Second Shot – a day late

An extended storm blocked my view of the Moon on Thursday and Friday. Saturday evening, the clouds started to break up. Now, I'll need to get the photo from earlier this month and tonight's photo to the same number of pixels to compare their sizes. Photoshop Elements not giving me the number of pixels in …

Going to get my second shot!

I’m going to try to get my second shot on Friday. Oh, not the vaccine - I mean my comparison photo of the Moon. I got the first shot earlier this month when the Moon was near perigee at last quarter (see earlier post). If I can get a photo near apogee near first quarter, …

Last quarter moon near perigee

Today is Wednesday, February 4th. Finally got some breaks in the clouds left over from the slow-moving storm that dumped a foot and half of snow earlier this week. Like the loony bird that was 'coo-coo for cocco puffs', I'm nuts about our Moon. But today there is a method to my madness, or at …

Heads UP! for February 2021

Want to see planets? It’s getting harder. In February, we’ll have to peek around the Sun a lot. But Mars and Uranus are still in the evening sky. Jupiter edges out into the morning sky. Saturn follows Jupiter, but it’s going to harder to find. Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury cluster low in the east-southeast before …

Astronomical Phenomena for 2021 is Available

Thank you, United States Naval Observatory, for letting me know the long-awaited and very useful Astronomical Phenomena for 2021 is available if you fill out a form at https://astro.ukho.gov.uk/nao/AP_Download.html .

SOHO: Watching the Space In the Glare of the Sun -updated

Jupiter and Saturn in SOHO's C3 camera. SOHO C3 camera photo 2:46am EST on Tuesday, January 19th. Jupiter and Saturn are the two brightest dots to the left of the Sun. The location of the Sun is marked by the white circle. The Sun is blocked by the camera - you can see where the …

Three of a kind

Low in the west-southwestern sky tonight were the three planets: Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn. I used the top of the bleachers at the Ardsley High School field as a perch to spy the evening planets. When I took this photo with my zoom lens, Jupiter was 3 1/2 degrees above a level horizon, Mercury and …

Surveyor Selfie

The photo information says 2008, but I think it was much longer ago, I was on one of my visits to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. They had a test model of the Surveyor spacecraft, hanging next to the second-floor level at the Museum. Surveyor was an uncrewed three-legged spacecraft. NASA …

Seeking a Star, Seeking a Child

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, which commemorates the "Wise Men" finding the Jesus and his family in the little town of Bethlehem. When I heard the story this year, the phrase ". . . the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over …

Heads UP! for January 2021

Happy arbitrarily-placed beginning of the New Year, 2021! In 2021, we’ll find out how spoiled we were by the easy-to-find bright planets in 2020. At least we had that! Summary for January:  The cavalcade of bright planets comes to a close as we start calendar year 2021. Jupiter spurns Saturn as the solar glare overtakes …