Archives
01Oct2013

Coming of the Martians!

Image courtesy of www.orsonwelles.co.uk October for most of us means the real beginning of the fall season, with its lower humidity, cooler temperatures, lovely turning of the leaves, and beautifully clear nights for stargazing. It’s also the month of Halloween. For me, mention of October and this popular holiday mean something else as well—it takes …

02Sep2013

Twilight Lunar & Planetary Parade

Mark the three evenings of September 7th, 8th and 9th on your calendar to watch a fascinating interplay of the crescent Moon and two bright planets in the southwestern sky after sunset. And later in the month, another planet joins the parade. All of this will provide yet another example of the fact that the …

01Aug2013

The Sky’s Finest Galaxy!

The word "galaxy" is entrenched in the popular mind—everyone’s heard of these remote star cities, but with the exception of stargazers few have ever seen one. Or so they think. One of them has been readily visible to anyone who’s ever looked up at the summer sky on a dark clear night. It’s none other …

01Jul2013

Observing Sunspots

If you’ve ever wanted to see sunspots, now’s the time! Our "Daytime Star" is at its long anticipated sunspot maximum this year, with its visible surface peppered much of the time with dark spots of various sizes. Watching them develop and move across the face of the Sun from day-to-day as it slowly rotates is …

28May2013

Star-Testing Your Telescope

Many sophisticated methods of evaluating the optical quality of a telescope have been developed over the years. But there’s one very simple, convenient, and sensitive test that’s easy to perform any clear night. Known as the extrafocal image test, it uses an actual star as the test source.

01May2013

Three Plus One = Four Planets At Dusk!

A dramatic trio of planets play tag with each other after sunset low in the west-northwestern sky during the last week of this month–along with a lone lovely planet in the southeastern one all month long. Here’s an opportunity to see the two innermost and fastest-moving planets bunched together with the largest of all such …

26Mar2013

Monster Telescopes!

For decades after its dedication in 1948, the famed 200-inch Hale reflecting telescope at Palomar inCaliforniareigned supreme as the world’s largest telescope. (Russiahad built a somewhat bigger one but it never performed as hoped.)  Then came the twin 400-inch scopes at the Keck Observatory inHawaii, twice as big as Hale. But now, two instruments are …

01Mar2013

Comet PanSTARRS Alert!

Skimming along the western horizon some 30 to 45 minutes after sunset in March, a bright new comet will be making its appearance in our evening sky.  Predicted to be easily visible even to the unaided eye—and sprouting a noticeable tale pointing northward— it promises to be quite a spectacular sight in binoculars and wide-field …

01Feb2013

What Type & Size Telescope Is Best?

Those new to the hobby of astronomy who are considering a telescope purchase typically wonder just which type and what size are the best choices.  This month we provide no-nonsense succinct guidelines to help answer these questions.

02Jan2013

Jupiter Rules the Night

Appropriately for the king of the planets, giant Jupiter dominates the night sky beginning this month (and well into the spring as well).  And as January opens, it gets off with a bang sky-wise with a meteor shower.  Throw in the bright winter constellations like Orion now in full view and you have a wonderful …