Back in 2008 we wrote a 10-pages test concerning The Imaging Source cameras DMK 21AF04.AS, DBK 21AF04.AS and DMK 41AF02.AS which was published in "Sterne und Weltraum" No. 6/2008. We had much fun working with these cameras, and really good results. So we were very interested how much better the new generation DMK/DBK 21AU618.AS utilizing ICX618 chips would be compared with the previous DMK/DBK 21AF04.AS models. We did a through test (9 pages) on this, which was published in "Sterne und Weltraum" No. 12/2011. One of the results was, that the new DMK 21AU618.AS has drastically improved…
Astronomy
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Most Topular Stories
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Breathtaking Jupiter Images by Peter & Christian Wellmann
The Imaging Source Astronomy Cameras Blog25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pm -
A Beautiful Evening Pairing of the Moon and Venus
The Urban Astronomer25 Dec 2011 | 1:15 pmThe young crescent Moon will be paired up with the brilliant evening "star" Venus on Monday evening, creating a stunning visual in the sunset sky. The monthly cycle of the Moon always brings beautiful patterns as the daily travel of the Moon along the ecliptic brings it near to other objects. But when the Moon is paired with Venus, the next-brightest object in the sky, the view is riveting, especially when we have clear skies and a view to the west. I saw a similar pairing last month while traveling in Southern California, a magnificent Moon-Venus pairing in the glow of sunset to the west… -
January 27th: Encore : Common Questions and Answers
365 Days of Astronomy27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDate: January 27, 2012 Title: Common Questions and Answers Podcasters: RapidEye Organization: RapidEye Observatory – a private observatory in rural Lee County, NC http://www.rapideye.us/astro/RapidEye-ClearSky.html This podcast originally aired on May 21, 2010: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/05/21/may-21st-common-questions-and-answers/ Description: Common Questions and Answers about Telescopes Bio: I’ve been captivated by astronomy ever since I was a kid, living in NW Colorado where the Milky Way was bright enough to read by. I can be found most clear nights in my pasture with either… -
Comet Corpses in the Solar Wind
Astronomy Cmarchesin21 Jan 2012 | 5:01 amA paper published in today's issue of Science raises an intriguing new possibility for astronomers: unearthing comet corpses in the solar wind. The new research is based on dramatic images of a comet disintegrating in the sun's atmosphere last July.Comet Lovejoy grabbed headlines in Dec. 2011 when it plunged into the sun's atmosphere and emerged again relatively intact. But it was not the first comet to graze the sun. Last summer a smaller comet took the same trip with sharply different results. Comet C/2011 N3 (SOHO) was completely destroyed on July 6, 2011, when it swooped 100,000 km above… -
The Gingrich Who Stole The News Cycle
Bad Astronomy27 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pmBecause I was on the road Wednesday night, I missed the first few hours of reaction to Newt Gingrich’s speech in Florida, when he said he wants to have a permanent station on the Moon "by the end of my second term". It wasn’t until Thursday morning that I opened up my web browser and saw that every blog, every news site, everyone, was talking about it. I must have had dozens of tweets and emails telling me about it and asking my opinion. So I found a video of the speech and watched it. The only reason I didn’t laugh out loud at the nonsense unfolding from Mr.
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Astronomy.com blog
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Here’s meteorite in your eye!
26 Jan 2012 | 9:15 amPeanut butter and jelly. Salt and pepper. Cookies and milk. Heidi Klum and Seal. Excluding that last pair, some things just go together and form a comforting bedrock on which we can rely.[caption image="http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/astronomy.Misc/0647.STONYVINO01sm.jpg" targeturl="http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/astronomy.Misc/3386.STONYVINO01lg.jpg"]A 160-gram (5.64 ounces) meteorite from the Campo del Cielo fall in Argentina… -
It’s all in the instrument renaming
24 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amBack in October, I shared with you two opportunities for the public to contribute to the naming of key scientific instruments. Well, the results are in, and I’d like to hear your thoughts on the new monikers. [caption image="http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/astronomy.Telescopes/6355.GRAIL_5F00_300.jpg" targeturl="http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/astronomy.Telescopes/7848.GRAIL.jpg"]The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory… -
Kids: It’s time to tell us what you love most about astronomy!
17 Jan 2012 | 12:14 pmThe time has come for all you “Generation Zers” to share your favorite thing about the cosmos with Astronomy magazine’s 2012 Youth Essay Contest. The winner will receive two round-trip airline tickets and hotel accommodations for up to three nights for the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show (NEAF) in Suffern, New York — one of the world’s premier astronomy expos. Astronomy already has sent two fantastic individuals to NEAF, where each has had amazing experiences. In 2010, 11-year-old Adam Atanas had the opportunity to meet one of his favorite… -
Don’t forget: $2,500 prize deadline coming up
12 Jan 2012 | 1:32 pmWith just over a week until the deadline for Astronomy magazine’s 2011 Out-of-this-world Award, I wanted to make sure everyone knows about this great opportunity. If you’re part of a nonprofit group anywhere in the world that works to show off the wonders of astronomy to the public, you’re eligible for this $2,500 award. All materials must be postmarked by January 20, so don’t delay. Simply fill out an application form and write two short essays, one about what outreach projects your group’s put on (500 word limit) and the other about what you’d do with the… -
On the road: January 2012 AAS meeting, Wednesday recap
11 Jan 2012 | 11:13 pmEven though the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting still has another day of research presentations and invited talks, today was the last day of press conferences — and the organizers made sure it was a good one. [caption image="http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/astronomy.Star+parties+and+conferences/6457.aas219_5F00_panel_5F00_300.jpg"…
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Bad Astronomy
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The Gingrich Who Stole The News Cycle
27 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pmBecause I was on the road Wednesday night, I missed the first few hours of reaction to Newt Gingrich’s speech in Florida, when he said he wants to have a permanent station on the Moon "by the end of my second term". It wasn’t until Thursday morning that I opened up my web browser and saw that every blog, every news site, everyone, was talking about it. I must have had dozens of tweets and emails telling me about it and asking my opinion. So I found a video of the speech and watched it. The only reason I didn’t laugh out loud at the nonsense unfolding from Mr. -
