Activity

Comet 96P Machholz is back in the SOHO C3 sky swinging around the sun and at perihelium today (see the SOHO gif movie below.  The last visit I believe was around Oct. 29, 2017.

P.S.  The mouse is photoshopped!  A dead mouse was NOT found!

Bob

Hello Randy

Minutes reviewed; thanks.  (BTW the last name is spelled Fealey).  Jay and I have done an initial cleaning of the AT80ED refractor.  I have a brief Power Point presentation on our efforts I will send it to you either here as an attachment or via your email.  Haven’t had it mounted for a star diffraction test but have viewed some ter…[Read more]

that’s an awesome image!

That was an image of Thor’s Helmut, Southern Hemisphere, Telescope Live 50cm telescope, Chile, edited in PI and PS.

Mike Benson

The December 30th early evening (6:30 pm) sky was great for observing the moon and Jupiter with the 4.5 inch Starblast telescope. I had purchased the Orion 2x Shorty Barlow and was eager to try it with the Orion 6.3 megapixel camera. Was happy to easily get a sharp focus at approximately 150 magnification. In the photos below the moon was a still…[Read more]

thank you so much Josef! i knew it didn’t look as i remembered…explains it perfectly 😉
jim

Jim, I asked ChatGPT at https://chat.openai.com/chat  “Explain why is ecliptic so high now in Winter” and here is answer:

The ecliptic is the plane in which the Earth and other planets in our solar system orbit around the sun. The tilt of the Earth’s axis causes the seasons, including winter, and determines the angle at which the ecliptic…[Read more]

i thought the ecliptic was a path further south. does latitude have any effect? thanks josef!

Well, it is very simple. Mars is in Taurus, an zodiacal constellation, not so far from bright Aldebaran. Ecliptic in this area has high positive declination. Actually, Mars is not too far from ecliptic. Mars has today ecliptical latitude  2°20′, not much.

And a quick video of Mars occultation at 9:03 pm.

Here’s a image about 8 minutes before Mars disappeared. 10 in SCT and 6.3 Mpixel camera.

yes, it was nice. i’ve never noticed Mars (or any planet) so far off the ecliptic and wondered if there was a particular reason why? has it something to do with higher latitudes?

And Mars is gone behind Moon. It was  awesome!

Lets observe Mars occultation by the moon tonight. Times are approximately 9:03 pm for disappearance and 10:09 for reappearance. Weather is forecast to be clear skies.

Astronaut Scott Kelly wrote on November 24, 2022 https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly/status/1595925959081070592

Ukraine from space yesterday. The dark area above the Black Sea. Among many other things today I’m thankful I have electricity and heat.