The Night Sky: October, November & December 2020: Mars Opposition, Meteor Showers & More

I’ll walk you through the best views of Meteor Showers, the Moon, Planets and Deep Sky Objects this fall. Regardless of your equipment, we’ve got something here for you to experience. From the opposition of Mars on October 13th to the Geminid Meteor Shower on December 13th and Deep Sky Objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, […]

Photographing The 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse

On a frigid night of 16 degree temperatures, I set up my telescope and DSLR to experience and document the 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse. Having just purchased a refurbished Canon 55-250mm f/5.6 lens, this was a prime opportunity to test out its abilities. Attaching the iPhone X to the telescope allowed me to stream various […]

Witnessing Totality: The Great American Solar Eclipse

Departure: Roanoke, Va August 20, 2017 9:30 PM The journey began with the arrival of my friend, Cody, who was joining me on this pilgrimage to totality. We left my house and hopped on interstate 81, where we were greeted by a car from New Jersey flipping off a car driving slowly in the passing […]

Bringing Detail to Jupiter and the Moon

In 2015, I detailed my “Small Steps into Astrophotography”. Since then, I have done little with imaging and processing. That is, until this week. I’ve returned to the complicated, yet rewarding, world of astrophotography. To start, I focused on two great targets for beginners, Jupiter and the Moon. Jupiter, which is near opposition, is as big as it will get […]

Book Review: “A Man on the Moon”

This past summer, while reading Ron Chernow’s “Washington: A Life” a sudden thought came to me: “I’d really like to read a book on the Apollo program.” Maybe it was the patriotism, heroism and difficulty Washington experienced throughout his life that spurred these thoughts towards Apollo. Or, maybe I just think a lot about space. Either way, I was sure that when […]

Some Lunar Views and Spotting Saturn’s Cassini Divide

I love setting up a telescope with the Sun setting and the sky slowly transitioning from day to night. There is something exciting about planning what will be viewed and the anticipation of what is to come. The night started out with some brief views of the crescent Moon. This is my favorite time to view the […]

The Eagle Has Landed

A lot of amateur astronomers will complain about the Moon, saying that it is nothing but a bright nuisance getting in the way of Deep Sky observing. Maybe its just me, but with the Moon being Earth’s nearest celestial body, I’ll take an up close study of the lunar craters, mountains and complex shadows over […]

Star Log: March 20, 2010

After a late Friday night, I awoke at noon on Saturday and walked over for brunch to find around a hundred people standing outside of the Colket Center with two fire trucks near by. Thankfully all was well, save for a minor fire in the kitchen area. Lauren returned from her trip to Boston later […]

Star Log: March 19, 2010

A busy yet enjoyable week of student teaching made the warm weather and clear skies of Friday all the more welcoming. With Lauren off on a trip to Boston presenting a scholarly journal essay on the Chicano movement and perfectly clear skies out, not observing would be near criminal negligence (See: Section 4 paragraph 8 […]