Siriusly twinkling
27 Jan 2012 | 10:19 amIf you live nearly anywhere on Earth — those of you north of 73° you’re out of luck, but I’m guessing there aren’t many of you! — and look to the southeast shortly after sunset, you’ll see the figure of Orion. Follow the three belt stars to the east, and you’ll see a bright star: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. If it’s near the horizon, you may see it twinkling madly: flickering, dancing, perhaps even changing color. This gave astronomer David Lynch an idea: take a time exposure of Sirius with a camera and telephoto, and… -
Weekly Space Roundup for January 26, 2012
27 Jan 2012 | 8:05 amYesterday was the weekly live video Space Roundup, run by Fraser Cain from Universe Today. This week we had Pamela Gay, Alan Boyle, Nicole Gugliucci, and Ian O’Neill. We talked about the solar storm, black holes, arsenic life, Newt Gingrich, Phobos-Grunt, and answered some questions from the listeners. Here’s the video: We do these every week on Google+ at 18:00 UTC on Thursday. Come join us! -
This is a galaxy
26 Jan 2012 | 1:23 pmI have nothing to add to this, except to say it’s great, and I saw it because Brian Cox mentioned it on Twitter. Oh yeah: one more thing; watch it in HD and full screen. Coooool. -
Rosetta’s stunning Mars
26 Jan 2012 | 7:52 amClick here to view gallery
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Tom's Astronomy Blog
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Suomi NPP
26 Jan 2012 | 1:58 pmThe Blue Marble from the new Suomi NPP satellite. Click for a larger version - more versions linked below. Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring Just have a look at this amazing image of us from one of our newest satellites! A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite – Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed ‘Suomi NPP’ on January 24, 2012 to… -
2012 ESA Missions Preview
25 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmClick here to view the embedded video. A good preview of ESA missions with (IMHO) terrible audio quality. I thought it was just the version I was watching but no, they are all the same. Audio aside, I can’t wait to see that Vega launch coming right up on February 9, the VV01 as it is called is going to carry nine satellites into orbit including seven CubeSats from European universities. I love the CubeSats. Typically they are a 10 cm cube, that’s 3.9 inches in the US and they weigh in at about 1.33 kg or 2.9 lbs. They give a platform for students to perform space science… -
Voyager Update
24 Jan 2012 | 1:42 pmArtist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech It’s pretty amazing, who would have thought after all these years we’d be getting updates on the Voyager spacecrafts? The update below continues with the theme of power saving to stretch out the mission. The mission could extend to 2025 after which data collection and transmission will probably cease. Actually even more amazing than the Mission time of 15 years is the mere fact we can still communicate with the Voyager. The radio signal must be incredibly weak, the transmitter only puts out 20 watts at… -
Aurora Possible
24 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pmA quick note: You might keep an eye to the sky after dark if it is clear, a pretty decent Aurora could show itself. Not saying it will of course but the potential is there. Going to be cloudy here so I will be watching the Boulder K index, if it is over 5 the Aurora will be visible to me at 45o N lattitude or you if you are below 45o S lattitude. The higher that number the better the show and the further south or north they can be seen (depending on your hemisphere). The Boulder K is 5 at 2300 UTC. . . There be lights! Well if you are northerly and have good skies which I do not. -
The Planck Mission
23 Jan 2012 | 2:40 amMost of us think of the Planck Mission as either an extension of the WMAP, or as the answer to (and correction of) the WMAP. It’s not used to unseat WMAP, but to serve as the next step. The Planck satellite - NASA image Launched in May of 2009, Planck resides in the Earth’s second Lagrange point (yes, you do TOO know what a Lagrange point is). That’s about 930,000 miles out. More sensitive than WMAP, Planck images the oldest radiation in the universe; the cosmic microwave background. This radiation was created 13 billion years ago (plus or minus) in the Big Bang, and…
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Universe Today
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“Bad Boy” Sunspot Unleashes Powerful X-Class Flare
27 Jan 2012 | 5:12 pmThe active region on the Sun that created all the hubbub and aurorae earlier this week put out one last shot before that area of the Sun turns away from Earth’s view, and that shot was a biggie. At 18:37 UT (1:37 pm EST) today (January 27, 2012) sunspot 1402 unleashed an X-class flare, the largest and most powerful category of flares. This flare was measured as an X2, which is at the low end of the highest powered flares, but still, this is the most powerful flare so far this year. It was not directed at Earth, but scientists from the Solar Dynamics Observatory say the energetic protons… -
Emerging Supermassive Black Holes Choke Star Formation
27 Jan 2012 | 4:31 pmThe LABOCA camera on the ESO-operated 12-metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope reveals distant galaxies undergoing the most intense type of star formation activity known, called a starburst. This image shows these distant galaxies, found in a region of sky known as the Extended Chandra Deep Field South, in the constellation of Fornax (The Furnace). The galaxies seen by LABOCA are shown in red, overlaid on an infrared view of the region as seen by the IRAC camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: ESO, APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO), A. Weiss et al., NASA Spitzer Science… -
Large Amounts of Water Ice Found Underground on Mars
27 Jan 2012 | 4:01 pmNear-surface ice in polar regions. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M UniversityMany models predict that water ice shouldn’t be stable on Mars today, anywhere beyond the poles, no matter how deep you bury it. And yet, a recently published study shows that large regions outside the polar areas may, in fact, contain a relative abundance of water. This is exciting, not only because water has implications for the possibility of life on Mars, but also because it can provide a valuable resource to future explorers, both as a fuel and for life support. And if… -
Test Failure Points to Potential Delay for Next Soyuz Launch
27 Jan 2012 | 3:09 pmA charred Soyuz descent module after landing 400 km off-course on April 19th 2008. Credit: NASARussia may have to delay the launch of the next crew to the International Space Station, as the descent module of the Soyuz spacecraft experienced an air leak during testing. The next crew of three for the space station had been scheduled to launch on March 30, 2012. Russia’s news agency Itar-Tass quoted Russian space agency (Roscosmos) official Alexei Krasnov, saying the Soyuz TMA–04M experienced problems during a test in an altitude test chamber at the Energia Space Rocket Corporation. -
Orion Capsule Embarks on Cross Country Public Tour
