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 […]

Adirondack Stargazing

At the Keene Valley library summer lecture series finale, I presented slides and demonstrated telescope equipment before an eager audience. Local astronomers Kevin and Chris participated, each showing off their telescopes outside the Keene Valley and Keene Town libraries immediately following the presentation. The clouds held off just long enough to see views of Jupiter […]

Duck Cluster/Dumbbell

Another summer night at the Cemetery with friends, surrounded by the surreal sound of owl calls. Occasional meteors flashed overhead. These images were taken with my Canon T5i camera, and processed from RAW images using only iPhoto (the Dumbbell has a vignette effect applied). The Dumbbell was taken just as the moon was rising. The […]

More time at the Lagoon

I thought I’d make a more concerted effort at M8 as the waxing moon is becoming a hindrance to deep sky photography. So I took a series of five, five-minute exposures just after the moon set at about 11:30 on July 7th. It was a beautiful night, but the first shot had suffered a bit […]

A moonless night spent with M8

Cleardarksky.com predicted above average transparency tonight, a rarity for us here in the Adirondack mountains. So I decided head out on this night of the new moon and the day when a solar eclipse had been visible in South America! The transparency was good, and so was the seeing. I was Joined by Jim and […]

GPS Module flips out again

It’s been a while, but the GPS module stopped responding again. This is the fourth time. I developed a reset procedure to resurrect it, and had to apply that again. Only this time, I installed a handy reset button. Once again, the GPS came back to life after being reset.

Owl Nebula

I saw a video on YouTube where an astronomically inclined couple chronicled their adventures capturing the Owl Nebula. It’s an object I never tried observing, and I was intrigued. It’s quite an interesting nebula. I took eleven, 10-minute exposures. These are the longest exposures I’ve done successfully so far. Canon 40D Parameter Notes Lens CPC-800 […]