The planets are still giving us a fine show this month. Nothing quite as spectacular as the conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus but there is still time to get great views of Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter this month. Venus is still the brightest object in the sky but will be slowly sinking …
All hail the God of War! To the Romans Mars celebrated Mars in the month of March (Martius in Latin) root of many military words including martial. This month he reigns again as Mars reaches opposition (directly opposite the Earth on the same side of the Sun) and peak visibility over the next two months …
Since its cloudy and rainy today, I have been updating the photo album. This double rainbow taken on October 18th after a late afternoon rain shower. Lots of folks on the mountain reported seeing it as well. It was almost in the same location as the one I took last year (and auctioned at the …
We have been in Atlanta the past couple of weeks but that has not stopped my sky gazing and occasional photography. This is a 6 second time exposure of the International Space Station (ISS) passing over the city. I wanted to capture it along with the skyline but the angle was not right on that …
November is a great month for star gazing. Cold and dry autumn nights combined with Balsam’s dark skies will provide great viewing conditions. Just remember to dress warmly! Jupiter is still king of the night skies and well positioned for viewing the entire month. See how many moons you can see with your naked eyes. …
October is a good time to rent the wonderful movie October Sky for your kids and grand kids. Based on the book Rocket Boys, its the true story of Homer Hickam about a coal miner’s son who was inspired by the launch of Sputnik to become an engineer against his father’s wishes. Homer went on …
As fall approaches nights are getting longer and drier – a big plus for astronomers and fans of the night sky. The past week at Balsam have shown us what the fall skies can be with cool, dry nights and the summer milky way arching overhead. This month the planet show picks up a notch …
I am way behind processing and posting images taken at Dogstar Observatory. The work of taking astronomical images is like keeping a high performance race car in top condition. It is mostly an engineering challenge keeping all the myriad electronic, mechanical and software products working together. Processing and publishing images is more like artistic expression. …
I know its not astronomical, but while I was working in the observatory in preparation for a night of imaging, Janie yelled up that there was a bear in the back yard. Looked like a juvenile that was all by himself (or herself) after mom kicked him out. Ursa Minor (the little bear) was indeed …
I just noticed that the Dogstar weather station has been down since yesterday. If you are a regular user and notice the updates are old (it should update every hour) let me know. Sometimes I don’t check it every day. I can usually kick start it locally or remotely and get it back up. I …