27 Jan 2012 | 2:22 pmOrion Test Capsule at Practice for Pad Abort 1 Test The Orion test capsule is now on a cross country tour starting from New Mexico to Florida with stops in Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama. Ground teams in White Sands, New Mexico, practice stacking test versions of Orion and its launch abort system. This work was being done in advance of Orion’s launch abort system test. Credit: NASA Orion was designed to return US astronauts to the Moon - suddenly a hot topic in GOP Presidential debates Update: Orion cross country tour photos added belowHere’s your chance for a birds-eye view of an Orion…
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Astroblog
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It's a little wet
28 Jan 2012 | 3:48 amBig storm just flooded the street, took out our power. -
While we were eating schnitzel
27 Jan 2012 | 5:33 am...Rob McNaught was measuring the orbit of 2012 bx34 using T17, the refined obit from Rob and others helped Goldstone to take radar images of it. Schnitzel was great though, we were celebrating EldestOnes birthday (he's an odd number old, not a prime number, but the sum of the first and second digits you get an even number which is half MiddleOnes age, and twice the sum of the first and second digits of MiddleOnes age).Strangely enough, video conferencing on an Android phone doesn't work too well when you are eating dinner. -
Carnival of Space #233 is now Here
26 Jan 2012 | 3:53 pmCarnival of Space #233 is now Up at Riding with Robots. There's Death Stars, Star factories, the mysterious atmosphere of Titan and much, much more. Pop on over and have a read. -
Venus, The Moon and Fireworks, Australia Day 2012
26 Jan 2012 | 6:55 amHad a great Australia Day, lazed around a bit, played Master Labyrinth with the younger boys, swam, had friends over, then walked up to the end of the street to take pictures of Venus, the thin crescent Moon and the Australia Day Fireworks (click on images to embiggen them).Didn't see C/2003 T12 though, it's probably around magnitude 12. -
Comet 2003 T12 recovered in STEREO images
25 Jan 2012 | 5:28 amComet C/2003 T12 enters the field of view of the STEREO H1B imager on 16-01-2012. Image processed with ImageJ from raw images from SECCHI/STEREO. An animation is at the end of this post.While my internet was in abeyance, a remarkable story played out in the STEREOHUNTER community.Comet Al noticed a reasonably bright comet coming out from the Sun and alerted the group, William Thompson back tracked it in the COR2B images.An orbit was initially worked out by Man-To Hui from the H1B images and Ranier Kracht refined them with the COR2B images, then found that the comets orbit matched that of…
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Hogg's Research
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large galaxies, cosmic rays
27 Jan 2012 | 7:13 pmIt comes as a surprise to many that it is much harder to precisely measure the properties of very bright, nearby galaxies than it is to measure the properties of much more distant but similar objects! (Same for very bright stars too, in modern digital imaging.) Part of this is because at high signal-to-noise you see the (badly modeled) details of your point-spread function better. But the bigger issues are that nearby galaxies span field boundaries (in any blind survey, like SDSS), span flat-field and sky variations (because of their large angular sizes), and tend to be blended with… -
responding to referee; the disk
26 Jan 2012 | 10:59 pmI spent the day in Princeton; the morning with Bovy talking about the Milky Way disk and the afternoon with Lang working on the response-to-referee on the Comet Holmes paper. We are very, very behind schedule on that! We made figures that compare the Comet Holmes orbit we inferred to the NASA orbit. We don't get quite the right orbit, in part because our model of the data we scraped from the web is so crude.Bovy and I discussed his results on the kinematics of mono-abundance subpopulations in the Milky Way disk, a follow up to his paper on the spatial structure of those same populations. We… -
software repository, licensing
25 Jan 2012 | 9:32 pmInspired by emails from Stumm and Foreman-Mackey, Lang and I had a long conversation about software repositories: SVN vs GIT, in the cloud vs at home, one repository or many, what level of organization, and so on. It is a difficult set of problems, and different solutions serve and support different kinds of development styles and communities. We have decided to migrate one sub-project from the Astrometry.net SVN repository to a github GIT repository as a test balloon, and that led to a round of the endless discussion of licenses. Someone needs to write the document software licensing for… -
segmenting images and inferring motion
24 Jan 2012 | 9:44 pmOver in Fergus's computer science group, Deqing Sun (Brown) gave a very nice talk about measuring motion in image sequences (think movies) by building a generative model of moving layers with sharp boundaries. He constructs a prior over image segmentations by segmenting the image using threshold-crossing of a (very local) smooth Gaussian process; this permits an analytic prior. The results are beautiful and effective and conform to common sense and also come close to world-record performance against quantitative benchmark tests (with known ground truth). His system performs well in part… -
Python
23 Jan 2012 | 4:36 pmForeman-Mackey returned from his furlough at Queens, where he was finishing a paper with Widrow on Andromeda. I quizzed him about some details of cacheing (very slow computations) in my Python RGB-to-CMYK code; he had good ideas. One thing he noted that instead of doing if rgb in cache.keys(): it might be far faster to do try: cmyk = cache[rgb] and then catch the KeyError exception. Apparently that is the rage and style in Python programming. He also promised to help me Python-package and docstring everything. Looking forward to it![Note added a few minutes later: Switching from the keys()…
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Astronomy Cmarchesin
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NASA's Kepler Announces 11 Planetary Systems Hosting 26 Planets
26 Jan 2012 | 3:35 pmKepler's Planetary Systems: The artist's rendering depicts the multiple planet systems discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Image credit: NASA Ames/Jason Steffen, Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. Kepler's Planetary Systems' Orbits: The image shows an overhead view of orbital positions of the planets in systems with multiple transiting planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Image credit: NASA Ames/Dan Fabrycky, University of California, Santa CruzNASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the… -
The Wild Early Lives of Today's Most Massive Galaxies
25 Jan 2012 | 5:54 amPR Image eso1206aDistant star-forming galaxies in the early UniversePR Image eso1206bThe position of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South in the constellation of FornaxPR Video eso1206aDistant star-forming galaxies in the early Universe (zoom)PR Video eso1206bDistant star-forming galaxies in the early Universe (pan)Using the APEX telescope, a team of astronomers has found the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies found today. The galaxies, flowering with dramatic starbursts in the early Universe, saw the… -
