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On the Road Day 2: NCRAL conference

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

My trip to Bloomington, Illinois, for the North Central Region of the Astronomical League (NCRAL) conference continued into the second day, April 17. I’m here with about a hundred dedicated amateur astronomers who are experiencing a well-run event. For one thing, conference organizers from the Twin City Amateur Astronomers are making sure everything occurs on time. It seems like a simple thing, but not all conferences are so dedicated to timing, and it really helps things move along well.Friday ...

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On the Road Day 1: NCRAL conference

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

While lots of vendors and astronomy lovers are at the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) in Suffern, New York, a group of not-quite-100 amateur astronomers are with me in Bloomington, Illinois, for the North Central Region of the Astronomical League (NCRAL) conference.I drove to the conference hotel April 16, and the lobby was abuzz with carefully coordinated activity. In fact, with so many people milling about, I marveled at the level of organization by the handful of people who put the conferenc...

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On the Road: NEAIC and NEAF first impressions

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

This weekend is full of firsts for me. Not only will it be my first time attending the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF), it’s also the first time I’ve ever been in New Jersey. Let us say my first impressions of each are mixed.Thursday night, I arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport Thursday late, partly because of a technical problem with the plane, and partly because apparently everyone arrives late to Newark. Upon deplaning, I realized I’d now have to navigate my way through New Jerse...

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One the Road Day 2: Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

Friday, the second day of the Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEIAC 2010), proved to be a worthy follow-up to yesterday’s strong start. The fifth annual conference is taking place at the Holiday Inn in Suffern, New York, where speakers from around the country have come to showcase their latest creations and techniques.The day began with a bang. Alan Erickson, a senior computer scientist with Adobe Systems, talked about his company’s Photoshop program, the tool most astroimagers choose to pro...

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Wisconsin meteorites found on the ground

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin announced today they have studied meteorites recovered at an undisclosed location in western Wisconsin from Wednesday’s night’s super-bright fireball meteor. The streak of light, which ended in an explosion, was one of the brightest fireballs widely observed in recent times and presumably produced a reasonably large quantity of meteorites on the ground. “Samples have been located in southwestern Wisconsin,” says John Valley of the University of Wisc...

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On the Road Day 1: Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

Yesterday was the first day of this year’s Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEIAC 2010), and it was a blast. The fifth annual conference is taking place at the Holiday Inn in Suffern, New York, April 15–16. It prefaces the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF), which begins Saturday. Speakers from around the country have come to NEIAC 2010 to show their latest images, talk about how they create those images, and offer tips on the art and science behind the images. Add to that the 30 vendors here t...

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Fireball lights up Midwest

Posted 14 years ago by Karri Ferron

Astronomy magazine’s home region got a surprise around 10 last night when a bright green flash of light lit up the skies of Wisconsin and surrounding states. Stargazers in the area reported seeing one big ball of light as well as other smaller ones. What they witnessed was a fireball meteor. Fireballs are extremely bright meteors, generally brighter than magnitude –4, and bright enough to light up the whole night sky. Meteors occur when rocks orbiting the Sun — also known as m...

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On the Road: Here comes NEAF!

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

This weekend, April 17–18, the Rockland Astronomy Club and Astronomy magazine will host America’s biggest astronomy trade show, the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF). Senior Editor Richard Talcott will be leaving in just a few hours; Publisher Kevin Keefe, Advertising Sales Manager Jeff Felbab, Advertising Sales Representative Ken Kozerski, and I’ll join them in the next few days. Rounding out the entourage will be the winner of Astronomy’s 2010 Youth Essay Contest, 11-year-old Adam Atanas, who w...

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A Venus and Mercury movie

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

Steve Cullen, president of LightBuckets Online Telescope Rental, just sent me a cool video he took Thursday night. It shows Venus and Mercury setting behind the Chiricahua Mountains April 8, 2010, from the LightBuckets facility in Rodeo, New Mexico.Both planets now lie in the constellation Aries the Ram. In the video, magnitude 0.1 Mercury sets first. Then Venus, blazing at magnitude –3.9 (40 times brighter than Mercury), sets. The star just above Venus is 29 Arietis, which glows at magnitude 6....

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More out of this world astronomy outreach programs

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

Just over a month ago, we announced the Amateur Observers’ Society of New York as the winner of Astronomy’s 2009 Out-of-this-World Award for public outreach. As Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher said, though, it was “a very difficult decision,” and I wanted to highlight some of the other groups who reached our final round and made that decision difficult. Astronomy Club of Tulsa Formally trained teachers and veteran amateur astronomers have made the Astronomy Club of Tulsa a fount of astronomical...

