NEOWISE, Hercules, and the Swan

Ah, another beautiful night for hunting comet NEOWISE. I watched for quite a while as it set in the NW sky, and then took some photos of the Swan nebula and M13 (the Hercules cluster): Turn the swan upside-down to see it.

Stargazers do it in the Adirondacks!

The Keene Valley library summer lecture series has gone virtual this year. I presented my view of stargazing under our beautiful and rare Adirondack dark skies. Some have asked for the slides, which I’m providing here. They contains some images from this website and others, and topics include light pollution and info about my equipment.

And more NEOWISE…

Another night, another trip to Norton Cemetery. Haze and somewhat reduced transparency tonight didn’t dampen enthusiasm. Here are a couple of the resulting views:

More Comet NEOWISE

Greetings. We had a great night up at Norton Cemetery. I haven’t had time to process the images yet. Here’s a sampling straight from the camera: More to come, stay tuned! Stay tuned for further updates!

Comet NEOWISE

I don’t know where I was when the last naked-eye comet was around. Maybe I was too busy to notice, or I was under the city lights, or I just didn’t care. But holy cow, if I missed such a sight as comet NEOWISE, then I’ll start kicking myself retroactively! For after my first glimpse […]

Galaxies of the Hunting Dogs

Some of my favorite astronomical images are collections of galaxies, and my best efforts to find even two fitting within my telescopes field of view has been Bodes and the Cigar galaxies. But maybe I need to spend more time galaxy hunting? My recent capture of C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) with its accidental bonus galaxy inspired […]

Who said it was easy?

Another cold winter and now Covid-19! Yikes! But the stargazing itch finally reached overwhelming proportions and news of the comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) flareup was – enticing. ‘Twas March 27th with a clear-sky forecast and rain thereafter. That meant there was just no choice. I had to go out and take look. And I really […]

Mercury Transit Video

Greetings, Too bad we missed the transit here in the northeast USA. I was instead, hunkered down watching snowflakes transit each other. But NASA’s satellites saw it in a variety of wavelengths. Check out this composite video: https://youtu.be/0yNzSwlnQ2Q In other news, SpaceX has launched another constellation of 60 low-earth orbiting starlink satellites with similar launches to […]

Mercury Transit Cancelled

So, if Mercury transits under overcast skies, does it still transit? I guess residents of Keene, NY. will never know. Today’s transit viewing is cancelled. See you in 2032!

2019 Mercury Transit

I promised my loyal followers about three and a half years ago that arrangements would be made for another solar transit of Mercury in November of 2019. I stick to my word and I’m happy to see the solar system is in agreement. The transit will be on November 11, 2019 this year – one […]