Barred Spiral Galaxy Swirls in the Night Sky
24 Jan 2012 | 12:44 pmNGC 2217Credit: ESOThis image shows the swirling shape of galaxy NGC 2217, in the constellation of Canis Major (The Great Dog). In the central region of the galaxy is a distinctive bar of stars within an oval ring. Further out, a set of tightly wound spiral arms almost form a circular ring around the galaxy. NGC 2217 is therefore classified as a barred spiral galaxy, and its circular appearance indicates that we see it nearly face-on.The outer spiral arms have a bluish colour, indicating the presence of hot, luminous, young stars, born out of clouds of interstellar gas. The central bulge and… -
Seeing Quadruple
23 Jan 2012 | 12:15 pmUZC J224030.2+032131Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture may trick you into thinking that the galaxy in it — known as UZC J224030.2+032131 — has not one but five different nuclei. In fact, the core of the galaxy is only the faint and diffuse object seen at the centre of the cross-like structure formed by the other four dots, which are images of a distant quasar located in the background of the galaxy.The picture shows a famous cosmic mirage known as the Einstein Cross, and is a direct visual confirmation of the theory of general relativity. It is one… -
Comet Corpses in the Solar Wind
21 Jan 2012 | 5:01 amA paper published in today's issue of Science raises an intriguing new possibility for astronomers: unearthing comet corpses in the solar wind. The new research is based on dramatic images of a comet disintegrating in the sun's atmosphere last July.Comet Lovejoy grabbed headlines in Dec. 2011 when it plunged into the sun's atmosphere and emerged again relatively intact. But it was not the first comet to graze the sun. Last summer a smaller comet took the same trip with sharply different results. Comet C/2011 N3 (SOHO) was completely destroyed on July 6, 2011, when it swooped 100,000 km above…
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ASTRONOMY IN LIPAN (LASS)
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NEW YEAR-------NEW THRILLS
25 Jan 2012 | 6:36 pmLASS hosted the first observing party of 2012 last Saturday night and it was a booming success. Six regulars and two guest spent the early evening hours looking at Jupiter, Venus, and Orion as well as a host of other nice targets. The Goat Hill Clear Clock site that is nearby indicated that we would have good viewing until about 9 PM and as usual, they were accurate almost to the scary point. Early evening viewing was outstanding so all of us took full advantage of the opportunity.I had checked the Heavens Above web page for chances to see any of the major satellites and… -
EARLY MORNING NIGHT THINGS
14 Jan 2012 | 12:14 pmTruthfully, I am not what you would describe as a night owl. Oh I will get up at 3-4 AM to look at a meteor shower or some other once in a night time event but generally speaking if it doesn't happen before midnight it isn't on my radar. Our annual Messier Marathon is another exception but that accounts for most of my late night astro adventures. I have been known to attend an extended star party but even then I seldom make it up all night. But I do appreciate what that early morning look has to offer.The last few mornings I have been up around 4 AM to check on the… -
WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE?
12 Jan 2012 | 11:22 amThis rant may be just a little far out for a local astronomy blog but I found the subject very interesting so here it is. THE AMAZING KEPLER TELESCOPESome time ago I wrote an article about the "Kepler" space telescope and what might be found by that fantastic piece of equipment. (See post "How Many Solar Systems Are Out There", January 2010.) Well, it is about time to do an update. At the time I posted that article there was approximately 400 stars in our galaxy that had known "exoplanets". A exoplanet is a planet circling its star in the same… -
HOW TO AVOID BUYING THE WRONG TELESCOPE
28 Nov 2011 | 8:00 pmThere are a lot of folks out there that want to buy a home so they can start living the GREAT AMERICAN DREAM. That was one of the first things that Lucy and I did when I finished all the Air Force flying schools and we arrived at our first permanent assignment. It was a modest little home---900 sq ft with an attached garage. Plenty of room for a young couple. Plenty big enough to have company or start a family. It served us very well for four years then we were reassigned to England and we sold the house and all the furniture we had acquired. I won't say… -
TOTAL MOON ECLIPSE DECEMBER 10, 2011
17 Nov 2011 | 1:35 pmWell it is true that there will be a total eclipse of the moon on December 10th of this year but unfortunately for us around the LASS site it is going to be a short look. The penumbra stage will begin at 5:33 AM (plus or minus a minute of two) and the moon will set in the west (where else does the moon set?) at about 6:45 AM. The moon will not be in a total eclipse until 8:06 AM. It will already be below the western horizon from our viewing point by that time so we won't see the whole eclipse. I know that most of you that read this blog know that a lunar (moon) eclipse…
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The Urban Astronomer
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Brilliant Venus
23 Jan 2012 | 12:59 amVenus is growing brighter in the west each evening, a brilliant evening 'star' that commands your attention as you see the sunset sky darkening. I enjoy the game of finding Venus right after sunset, particularly from Ocean Beach not far from my home in San Francisco. If you have a good western horizon, Venus is well-placed above and to the left of the point of sunset. I find that just a few minutes after the sun has set, I can often find Venus, knowing that this time of year, the Moon and planets that are in the west shortly after sunset are, in fact, nearly 'above' the Sun since the path of… -
Planets wandering through the Zodiac
13 Jan 2012 | 10:20 amI've been fascinated by the movement of planets through the zodiac lately, showing this to guests at star parties and when I give talks at the California Academy of Sciences. Jupiter, being the dominant planet in the evening sky, brings my attention to the constellation Aries, which from an urban setting is two somewhat-bright stars paired next to blazing Jupiter. Following the ecliptic toward the east, you find a series of beautiful and bright constellations including Taurus, Gemini and Leo. By the time Leo is rising in the late evening, Mars rises with it, a distinctive orange-red color in… -
Quadrantid Meteor Shower 2012 - peaks January 3-4
30 Dec 2011 | 12:05 pmThe annual Quadrantid Meteor Shower peaks on January 3rd and 4th, with the possibility to deliver a great show for viewers across North America. The Moon will interfere in the early stages of viewing, but despite that, the shower should be a good one.Meteor showers typically are strongest after midnight, when the Earth's 'front face' is moving directly into the meteor stream as the Earth moves in its orbit around the Sun. In addition, many meteor showers have a peak where the meteor stream is strongest. This year, North America is well positioned for the Quadrantid peak. For those of us on… -
