects of fascination ever since Jan Oort himself considered them. Prior to 1970, no one knew about giant molecular clouds. Enco...

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Damian Peach’s outstanding July Saturn

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Our good friend and contributor Damian Peach of Selsey, England, continues to wow the astronomical world with his incredible astroimages, week by week. When he recently sent an image he shot of Saturn on July 8, 2013, I thought this has to be shared. What a phenomenal picture!When he shot it, Saturn measured 17.46 arcseconds across its equator and was some 25° above the horizon, at 20:37 UT. Wow!!...

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Last chance for the London trip

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

There’s still a little time and a little room left on next month’s journey Astronomy magazine readers will take to London, England. But time is running out — if you are interested, check this link for details on how to join. I’ll be delighted to go along as a tour guide and speaker; the trip details are being handled by Astronomy magazine’s tour partner, MWT Associates. The trip departs on Tuesday, August 6, with flights to Heathrow, and we will spend the rema...

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High-energy galaxies imaged by Ryan Hannahoe

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

With fireworks coming in a few days here in the United States, it’s an appropriate time to recognize some fireworks in galaxies in deep space, too. Astroimager Ryan Hannahoe recently sent images of two well-known active galaxies, M77 in Cetus and M82 in Ursa Major. M77 is the brightest Seyfert galaxy in the sky, the preeminent example of a class of galaxies marked by bright nuclei and a pattern of emission lines indicating an active supermassive black hole in residence. M77 lies roughly 47...

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Damian Peach’s unreal image of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

We’re all familiar with the amazing astroimaging talents of Damian Peach of Selsey, England. Well, Damian has struck again with what may be the greatest image I’ve seen taken by an amateur astronomer of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy. Damian used an FSQ 106 refractor, an STL-11000M CCD camera, and a composite of three images for the stacked exposure, which was shot while a 95-percent-illuminated Moon was present. The images each were 3 minute...

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Comets and the Oort Cloud: an excerpt from my upcoming book

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

My book, COMETS! Visitors from Deep Space, will be published by Cambridge University Press this October. Here’s a taste of an introductory chapter that describes where comets live in the solar system. Enjoy! Given the incredible uncertainty of most early observers over the distances to comets, it’s impressive that by the mid-19th century, the majority of scientists came to believe that comets have orbits larger than the planets. The beginning of a modern division of cometary orbits, ...

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Stephen Ramsden on Carl Sagan

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

My recent story in Astronomy magazine and blogs on Carl Sagan have unleashed a volley of folks contacting me about their thoughts and memories of Carl. Here is one such submission, from Stephen Ramsden, who operates the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project. Stephen is a fixture at amateur astronomy events and also drew his early inspiration from Sagan. So I present a guest blog from Stephen:“I was a run-of-the-mill student at one of Atlanta’s worst high schools in the late ’70...

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Carl Sagan’s career advice — and its relevance today

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

When I was just starting Deep Sky Monthly, my amateurish publication about star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, I wrote Carl Sagan at Cornell University for astronomy-related career advice. As it turned out, I veered off into astronomy journalism rather than becoming a professional astronomer. Carl was then a renowned professor of astronomy and had regular stints with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, but this was before Cosmos, which made Sagan an international icon of astronomy. Anyway, he w...

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Celestron tour, talks, music highlight day 2 of Celestron Perspective

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Day 1 at Celestron Perspective, the first such meeting in the history of amateur astronomy, presented numerous talks on astroimaging. Never before had a manufacturer brought together others from the industry, accomplished astrophotographers, and notables in the hobby to discuss where astronomy is and where it’s going. The fantastic invited speakers on Day 1 were John Davis, Thierry Legault, Christopher Go, Warren Keller, and Robert Reeves. Many thanks for the great success of this meeting ...

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Imaging focus at day 1 of Celestron Perspective

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

A first in the history of organized amateur astronomy took place Wednesday, June 19, in Redondo Beach, California, when telescope manufacturer Celestron kicked off a two-day conference called Celestron Perspective. Never before has a telescope company brought together some 75 great thinkers in the hobby, astroimagers, telescope dealers, and its own staff to share exciting ideas and brainstorm about the hobby’s future. That is exactly what happened when the most active telescope manufacture...

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On the road: Celestron Perspective

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

You may have noticed that I’ve been a little off on posting blogs lately. This has been an incredibly busy time, with a number of projects in midstream and several other big things cropping up for Astronomy magazine’s future. Just absolutely nonstop. But all good. Tomorrow, Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I will be traveling to Los Angeles to participate in and help to emcee Celestron Perspective, a first-ever conference being put on by the telescope manufacturer. This two-day event...

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Comets and the distance scale of the solar system

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Here’s a comet exercise of the day, one that will help you appreciate the scale of the solar system. Take a ruler and mark 1 centimeter on a sheet of paper. That’s the distance between the Sun and Earth, 1 astronomical unit (AU), or about 93.0 million miles (149.6 million kilometers) — vastly farther than we have ever traveled in space as humans. You could also add other planets, too — Jupiter at 5 AU, Saturn at 9.5 AU, Uranus at 19 AU, and Neptune at 30 AU. Now consider ...

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Memories of Comet West: an excerpt from my upcoming book

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

My book, Comets: Visitors from Deep Space, will be published this fall by Cambridge University Press. Here’s a taste of chapter one, which describes my first adventures with viewing Comet West.Enjoy! When I was young, I fancied becoming a doctor. The allure of medicine, of diagnosing diseases, of understanding the complexity of the human body — it all seemed endlessly fascinating. It offered a universe of ideas and challenges you could lose yourself in that could help perso...

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Amateur astronomer captures gravitational streamers from galaxy

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Astroimager Lynn Hilborn of the WhistleStop Observatory in Grafton, Ontario, Canada, sent me this fantastic image of the galaxy NGC 5907 in Draco, which is sometimes called the Splinter Galaxy. “Some time ago in an editorial, you requested astrophotographers to consider some of the rarer objects for possible inclusion in the magazine,” wrote Lynn. “I was delighted to pick up the extended stellar tidal stream around the galaxy after 21.5 hours of imaging with my modest TEC1...

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A great new book: Sun Kwok’s "Stardust"

Posted 10 years ago by David Eicher

Longtime readers of Astronomy magazine undoubtedly know of our great friend and colleague Sun Kwok of the University of Hong Kong, one of the world’s leading experts on astrochemistry and stellar evolution. I’m delighted to say that Sun’s new book is just out, Stardust: The Cosmic Seeds of Life (267 pp., paper. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2013, $39.95, ISBN 978–3–642–32801–5). This is one of the most entertaining books I’ve seen in astronomy in a wh...

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