Month: February 2008

This is an international event which will be "celebrated" by tens of thousands of amateur astronomers by taking their telescopes outside and inviting friends, neighbors and passers-by to have a look.  This year, Saturn, always a crowd-pleaser, will be well placed for viewing.

The news feed problem is largely resolved. Except for Pluto (which isn’t a planet anymore anyway, right ), they were either fixed or the source or else were due to a configuration problem on my side. Pluto has some problems and I’ve forced in current feed information, but the problem will have to get fixed …

News feeds okay againRead More

[img_assist|nid=689|title=2008-02-20 Lunar Eclipse|desc=|link=node|align=undefined|width=640|height=640] Starting around 2 pm EST, the clouds rolled in and it didn’t look good for viewing. But around 8:30 pm the clouds thinned allowing a fuzzy moon to be visible through and between the clouds so we could see the eclipse begin. By 10 pm, the skies had completely cleared an we …

Lunar Eclipse Visible!Read More

I’ve been asked to lead an astronomy club for PS 102 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. That invitation sounded interesting, but….

How do you run an astronomy club for young children? It’s easy enough to do a sidewalk astronomy event for them and their parents, but there’s a world of differences when you’re it, the parents are not there and you have to maintain their interest and attention a lot longer than 60 seconds at the eyepiece.

So, I’m starting this "notebook" of experiences, lesson plans, and whatever else seems appropriate so I can keep track of what makes a successful club (and what makes an unsuccessful one!).

Well, the Eclipse Party is on, but the Eclipse will probably be eclipsed by bad weather here in NYC and other parts of the northeast. I’ve been working with Celestia to have a simulation of the earth/moon as seen from the Earth-Sun L1 point. That lets you see both the geometry that results in eclipses …

Lunar EclipseRead More

The third annual premier imaging conference here on the east coast of the US. See the Rockland Astronomy Club NEAIC web page for details.

Weather permitting, this will be visible to all New Yorkers who can get outside. At this point, the weather looks like it will not be visible here in the northeast US.