A Beautiful Evening Pairing of the Moon and Venus
25 Dec 2011 | 1:15 pmThe young crescent Moon will be paired up with the brilliant evening "star" Venus on Monday evening, creating a stunning visual in the sunset sky. The monthly cycle of the Moon always brings beautiful patterns as the daily travel of the Moon along the ecliptic brings it near to other objects. But when the Moon is paired with Venus, the next-brightest object in the sky, the view is riveting, especially when we have clear skies and a view to the west. I saw a similar pairing last month while traveling in Southern California, a magnificent Moon-Venus pairing in the glow of sunset to the west… -
The Longest Night and the Early Morning Darkness
21 Dec 2011 | 12:51 amWinter Solstice brings us a long night, but not the latest sunrise. That comes in a couple weeks, for reasons too complex to explain here. The advanced student can follow this link to the EarthSky blog, or this one to Astroprofs. With the late sunrise, around 7:20 am this week in San Francisco, we have plenty of darkness in the morning to see the waning crescent Moon pass by some very fine morning stars and by the planet Mercury.Morning skies offer a particularly beautiful view of the heavens, as the atmosphere is generally calm and often the sky clears as moisture and dust settle. Some…
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The Imaging Source Astronomy Cameras Blog
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Breathtaking Jupiter Images by Peter & Christian Wellmann
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmBack in 2008 we wrote a 10-pages test concerning The Imaging Source cameras DMK 21AF04.AS, DBK 21AF04.AS and DMK 41AF02.AS which was published in "Sterne und Weltraum" No. 6/2008. We had much fun working with these cameras, and really good results. So we were very interested how much better the new generation DMK/DBK 21AU618.AS utilizing ICX618 chips would be compared with the previous DMK/DBK 21AF04.AS models. We did a through test (9 pages) on this, which was published in "Sterne und Weltraum" No. 12/2011. One of the results was, that the new DMK 21AU618.AS has drastically improved… -
DMK 41AU02.AS Solar Images by David Mason
22 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmThe solar image is a white light image taken on 29/9/2011 using my DMK 41AU02.AS, Meade AR6 150mm refractor, 2x barlow, 2" Herschel wedge, Baader Solar Continuum & an ND filter. The seeing on that day was the best I've ever had for solar observing. David Mason, Maidenhead, UK -
See You at AstroFest 2012 in Kensington, London, UK
18 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmI am delighted to announce that we will be attending AstroFest 2011 at the Kensington Conference and Events Centre in London, UK. The two day event runs between Februrary 10, 2012 and Februrary 11, 2012. A representative from The Imaging Source will be available at the stand of our UK reseller The Widescreen Centre. We will be running a free prize draw to win some of our cameras, so be sure to call round at The Widescreen Centre stand, fill in the entry card and cross your fingers. It may be your lucky day! See you there. -
Mars with DMK 21AF04.AS and RGB Filters
17 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmLast nights clear skies finally allowed me to do some Mars imaging again. The seeing wasn't very good but I still managed to capture quite some detail. These were my 2 best RGB series. It also allowed me to test my new IR742 filter. Edwin Pottillius, Belgium -
New Astronomy Cameras Google+ Page
16 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmOver the last year or so, we have gathered quite a following on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all for your ongoing support on these platforms! Today, I would like to announce the new Google+ Page forThe Imaging Source Astronomy Cameras: http://www.astronomycameras.com/google+ We will be posting content that is unique to the Google+ Page, so add the Page to your circles today!
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sci.astro Google Group
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EINSTEIN'S THEORY: NOT EVEN ABSURD
28 Jan 2012 | 5:38 amThe following quotations show that the implications of Einstein's theory are not just absurd. Rather, they bear all the characteristics of statements like "The greenness of the crocodile exceeds its length": [link] John Norton: "Relativity theory tells us that a moving clock is slowed -
Re: Sunrise
28 Jan 2012 | 4:16 amThe choice facing our generation is simple and it is not much of a choice,there is no room for a wandering analemma Sun as the only acceptable observations of wandering motions are the planets including the two 'wanderers' seen here being overtaken by the Earth - [link] -
Unmistakable Brain Tissue Remains in Meteorite
28 Jan 2012 | 2:32 amNumerous unmistakable neuron fossils labelled in micrograph of meteorite at [link] This photo shows why the neuron fossils are not minerals: [link] Photo Credit: Appalachian State University -
Re: Sunrise
27 Jan 2012 | 8:10 pmGerald lives for his nonsensical replies! Apparently no other "pleasures" in his life. The earth's orbit is elliptical, as a result sunrise, solar noon and sunset get ahead and behind. The eccentricity of the earth orbit and the obliquity of the ecliptic are the largest factors. -
Re: How would we know Herbert Dingle was right or wrong?
27 Jan 2012 | 6:21 pmHow would you apply the above to the train and platform experiment?
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uk.sci.astronomy Google Group
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Re: Aurorawatch UK?
27 Jan 2012 | 1:49 pmTheir magnetometer chart was high after the first day of recent activity, but not afterwards. I haven't received any emails since Oct 31. If you've a couple of hundred euros and some time to spare you can build your own 3-axis internettable magnetometer. [link] -
Aurorawatch UK?
25 Jan 2012 | 3:12 amHello, I was wondering if this site ([link]) is still "working properly"? I've been reading in the news about the biggest geomagnetic storm in 6 years, but I haven't received any alert for aurorawatch at all (been registered for years), and when I looked at the site and the live recording, it looks like there was no activity at all -
I am very confident to say that one of the desi
12 Jan 2012 | 7:25 am2012 the best replica watches and handbags （[link] ） 2012 the best replica watches and handbags （[link] ） Top replica AAAAAA+ 1 to 1 quality. If you have any questions, free to contact us: watchesy...@yahoo.cn or watches2...@foxmail.com There is something fascinating, magnetic and lovertiful throughout regards to girl carrying an reingistic Gucci handbag. I am very confident to say that one of the desirable additions to any ladies wardrobe has got to be considered Gucci purse. I have had customers tell me that their mother collected Gucci bags and they have continued the tradition. -
A most important equation
6 Jan 2012 | 6:31 amTo the nearest rotation,the correspondence between 1461 days and 4 years in equating to 1461 rotations in 4 orbital circuits is the most notable and familiar in all science.The upcoming 24 hours of rotation that is February 29th ties in with 4 orbital circuits built around 1461 days/1461 rotations even if the details are not immediately -
