Tonight (05/22/16), Mars will be the brightest that it has been in the past 10 years. The red planet will be so bright that you’ll be able to see it in tonight’s sky without needing a telescope. Mars now resides opposite the sun in Earth’s sky, because on this date we are passing between it […]
Go outside tonight to view Mars without a telescope Read More
I have been an amateur astronomer for the longest time but astrophotography has always eluded me. I never had the proper equipment and getting a dedicated CCD camera for the purpose of photographing the sun, moon and planets is prohibitively expensive. A while back, a company called Scopetronix made custom milled adapters that connected point
Telescope camera adapters: attach your digicam to your telescope! Read More
These beautiful Starry Light lamps from Anagraphic look like a traditional half-sphere pendant lamp at first blush. Closer inspection reveals tiny holes drilled in the powder-coated aluminum shade; when the LED light source is on, pinpoints of light are projected onto your walls. (The lamp is designed so that light is directed downwards as well.)
Have a starry, starry night indoors with the Starry Light Read More
New for 2013 is the SkyQ Link WiFi Adapter from Celestron, which allows wireless control of most Celestron motorized telescope mounts that use the hand control computer. There is an IOS interface with telescope alignment mode and a planetarium interface that immediately aims at any celestial object you tap from the SkyView screen. SkyTour generates the
Wirelessly control your Celestron Telescope with the SkyQ Link WiFi Adapter Read More
If you have any interest in astronomy – backyard hobbist or more serious scientist – you need to download this free eBook to your iBooks app on your iPad. (Requires an iPad using iBooks 2 or later and iOS 5 or later.) This is a huge book, almost 1GB, that’s chock full of informative text,
Free in iBooks: Hubble Space Telescope Discovery eBook Read More
Yesterday, a large asteroid passed the Earth within the moon’s orbit. Asteroid 2005 YU55, roughly the size of a large jumbo jet, safely passed the Earth on its journey through space. The last time an asteroid of this sized passed the Earth was in 1976. According to NASA, the asteroid passed at some 201,700 miles
Look up in the sky – It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s an Asteroid Read More
Man has been exploring space since the dawn of time. First by seeing pictures in the stars and making up stories of gods, then by using optics and physics to understand that Earth is not the center of the universe, and finally by venturing into space with manned and unmanned crafts. A wealth of information
Explore the Solar System with NASA Read More
Tonight the winter solstice and total lunar eclipse will overlap for the first time in 458 years. To help make sure that you don’t miss this once in a lifetime event, MIT grad whiz kid Tim DeBenedictis is offering the award-winning SkySafari Lite app for free. SkySafari is an easy-to-use planetarium app that helps you
Tonight is a Total Lunar Eclipse – SkySafari iOS App Makes Sure you won’t Miss it Read More
Here’s another entry in my series of expensive, astronomy-related clocks. The Tellarium clock from Edmund’s Scientifics is made of cherrywood and brass. It has an 8-day wound movement and Westminster chime. Under the glass dome on top, a gear-driven earth orbits around the sun, taking a full year to complete the trip. A polished brass disk
Tellarium Clock – A Solar System for Your Desk Read More
At $18.99, Starmap Pro is much more expensive than most iPhone apps, but amateur astonomers of all levels will find it very useful. There is data for 2.5 million stars, multiple star catalogs, multiple deep sky objects catalogs, and data for the solar system. The “tonight” view shows an ordered list for objects that are
Starmap Pro app for iPhone Read More
We recently told you about the Astrodea astronomy watch. ThinkGeek offers another astronomy watch at a lower price-point. Enter the date and time on the planisphere dial to see a display of the night sky. The celestial display is accurate for 35-50 North latitudes. The watch has a brass face and a rubber and stainless steel band. The face
At least it’s a watch for the amateur astronomers! ThinkGeek offers the Astrodea Celestial watch for about $600. It’s pricey, but the face revolves to show a real-time display of the position of stars and the sun. The watch displays 1109 stars (brighter than +4.8 magnitude) and 169 galaxies. Sorry, but it’s only accurate if you are near
A Watch for Astronomers Read More