Category: Astronomy
The stars within us, the stars above us.
Eclipse simulation video posted
I made an eclipse simulation video of the upcoming solar eclipse as it will be seen from the SoulClipse Festival in Turkey next week. It’s in H.264 format and shows the eclipse as it will be seen from the ground and from orbit over Turkey. It was made with Starry Read More …
Two planets in the sky
There are two prominent planets in the night sky this fall season, both of them very easy to spot with the naked eye. As the sun sets in the south west, you’ll notice a very bright “star” hovering about 2 fist-widths above the horizon. This is Venus. Venus is so Read More …
Fiery tail, riding high
Want to see a comet? Alright, here's how. Around 8:30pm, go outside and look at the west-southwest horizon. Look almost 90° upwards (okay, 81° to be exact) You're now looking at comet Machholz C/2004 Q2. This comet will be rising in the south eastern sky before nightfall and make its Read More …
Because I care
Law of Universal Gravitation Every object in the Universe attracts every other object with a force directed along the line of centers for the two objects that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the separation between the two objects. God I Read More …
Well, they did it.
Scientists, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, have finally imaged for the first time a planet outside our own solar system. The planet is 225 light years away from us (that's 225 times 6 TRILLION miles away) and is about 1.5 times the size of Jupiter. Read More …
Mr. Spacely
Counting stars by candlelight, all are dim but one is bright; The spiral light of venus, rising first and shining best, On, from the northwest corner, of a brand new crescent moon, While crickets and cicadas sing, a rare and different tune, Terrapin station.
The gods must be teasing me
Warm weather at night, but skies completely conceiled by a high overcast. For the past week. With light pollution to add insult. All the well, I've taken a sturdy cardboard box and a sharp knife and began constructing my aperture mask. I did the calculations and I'll need to make Read More …
Cloudy Nights
The past few nights here have been completely overcast with not even a break in the clouds. The other night I went down to Company 7 and picked up two things – a upgraded finder scope that is of the same spec as the one that came with my XT10 Read More …
More on Saturn and the Moon
I dragged my scope up to UMBC tonight to get another view of Saturn. Despite the light pollution from Baltimore, I got a pretty good view and studied it for a while. Although my eyes were tearing from the cold, I saw a better picture of the Cassini Division in Read More …
Orion Inteliscope Cable and Adaptor
Alright, so now I figured out the RS-232 pinouts on the telescope control computer interface. On its 4 wire RJ-11 plug, I found that Pin-1 was xmit, Pin-2 was recv, and Pin-3 was ground. Pin-4 is apparently unused. Bare basic RS-232 with no handshaking or CTS/CTR. I managed to work Read More …