Re: Sex Pervert MarkWIlsonDecker looking for Employment PUSSY
20 Dec 2011 | 2:49 amno ....
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Big Picture Science
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Skeptic Check: Energy Vortex
23 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am“I feel your vibe!” Well, that describes a number of fabled locales that claim to pulse with mysterious energy – perhaps prompting books to fly across the room or airplanes to vanish into thin air. But what’s the science behind it? We examine spots marked with an X, for “extraordinary” – from a haunted house to the Bermuda Triangle – to sort out natural from supernatural phenomena. Plus, what causes the aurora borealis… a haywire Russian space probe… and just what the heck is an “energy vortex,” anyway? Guests: Phil Plait – Skeptic and keeper of Discover… -
Wired for Thought
16 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amA cup of coffee can leave you wired for the day. But a chip in your brain could wire you to a machine forever. Imagine manipulating a mouse without moving a muscle, and doing a Google search with your mind. Welcome to the future of the brain-machine interface. Don your EEG thinking-cap, and discover a high-tech thought game that may be the harbinger of machine relationships to come. Plus, the ultimate mapping project: the Human Connectdome Project aims to identify all the neural pathways in the human brain. It may help us understand what makes us human, but could it also point the way to… -
Cosmos: It's Big, It's Weird
9 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amIt’s all about you. And you, and you, and you and you… that is, if we live in parallel universes. Imagine you doing exactly what you’re doing now, but in an infinite number of universes. Discover the multiverse theory and why repeats aren’t limited to summer television. Plus, the physics of riding on a light beam, and the creative analogies a New York Times science writer uses to avoid using the word “weird” to describe dark energy and other weird physics. Also, people who concoct their own theories (some would say fringe) of the universe: is all matter made up of tiny coiled… -
Light, the Universe, and Everything
2 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amENCORE What’s it all about? And we mean ALL. What makes up this vast sprawling cosmos? Why does it exist? Why do we exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Ow, my head hurts! For possible answers, we travel to the moment after the Big Bang and discover all that came into being in those few minutes after the great flash: time, space, matter, and light. Plus, the bizarre stuff that makes up the bulk of the universe: dark energy and dark matter. Also, what we set in motion with the invention of the light blub. How artificial light lit up our homes, our cities and – inadvertently… -
Skeptic Check: Superstition
26 Dec 2011 | 2:00 amENCORE Wait! Before you step outside… is it Friday the 13th? Any black cats prowling around? Broken a mirror lately? Homo sapiens are a superstitious lot. Find out why our brains are wired for irrational belief. Plus, from the 2012-end-of-the-world prophesy to colliding planets – why some people believe the universe is out to get ‘em. Also, Brains on Vacation takes on a challenge to relativity and our Hollywood skeptic has doubts about exorcism. It’s enough to make your head spin on Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it! Guests: Bruce Hood – Cognitive…
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StarDate Online
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The Little Dog
28 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amThe big dog trots across the southern sky on winter nights — the constellation Canis Major. It’s conspicuous for its leading light — Sirius, the Dog Star, which is the brightest star in the night sky. It’s low in the southeast at nightfall, and well up in the south in late evening. Canis Major is escorted across the sky by the little dog, Canis Minor, which is to the upper left of the big dog in early evening. If you have a fairly dark sky, it’s not hard to see Canis Major as a four-legged animal. But Canis Minor is another story. On most starcharts, it’s drawn as a single line… -
Gravitational Waves V
27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amThere’s probably more than one way to make a black hole. One is the collapse of a massive star. Another is the merger of two other dead stars, known as neutron stars. Such a merger would produce a brilliant outburst of energy. It would also produce an outburst of ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves. A gravitational-wave observatory known as LIGO will be looking for these mergers when it completes a major upgrade in a few years. Scientists say it should be able to detect any such merger within about 50 million light-years — perhaps dozens of them every year. Alan Weinstein is… -
Winter Wonderland
26 Jan 2012 | 2:33 amThe Opportunity Mars rover will awaken to this view for the next several months as it settles in for the long Martian winter. It is on the inner rim of Endeavour Crater, at a spot named Greeley Haven in honor of a mission scientist who died in late 2011. The spot offers good exposure to the Sun as it scoots across the sky during the short days. Opportunity's solar panels are covered with so much dust that the rover must cease its roving and use most of its power to keep warm. It will examine the rocks around it, however, and scientists will monitor tiny changes in its radio signals to probe… -
Gravitational Waves IV
26 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amSCOFIELD: We’re on the roof of the corner station at Hanford, looking out across the desert. This desert was set aside for production of plutonium in World War II, so this is the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Since each of our arms is two-and-a-half miles long, it makes sense to site such a big facility out here in this protected desert. Robert Scofield is a scientist with LIGO — a gravitational wave observatory with detectors at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. Each detector consists of a pair of “arms” in which a laser measures the distance to a mirror that’s… -
Gravitational Waves III
25 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amAlmost everything that moves produces ripples in space and time known as gravitational waves. Most of them are tiny — like the ripples produced by a mosquito landing on Lake Michigan — far too tiny to detect. The biggest ripples — like those produced by splashing boulders — come from some of the heaviest and fastest objects in the universe, like merging stellar corpses — and those are the ones that scientists are trying to detect. RAAB: We’re looking for warpages in space that are traveling at the speed of light and are generated by big violent motions like the formation of a…
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About.com Space / Astronomy
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Strong Solar Storm Reaches Earth
25 Jan 2012 | 5:34 amA strong solar storm (rated an S3, with S5 being the strongest) erupted on Sunday evening, launching intense radiation and charged particles toward Earth. Late last night, the coronal mass ejecta interacted with Earth's magnetic field, creating brilliant auroras across northern Europe, and even parts of northern Michigan and Maine and on into Canada....Read Full Post -
A Day on Mercury
15 Jan 2012 | 8:40 amNASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) Probe has settled into orbit around Mercury. Some of the measurements that have been taken are already generating debate among planetary scientists (more on this later in the week). But the MESSENGER team has also been at work creating very cool animations about what it is like on the surface of the closest planet to the Sun....Read Full Post -
Stephen Hawking Reveals Greatest Mystery in the Universe... Women.