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Rate your “seeing” by video

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

From "A Modern Scale of Astronomical Seeing for Imagers" by Damian Peach. Damian Peach photoRecently, famed planetary imager and long-time Astronomy contributor Damian Peach e-mailed me and several other friends the following note that offers some practical help to observers:Hi all,After discussions among Mars observers lately, I decided to create a more “modern” scale of seeing with real video examples, not based on double star observations or for visual observers but directed at imag...

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Falling stars: NEAF and meteorites

Posted 14 years ago by Mike Reynolds

In 2009, Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds conducted a series of “family meteorite workshops” at Florida State College in Jacksonville, Florida. He will present several more at the North East Astronomy Forum in April. Mike Reynolds photoOn April 17 and 18, the North East Astronomy Forum (NEAF) will take place at Rockland College in Suffern, New York. This year, Astronomy magazine will be sponsoring the meeting. This mecca of astronomy goodies — from companies who show everything from eyepieces t...

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Hubble on the big screen

Posted 14 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Astronauts aboard the STS-125 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope brought along IMAX 3-D cameras. During the May 2009 mission, they documented their spacewalks. NASA, in collaboration with the IMAX Collaboration and Warner Bros. Pictures, combined this IMAX footage with Hubble photographs. The result, Hubble 3D, was released in select IMAX theaters earlier this month — March 19, to be exact. Unfortunately, it’s not in Wisconsin yet, and it’s only in one theater in Chicago. I’m hoping i...

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Take a look back at how Celestron began

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

In recognition of its 50th anniversary, Celestron has just posted the first of six planned videos in its “Path of Light” series. Episode 1, “Generation of Dreamers” explains how the company’s founder, Tom Johnson, developed the first commercial Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.Interviews with Johnson, Celestron employees (such as former President Alan Hale and current President Joe Lupica), and notable figures in the amateur telescope field provide a historical background for Johnson’s important br...

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First deep-sky image from Astronomy Magazine Observatory

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

The Orion Nebula (M42) imaged by Gene Turner with the 14-inch SCT at Astronomy Magazine Observatory, a Hyperstar correcting lens system, and a Canon XTI DSLR camera. It‘s a composite of five 15-second exposures at f/2. On Wednesday night, March 17, Gene Turner of Rancho Hidalgo shot the first deep-sky images using Astronomy Magazine Observatory. Previously, the telescopes had been used to shoot planetary images. On Wednesday Gene concentrated on short-exposure tests of the Orion Nebula (M42), an...

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A satisfied astronomy group

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

Yesterday, I blogged about an e-mail I received from developer Gene Turner, who runs the Rancho Hidalgo Astronomy and Equestrian Village near Animas, New Mexico. He had hosted an astronomy group, and they had a great time. We thought it would be a nice follow-up if we posted an e-mail from Art Humphrey, the organizer of the group, which we received today. Here it is, in full:“After reading about the Astronomy magazine’s telescope at Rancho Hidalgo our Sun City Vistoso Astronomy Club decided to m...

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Astronomy Magazine’s observatory sees the light

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

I just received an e-mail from developer Gene Turner, who runs the Rancho Hidalgo Astronomy and Equestrian Village near Animas, New Mexico. This site is one of the clearest, darkest, and steadiest in North America. Apparently, Gene has been talking up the site and the Astronomy Magazine Observatory, and the word is getting out. Here’s Gene’s e-mail in full:Hi Michael, We just had a large adult education group from the SCV Astronomy Club out of the Tucson area in for a fabulous night on the 30-in...

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7 quick facts about Celestron

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

Celestron’s C8-NGT Newtonian reflecting telescope has always been one of the company’s seminal scopes, with the modern version living up to even higher standards than the original. CelestronSurely most of our readers here are familiar with Celestron, one of (if not the) most famous telescope makers in the world. But how many of you also know that 2010 marks the company’s 50th anniversary? In writing a news story detailing Celestron’s anniversary, I came across a few other little facts even t...

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Images start to roll in from Astronomy Magazine Observatories

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

A few weeks ago, Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher visited the astronomy and equestrian village at Rancho Hidalgo near Animas, New Mexico. While Dave was there, developer Gene Turner surprised him by unveiling a second Astronomy Magazine Observatory, just to the east of the first one.The goal is to stream images from the observatory (or observatories!) to our web site. As fiber-optic Internet lines become operational and as Rancho Hidalgo acquires new equipment for the process, images are beginni...

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Your own personal scanning electron microscope

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

Readers of this site (and magazine) may be accustomed to using magnification to look at the very big, very far away. But, apart from any biology or chemistry enthusiasts out there, what about using magnification to look at the very, very small? When’s the last time you looked at that not-so-distant alien world?The ASPEX Corporation is running a campaign specifically to help you do that. If you send in a sample of something and a form, they’ll run it through their scanning electron microscope for...

