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The excitement of observing (part 1)

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

This week and next, I'm sharing a short essay by one of my astronomy friends, Susan Carroll. Susan has been a dedicated observer for more years than most. Her 18-inch Starmaster Dobsonian-mounted reflector is a familiar sight at star parties across Florida and the Southeast (and the Midwest, when she lived there). If you're a telescopic observer like me, I'm sure you will relive the moments Susan describes. If you haven't yet taken the plunge and turned a telescope toward the sk...

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Behind the scenes at Yerkes

Posted 17 years ago by David Eicher

The University of Chicago's historic Yerkes Observatory, one of the great astronomical institutions of the world, recently hosted Astronomy staff members for a behind-the-scenes tour. The observatory's Rich Dreiser, a longtime staff member and expert on Yerkes history, walked us through the familiar facilities and back rooms filled with past memories. Joining me were Managing Editor Dick McNally, Senior Editors Frank Reddy and Rich Talcott, and friend and Astronomy contributor Bob Miller...

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Chile diary (part tres)

Posted 17 years ago by Rich Talcott

I recently returned from a 9-day trip to Chile — one of more than 30 participants in a tour sponsored by Astronomy magazine and organized by MWT Associates. We all had a great time, despite long plane rides from the States down to Santiago. Our two main reasons for going were to experience the clear skies of the Atacama Desert and the giant telescopes at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, but plenty of other sites kept us busy. Last week I wrote about the stunning scenery and beautiful suns...

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An artist's tour of the cosmos

Posted 17 years ago by Anonymous

Regardless of your artistic ability, Space Art will help develop your ability to illustrate alien worlds. Watson-Guptill Publications One of the best ways to hone your skills as an amateur astronomer is to sketch the sky. Sketching the Moon, planets, and deep-sky targets on paper trains an observer to detect subtle detail in observations, helps keep the initial thrill from a first observing experience, and can bring back wonderful memories of an observing session. For many of us, ...

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Pretty pictures

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

It is just a routine NASA press release, but one with a sort of "beginning of the beginning of the end" feel to it: "NASA and Internet Archive of San Francisco are partnering to scan, archive and manage the agency's vast collection of photographs, historic film and video. The imagery will be available through the Internet and free to the public, historians, scholars, students, and researchers." Nothing to worry about there. Everybody from grade-schoolers to science-mag...

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How bright is yonder star? (part 2)

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

With this blog, I'll finish my discussion of the magnitude system, which I began last week. I'm aiming this installment at observers. When you observe, sky conditions are everything. But even when it's clear, the sky's transparency can vary. Amateur astronomers standardize their observations by estimating the limiting visual magnitude (LM). Not only will this help you determine how good (or bad) the sky is at that particular time, it also will allow you to judge the quality of y...

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Chile diary (part dos)

Posted 17 years ago by Rich Talcott

After the Sun sets over the Atacama Desert’s Valley of the Moon, the 19,400-foot volcano Licancabur catches the last rays of sunlight. Richard TalcottI recently returned from a 9-day trip to Chile — one of more than 30 participants in a tour sponsored by Astronomy magazine and organized by MWT Associates. We all had a great time, despite long plane rides from the States down to Santiago. Our two main reasons for going were to experience the clear skies of the Atacama Desert an...

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Google turns its attention to the sky

Posted 17 years ago by Anonymous

In this screen shot, Google profiles the constellation Orion. Google Last week featured the rare occasion when an astronomy-related announcement resonated with skywatchers and the general public. Did SETI make contact with extrasolar life? Nope. Did astronomers find an asteroid on a collision course with Earth? Not even close. Instead, the Goliath of search engines released a beta version of Google Earth with a "sky" function. This enhanced tool turns the focus from our blue ...

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Mars, the next Everest?

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

Once upon a time, barnstorming over the countryside in a biplane was sufficiently thrilling and expensive for the idle rich. Then, the only thing that would do was taking a steamer to Africa to blast away at lions for the season. Then there was (and remains) the curious habit of paying a small fortune for the privilege of expiring on Mt. Everest from hypothermia, oxygen deprivation, or stumbling into a crevasse. Much later, attempting to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon, a la Sir Richard Br...

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How bright is yonder star? (part 1)

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

In this blog and my next, I'm going to try to demystify the magnitude system — the scale astronomers use to measure the brightness of a celestial object. Let me start with a little history. The first known observer to describe and catalog differences in star brightnesses was Greek astronomer Hipparchus (ca. 190–120 B.C.). He divided his catalog of roughly 850 visible stars into six brightness ranges, or magnitudes. He called the brightest 1st magnitude and the faintest 6th magnitude. Observ...