5 Jan 2012 | 8:59 amI have to admit, I didn't see this one coming. When New Scientist Magazine asked the famed physicist what he thinks about most his response was simple. "Women. They are a complete mystery."...Read Full Post -
We're As Close to the Sun as We're Going to Get
4 Jan 2012 | 3:33 pmLiterally as I write this the Earth is leaving the point in its orbit known as Perihelion. Simply, this is the point where Earth is closest to the Sun. Now, many of you in the northern hemisphere may be looking outside at the wintery weather and wondering how that can be....Read Full Post -
2011 Space Image of the Year
23 Dec 2011 | 2:51 pmI find it amusing that so many of the "Top [insert generic topic of interest here] of 2011" lists come out in October or November, more than a month before the actual end of the year. In fact, the 2012 (yes 2012!) North American Car of the Year has already been determined by Motor Trend, several weeks before the end of 2011! (Though they sort of get a pass since Car manufacturers seems to designate the model years of their cars about 6 months ahead of the actual calendar year.)...Read Full Post
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A Pacific View
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A well-deserved award
16 Jan 2012 | 3:57 amThe United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) won an award from the Royal Astronomical Society. It's a bit of the way down the page but it's a well-deserved award that reflects some pretty damn hard work lots of people have put in over the last few years. It doesn't include me of course, I'm just a grunt, but I like it that way... -
Almost the same
16 Jan 2012 | 2:51 amThere's a picture I saw in a recent edition of Outdoor Photographer, a magazine I've subscribed to for the last couple of years, that made me say "What the hell, that's my photo!". You can see the picture at the top of this article. My picture is above.It wasn't my photo in the article but it looks as though the photographer took his photo from almost the same spot as I did last year. It's a nice photo and captures those crepuscular rays a regular reader will know I love, except I'm not blogging regularly these days so that's a bit of an oxymoron. Anyway, it got me thinking - why not just… -
Steve Rawlings
12 Jan 2012 | 11:36 pmI'm stunned, and so are many members of the astronomy community. Rather than hearing through the grapevine I just happened to read this article on the BBC site this morning about how Steve was found dead yesterday.Steve was a good friend and was a regular UKIRT observer. I supported many of his runs and we spent a lot of time together both at the summit of Mauna Kea and having dinner and beers in Hilo. Steve stopped coming out to Hawaii a few years ago mainly because we switched to survey operations and had fewer visiting observers, but he always complained that when he visited it always… -
I wish you all a very merry Christmas
24 Dec 2011 | 2:38 amIt's not one of my photos, in fact I haven't picked up my camera for two or three months. It's a picture taken from the UH 88-inch webcam this evening at sunset. The weather here has been incredibly bad over the last couple of months and we've hardly been open but tonight we finally got back into action. The summit road has been closed for ages due to snow and ice and on the occasions it has been open to the public the summit has been in fog. This evening, however, the skies cleared and at least according to this view the summit was about the busiest I have ever seen!Anyway, sorry for not… -
Spooky goings-on at UKIRT
25 Oct 2011 | 11:59 pmIt was almost midnight last night when the first spooky apparition was picked up by one of UKIRT's thermal infrared security cameras and triggered the motion sensor. It had been a cold, dark and quiet night up until then but suddenly the software sent out a burst of images capturing our warm friend ghosting across the field of view.A second later it had drifted to the right, its unearthly body and eerie limbs glowing brightly in infrared light.And before you could say "Is it Halloween yet?" it was gone.
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Remanzacco Observatory - Comets & Neo
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2012 BX34 - Close Approach
27 Jan 2012 | 8:20 amToday, January 27, 2012 at about 15:25 UT, the asteroid designated 2012 BX34 will pass only 59,044 km (36,750 miles) or about ~0.2 lunar distance (or 0.0004 AU) above the Earth's surface. The asteroid was discovered by Catalina Sky Survey with a 0.68-m Schmidt + CCD on January 25, 2012 at magnitude ~20.According to its absolute magnitude (H=27.6) this asteroid has an estimated diameter of roughly 8-18 meters, so it is very small. We have been able to follow-up this object few hours ago remotely from the GRAS Observatory (near Mayhill, NM) through a 0.10-m f/5 reflector + CCD. At the… -
Comet Images by Faulkes & Liverpool Telescopes
17 Jan 2012 | 7:11 amBelow you can find a selection of some of the comets we imaged in the last 2 weeks using the 2-meter telescopes of Faulkes (F65 & E10 MPC codes) and the La Palma-Liverpool (J13 MPC code). Click on each image for a bigger version.Prompted by an alert of A. Diepvens on comet-images mailing list, on January 03 we perfomed some follow-up of C/2010 G2 (Hill); we confirm that this comet was experiencing a bright phase. Co-adding of 9 unfiltered exposures, 15 seconds each, obtained remotely from the Siding Spring-Faulkes Telescope South on 2012, January 03.46 through a 2.0-m f/10.0… -
Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) approaches the Sun
15 Dec 2011 | 3:45 amAustralian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy discovered on Nov. 27.7 his third comet, designated C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). On our previous post about this comet you can see our follow-up image and animation. C/2011 W3 is a Kreutz sungrazer, a family of sungrazing comets that are named after German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who first studied them in the details. These comet fragments passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion and usually they completely evaporated during such a close approach. Many Kreutz sungrazer comets are observed each year by SOHO Sun-observing satellite. SOHO… -
"Centaur" minor planet 2010 XZ78
6 Dec 2011 | 6:07 am2010 XZ78 is an object found on December 2010 by G96 professional survey and classified as a Centaur. To date, 17 total observations of 2010 XZ78 are present in the MPC database over interval: 2010 11 13.34 – 2011 01 08.25.Centaurs, defined to have their perihelion outside of Jupiter (5.2 AU) and semimajor axis inside of Neptune (30.0 AU), have unstable orbits and have been extracted from the transneptunian objects (TNOs) population through perturbations by Neptune. So far only a few Centaurs have presented unambiguous evidence of cometary activity (see for example 174P/Echeclus). The first… -
C/2011 W3 (LOVEJOY) - Kreutz Sungrazing Comet
5 Dec 2011 | 6:43 amCbet nr.2930, issued on 2011, December 02, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 13) by Terry Lovejoy on three CCD images obtained each on Nov. 27.7 and 29.7 UT with a Celestron 8 0.20-m f/2.1 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector (+ QHY9 camera). The new comet has been designated C/2011 W3 (LOVEJOY).The comet appears to be a Kreutz sungrazer, a family of sungrazing comets that are named after German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who first studied them in the details. These comet fragments passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion and usually they completely evaporated during…
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365 Days of Astronomy
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January 28th: Encore: Life in Technicolor
28 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDate: January 28, 2012 Title: Encore: Life in Technicolor Podcaster: Maria Pereira Organization: Columbia University Astronomy Links: http://outreach.astro.columbia.edu This podcast originally aired on December 28, 2009: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2009/12/28/december-28th-life-in-technicolor/ Description: What will plants on other worlds look like? Will they be green and leafy as on Earth? Or could there be planets with purple trees? Black grassy plains? Orange marshes? These questions might seem purely speculative, something out of a technicolor daydream, but, in reality, their answers… -