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Video: An interview with Glynn Burke of MyTelescope.com

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

Three weeks ago during my stay at Rancho Hidalgo, Gene Turner’s astronomy village near Animas, New Mexico, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Glynn Burke by our mutual friend Gene. Gene explained that Glynn is a brilliant engineer who is setting up a network of computer controlled telescopes that can be used for educational purposes remotely, by amateur astronomers situated anywhere on the planet. Glynn operates a network of computer controlled telescopes in Manitoba, Canada, and also has...

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Taking a cross-country road trip with The Pluto Files

Posted 14 years ago by Karri Ferron

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, which caused controversy with how it categorized the solar system into three groups, placing Pluto not with the other planets but with the Kuiper Belt objects at the outskirts of our solar system. Dan Deitch photoLast night, PBS debuted a new NOVA episode dedicated to NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson’s now somewhat infamous book, The Pluto Files. Having read the book and interviewed Tyson for the “Astro Co...

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Exclusive pictures from the European Northern Observatory

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

Earlier this week, I received this short note from Enrico Sacchetti, a commercial photographer based in South Florida: Dear Michael,  I wanted to show you a few images I recently shot at the European Northern Observatory’s Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma, Spain. One of the telescopes there, the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), is currently the world’s largest optical telescope. Along with the note, he sent the superb pictures on this page. Thanks, Enrico! ...

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Video: An interview with Michael Farmer of Michael Farmer Meteorites

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

The fourth video I shot during my trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show features Mike Farmer of Michael Farmer Meteorites (meteoriteguy.com or meteoritehunter.com). Note: When you click the link to the video, you'll find it below the three-part interview with the Meteorite Men.At the show, Mike showed me an extensive collection of beautiful specimens. He began by pulling out some spectacular pallasites, the most beautiful of all meteorites due to their olivine inclusions. He had large slic...

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Video: An interview with the Science Channel's "Meteorite Men"

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

The third video I shot during my trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show features Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold of Aerolite Meteorites in Tucson. If you’re into meteorites, you know Geoff and Steve (pictured at right) well as the Meteorite Men from the popular TV series currently running on the Science Channel. If you’re into astronomy and you don’t watch Meteorite Men religiously, maybe it’s time to re-examine your life. It‘s a great show, entertainingly produced, and Geoff and Steve are terrif...

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The best thing about Twitter in space

Posted 14 years ago by Karri Ferron

In January, crew members of the International Space Station gained access to the Internet for personal use, and NASA encouraged them to tweet anything that interests them. Well, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi of Japan (pictured at right), in my opinion, is really putting Twitter to good use. For the past three weeks, he has been posting Twitpics of different Earth locations that are absolutely breathtaking. If I can’t get to the ISS myself, I think his pictures are the next best thing.If you enj...

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Video: An interview with Anne Black of Impactika Meteorites

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

Last week at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, I shot a number of videos with prominent meteorite dealers who were set up at the Tucson Hotel City Center (formerly the InnSuites). The second one I shot features Anne Black of Impactika Meteorites in Denver, whose video is posted here. Anne specializes in affordable meteorites for collectors and has an amazing collection of historical falls, i.e., important meteorites from well-known impacts throughout history. She also has the largest collection o...

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Happy Birthday Pluto(’s discovery)

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

In this illustration, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft approaches its far off destination, the Pluto system. Today marks the 80th anniversary of Pluto’s discovery, and New Horizons just a month ago marked its 4th year in space. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) photoTrue Plutophiles are likely already aware of this, but today marks the 80th anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto. Recently, of course, the tiny ob...

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Video: An interview with meteorite dealer Luc Labenne

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

Last week at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, I shot a number of videos with prominent meteorite dealers who were set up at the Tucson Hotel City Center (formerly the InnSuites). First out of the gate was Luc Labenne of Labenne Meteorites in Paris, whose video is posted here. Luc is famous for extraordinary finds and high-end specimens among his inventory, and he was gracious enough to share many amazing specimens on camera during our discussion at the show. He was particularly proud of two new ...

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Adam Block’s images hit the road

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

If you're traveling down Interstate 10 in Tucson, try to sneak a peek at Adam Block's images as you head through the Speedway underpass.If you read Astronomy magazine regularly, you’re familiar with astroimager Adam Block. Adam has been contributing superb celestial images since just about the day I arrived at the magazine 7 years ago.Now Adam has a new feather in his photography hat. The Arizona Department of Transportation is featuring images by Adam and others at the Speedway/Intersta...

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