The newest generation of “smart” imaging telescopes are a great way to introduce beginners and youngsters to astronomy. Multiple vendors including ZWO, Unistellar, Vaonis and Dwarf Labs make fully automated, miniature imaging scopes that have no eyepiece but provide a sophisticated astrophotography imaging setup operated by your smartphone. The Dwarf Mini from DwarfLab weighs less […]
Photographing the night sky with a tiny telescope Read More »
Have you tried to dim the display on your bedside clock only to find out its still way to bright? I guess this is tangentially related to astronomy as we all strive to reduce unnecessary indoor lighting in case we jump out of bed to see a meteor shower. I found this neutral density film
Hack your alarm clock Read More »
At about 9:04 this morning, Lexi jumped off the bed and ran into the bathroom looking up at the ceiling. Janie heard a loud noise that seem to come from the attic and called out to me. I heard what sounded like an animal crawling on the roof which quickly subsided. Later we heard reports
This one is going to be hard to see but worth trying over the next few nights. Just find someplace where you can see the setting sun and look. If you use binoculars be very careful not to point them at the sun. If you can catch the sun just after sunset then try your
Go out this weekend at sunset where you have a clear view to the western horizon and look for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. It’s a really big one and observers in the southern hemisphere report that is almost naked eye visible. It’s now visible in the northern hemisphere (check Spaceweather.com for recent images of aura and comets).
Here comes a bright comet Read More »
Beautiful sunset after intense storm last night at dinner.
Sunset from Double Top Read More »
Folks are always asking if there is something worth looking for in the night sky and I forget about meteor showers which get a lot of hype in the press. Meteor showers occur periodically as the Earth’s orbit cross the path of dust left over from comets that visit the inner solar system. You can
Perseid meteor shower this weekend Read More »
Now for something completely unrelated to astronomy or nature – music! I attended Merlefest at Wilkesboro Community College this weekend. MerleFest was founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College and to celebrate ‘traditional plus’ music. 100 bands, 11 stages and 7,000 fans attended the four day
Automated astro imaging telescopes have become very popular in the past few years. “Serious” astro photography typically requires rather expensive and complex gear and associated software as anyone who has seen Dogstar Observatory can attest. These automated scopes combine an telescope, camera and motorized mount into a single package that can be operated from a
Deep sky image from a tiny telescope Read More »
This is so cool I just had to post it. As we all know, AI software is advancing rapidly with many tools available from chat bots to image and even video generation. Many of the tools are free to explore so do check out ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and MidJourney. Adobe just released Firefly, their new