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Chile diary (part uno)

Posted 17 years ago by Rich Talcott

Early morning steam rises from numerous geysers and fumaroles at El Tatio — the world’s highest-altitude geyser field. Evelyn TalcottI've just returned from a 9-day trip to Chile & one of more than 30 participants in a tour sponsored by Astronomy magazine and organized by MWT Associates. We all had a great time, despite long plane rides from the States down to Santiago. Our two main reasons for going were to experience the clear skies of the Atacama Desert and the gian...

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Lost in translation?

Posted 17 years ago by Francis Reddy

An interesting question hit my inbox this week. How far south can an aurora be seen? Specifically, are the “northern lights” ever visible from Timbuktu? A 2004 New York Times article about medieval Arabic manuscripts triggered the question. The city of Timbuktu, Mali, was one of Africa’s intellectual hubs when the Renaissance was barely a twinkle in Europeans’ eyes. The article focused on efforts to rescue the ancient manuscripts. One 16th-century scholar, Mahmoud Kati, scribbled notes on va...

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Take that, Shelbyville

Posted 17 years ago by Anonymous

Earlier this week, I wrote about an auction to benefit the Stellafane telescope-making convention, held each year in Springfield, Vermont. Last month, Springfield hosted another noteworthy gathering: The Simpsons movie premiere. The July 22 extravaganza featured celebrities, costumed characters, and a yellow carpet matching the family's skin tone. Vermont's Springfield beat 13 other namesake cities in an online vote to host the premiere. The city of 9,300 residents received 15,367 votes,...

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Best of the web this week

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

I'm starting something new today: a weekly collection of interesting articles and blog entries I see during the week but don't blog on myself. First, to give credit where it is due, I got the idea from astronomer Pamela Gay's Star Stryder blog. Every week, she posts a "best of the blogs" feature called Space Carnival. Here are a few of my recent picks:Would your head explode in total vacuum? If you watch science fiction on film you might get that impression. But, actually, ...

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Boom! Boom! Out go the lights

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

If you like reading about and/or observing the universe's biggest blasts, you'll be interested in a book that just crossed my desk. Supernovae and How to Observe Them by Martin Mobberley is, as the title suggests, a dual-purpose book. In "Part 1 — Supernovae: Physics and Statistics," Mobberley gives a bit of supernova history, introduces the types of supernovae, and tells us what astronomers have learned by studying these massive explosions. Mobberley's writing st...

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Wiki the Moon

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

Ever hanker to take a gander at the lunar crater Zwicky? If so, just click over to a slick new site on the web called The-moon. There, you will quickly learn that Zwicky is a 94-mile-wide (150 kilometers) crater at latitude 15.4° south, longitude 168.1° east. You can also find out that Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974) "was an American-based Swiss astronomer. He was an original thinker, with many important contributions in theoretical and observational astronomy." Zwicky and hundreds of other l...

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Ending this Friday

Posted 17 years ago by Anonymous

Al Nagler, John Gallagher, and Stephen James O’Meara (left to right) pose with the Tele Vue refractor and prototype eyepiece. Springfield Telescope Makers, Inc. In a previous blog, Astronomy Associate Editor Daniel Pendick wrote about an exciting auction that will benefit Stellafane, the telescope-making conference held annually in Springfield, Vermont. Participants will bid on Astronomy author Stephen James O'Meara's Tele Vue Genesis refractor and Al Nagler's prototy...

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Relax, and watch Earth's shadow

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

Not all observing is difficult and requires lots of specialized, high-priced equipment. Case in point: Tuesday morning, August 28, North America will experience another total eclipse of the Moon. While West Coast and Hawaiian observers have the best seats, the rest of us will at least see the first half of the event, as the Moon slides into the darkest part of Earth's shadow. It's true some amateur astronomers like to push the limits, observing faint, deep-sky targets barely discernible...

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Wired looks at high-tech equipment

Posted 17 years ago by Anonymous

John Chumack imaged M15 September 9, 2006, from his observatory at the Yellow Springs Research Station in Ohio. John Chumack Fraser Cain, podcaster and web guru behind Universe Today, recently wrote a piece regarding advanced observers' home observatories for Wired's web site. With observer profiles, astrophotography, and instrument shots, the article introduces readers to some of the leading astroimagers and their advanced equipment. Even if you aren't a lifelong re...

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In Herschel's footsteps

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

If you're looking for a well thought out, guided, deep-sky observing challenge, this blog's for you. Steve O'Meara's Herschel 400 Observing Guide just landed on my desk. Oh my! German-born English astronomer Sir William Herschel (1738–1822) ranks as one of astronomy's all-time superstars. He discovered Uranus, two moons around both Saturn and Uranus, and the direction in which our solar system is hurtling through space. He was also an indefatigable observer, discove...