January 27th: Encore : Common Questions and Answers
27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDate: January 27, 2012 Title: Common Questions and Answers Podcasters: RapidEye Organization: RapidEye Observatory – a private observatory in rural Lee County, NC http://www.rapideye.us/astro/RapidEye-ClearSky.html This podcast originally aired on May 21, 2010: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/05/21/may-21st-common-questions-and-answers/ Description: Common Questions and Answers about Telescopes Bio: I’ve been captivated by astronomy ever since I was a kid, living in NW Colorado where the Milky Way was bright enough to read by. I can be found most clear nights in my pasture with either… -
January 26th: There Won’t Be a Quiz! Free Online Intro To Astronomy Course From CSUDH
26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDate: January 26, 2012 Title: There Won’t Be a Quiz! Free Online Intro To Astronomy Course From CSUDH Podcaster: Mat Kaplan Organization: Planetary Society Links: http://dhtv.csudh.edu/ http://planetary.org Description: Astronomer and planetary scientist Dr. Bruce Betts is also the Planetary Society’s Director of Projects. On February 8 he will return to California State University, Dominguez Hills to begin teaching an online Intro to Astronomy course that is open to all at no cost. It’s a fun and exciting way to learn everything you ever wanted to know about our solar system and… -
January 25th: Encore: Life and Death in Orion
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDate: January 25, 2012 Title: Encore: Life and Death in Orion Podcaster: Christopher Crockett Organization: Lowell Observatory Links: http://www.lowell.edu/users/crockett/ This podcast originally aired on February 9, 2009: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2009/02/09/february-9-life-and-death-in-orion/ Description: The constellation Orion is a highlight of winter evenings, never failing to impress with its brilliance and distinctive pattern. The Egyptians saw these stars as the celestial home of Osiris, the God of the Underworld. Just as Osiris traversed death and was reborn, the stars of Orion… -
January 24th: 8 Telescope Tips for Beginners Astronomers
24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDate: January 24, 2012 Title: 8 Telescope Tips for Beginners Astronomers Podcaster: The Telescope Man, a.k.a. Joe Lalumia Organization: Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas, TX. Links: www.texasastro.org Joe’s website: www.telescopeman.org Original audio file: http://www.archive.org/details/telescopeman_8things Description: TelescopeMan gives 8 tips to beginning amateur astronomers looking for their first telescope. Bio: Joe Lalumia, also known as The Telescope Man, is the President of the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas, TX. Sponsor: This episode of the “365 Days of…
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IYA 2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka
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Lecture and Sun-Spot Observation at University of Colombo by MAS
14 Jan 2012 | 12:24 pmIt was a kick-start for the year 2012 for the astro-enthusiasts of University of Colombo as Mathematical and Astronomical Society of the university put together a lecture and an observation session focused on sun spots last week. 06th of January 2012 saw the astro folks gathering at the Department of Physics for a lecture conducted by Dr Chandana Jayaratne followed by a session of sun spot observation a bit later on afterward the lecture. One of the advantages, living somewhere closer to equator, I think would be to have the sun light whole year, allowing yourself to play with the… -
Dr Gayandhi De Silva is back in Sri Lanka
14 Jan 2012 | 2:58 amDr Gayandhi De Silva, a Sri Lankan astronomer working at Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) has returned home and is currently in Sri Lanka, Thus I had the pleasure of meeting her physically, although we've been known to each other since some time following some astronomy project I was involved back then. I was a fan of her blog when she was writing for Cosmic Diary during IYA 2009. I think I was late to hear this news as I just got back to Sri Lanka last week after a period of 2 months in Europe, but I am glad that I was not too late. Apparently Dr… -
"How do we Study the Atmospheres of Planets"-Dr Tilak Hewagama
2 Nov 2011 | 10:51 amThere will be a visiting astronomer lecture on the topic of "How do we Study the Atmospheres of Planets" by Dr Tilak Hewagama - NASA/GSFC University of Maryland. The lecture will be delivered tomorrow (Thursday the 03rd November 2011) at 11.00 am University of Moratuwa, and it will be hosted by IEEE Student branch of University of Moratuwa. Abstract Humans have relied on their keen sense of sight in exploring their environment. The basic properties of light, color and intensity, convey a wealth of information about the source and intervening media, and remains at the core of… -
Star Party 2011, Kandy- Sri Lanka
21 Oct 2011 | 5:59 amStar Party 2011 will be held from 6.00 p.m. onwards on 21st of October 2011, at the University of Peradeniya, Kandy ,Sri Lanka and this will go for 12 hours, including different sessions of night sky observation.Basically there will be 2 segments themed as competition and workshop where the amateur students can both evaluate their talent and improve their know-how on practical astronomy. The competition is expected to be the focus of many students, as everybody will try their best to grab the champions trophy and claim for the honor of 'Best Astronomy Team' of the country. -
Back to blogging and now it's the time for some Draconids
7 Oct 2011 | 8:05 amYeah, I'm back into blogging after ages, and I think I'd fancy blogging in this new platform which I'm using for the first time. This is a moment I achieved despite quite a many stuff that came across my way during recent months. Finally I'm done with my University exams and although it's already been few weeks since the end of the exams, it's just now I'm starting to scribble something, which was mostly due to my new-found passion of traveling. Chances were more that I had found myself engaged in some kind of work, either in University or…
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Internet Archive
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TelescopeMan_ Beginner_Rant
22 Jan 2012 | 3:04 pmTelescopeMan rants about the same questions beginners ask -- over and over again! www.astronomyforum.net www.telescopeman.org wwww.telescopeman.info wwww.telescopeman.us.This item has files of the following types: Checksums, Flac, Flac FingerPrint, Metadata, Ogg Vorbis, VBR MP3, WAVE -
Telescopeman_Cases_and_cases
13 Jan 2012 | 8:32 pmTelescopeMan shows the beginner amateur astronomer where to buy low cost equipment cases. Helpful information about saving money while enjoying the Astronomy hobby. www.telescopeman.org www.telescopeman.info www.telescopeman.us.This item has files of the following types: Animated GIF, Flash Video, Metadata, Ogg Video, Thumbnail, h.264 -
Telescopeman_Internation4
7 Jan 2012 | 8:07 pmTelescopeMan interviews three of the moderators and the owner of the Astronomy based web site: astronomyforum.net The world's largest international Astronomy forum with over 55,000 members worldwide. www.telescopeman.org www.telescopeman.info Recorded using Skype in January 2012....This item has files of the following types: Checksums, Flac, Flac FingerPrint, Metadata, Ogg Vorbis, VBR MP3, WAVE -
TelescopeMan Stellarvue_80BV
1 Jan 2012 | 6:06 pmTelescopeMan describes a binoviewer ready telescope; the Stellarvue 80BV. This permits the telescope to be used in two different ways. www.telescopeman.org www.telescopeman.us www.telescopeman.info.This item has files of the following types: Animated GIF, Flash Video, Metadata, Ogg Video, Thumbnail, h.264 -
Telescopeman_Jan2012_observe
28 Dec 2011 | 2:37 pmTelescopeMan lists his January 2012 objects in the night sky. www.telescopeman.org www.telescopeman.us www,telescopeman.info.This item has files of the following types: Checksums, Flac, Flac FingerPrint, Metadata, Ogg Vorbis, VBR MP3, WAVE