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All the dumb stuff

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

In a recent blog, I talked about the surprising difficulty of landing heavy crewed payloads on Mars — in fact, its present impossibility, in lieu of new technologies. That's a very big challenge to future Mars exploration, although not at all insurmountable. But what about the dumb stuff? The little things we take for granted on Earth that are actually quite difficult in zero-gravity? No, I don't mean using the toilet, although that's up there on the list. How about this: A dooh...

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After Sputnik

Posted 17 years ago by Anonymous

Many publishers have released books celebrating 50 years of space exploration since Sputnik's launch October 4, 1957. Among these pictorial collections, no one has done it better than Smithsonian Books. Edited by Smithsonian curator Martin Collins, After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age presents the best pieces and images from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's spaceflight collection — some not currently displayed at the museum. This unique perspective provides a ...

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Risen from the dead

Posted 17 years ago by Rich Talcott

Phoenix's robotic arm digs a trench in the ice-rich martian soil, seeking signs as to whether Mars may be hospitable to life. Corby Waste (JPL) If the weather holds along Florida's Atlantic coast, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft should blast off from Cape Canaveral this Saturday. Its target: the frozen plains of northern Mars. After a voyage of nearly 10 months, the probe will set down in the Red Planet's polar region next May to study the history of water at the landing ...

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Loony science

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

There's something about the Moon that makes people crazy. No, let me rephrase that: There's something about the Moon that makes people believe dumb stuff.For instance, have you received an e-mail yet saying that during the opposition of Mars in December — during which the Red Planet will be closer to Earth than at other times — its disk will look as big as the Full Moon? No? You will.In the November 2008 Astro News section, we report on a somewhat loony proposal by police in ...

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Don't fear the filter, part 3

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

This week, I conclude my three-part series on filters by discussing specialty filters. Everyone's welcome to their opinion, but, to me, any filter that's not a color filter is a specialty filter. Most specialty filters fall into the category of "light-pollution-reduction" (LPR) filter. Two exceptions are neutral density and polarizing filters. A neutral density (ND) filter reduces the amount of light (by absorbing it) but doesn't filter any of the colors. ND filters have t...

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What effect does opposition have?

Posted 17 years ago by Rich Talcott

Saturn's rings glint brightly thanks to the "opposition effect" in this June 12 image, taken by the Cassini spacecraft.NASA/JPL/SSIWhile I was out walking Wednesday evening, brilliant Jupiter stood slightly above the gibbous Moon. With the Moon waxing toward its full phase this weekend, I couldn't help but think about how quickly our satellite brightens as Full Moon approaches. As if to drive the point home, NASA has just released an image of Saturn that shows the same e...

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Let go of that Lunar Equipment Conveyer!

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

Q: What's the difference between trash and important archaeological artifacts?A: About 100 years. Where people tossed their garbage a century ago, archaeologists can often find revealing remnants of culture. On the Moon, the transformation from trash to treasure took less than 4 decades.U.S. astronauts left a lot more behind on the Moon than their footprints as they took small steps for man and giant leaps for mankind. The detritus at Tranquillity Base, where the first humans landed on the M...

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Don't fear the filter (part 2)

Posted 17 years ago by Michael Bakich

This week, I continue my three-part series on filters by giving specific recommendations about planetary observing through color filters. Mars lies at opposition as 2007 ends, and it's already on most observers' minds, so let's start with the Red Planet.As I mentioned last week, choose the filter density that's correct for your telescope. For example, if I suggest a red filter for a certain feature, choose 1) a #21 (orange) filter if your scope's aperture is 4 inches or less;...

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The next martian crater - us?

Posted 17 years ago by Daniel Pendick

I just read, with a mixture of fascination and embarrassment, writer Nancy Atkins' compelling article — posted on the Universe Today web site — about the realities of landing humans on Mars. The article asks the simple question of how we would land a crewed spacecraft on Mars. She does a beautiful job with it, and you should stop right here and read the article for yourself.My embarrassment is in regard to the fact that the whole question never even occurred to me, after all thes...

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A date for the ages

Posted 17 years ago by Rich Talcott

The first photo ever taken from the surface of Mars showed lots of rocks and sand — and the footpad of the Viking 1 lander. NASA/JPLVirtually everyone who reads this blog knows what happened on this date in history. But I'm not going to spend much time talking about Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's small steps. Instead, I want to recall a lesser leap in human history, one that launched our search for life elsewhere in the universe.On July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 lander ...

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