Science Daily: Mars
- Ancient hot water on Mars points to habitable past November 22, 2024
- New research explores volcanic caves, advancing the search for life on Mars November 18, 2024
Year: 2008
Philips ToUCam
Although I wasn’t able to find this at the sort of discount I received on the QuickCam VC, this camera is still worth the money. All comments by users on the QCUAIG mailing list indicate this is a great webcam for astronomical use. I purchased the camera in early April, and have only tried to …
QuickCam VC
I purchased a QuickCam VC from Computer Geeks when they had a batch on sale for about USD $15. I keep going back hoping to find another batch, but so far no luck. Up until this, I had been using a Sony DCR-TRV310, a digital videocamera. The QuickCam VC is similar to the other QuickCams …
Sony DCR-TRV310
We originally purchased the Sony DCR-TRV310 for home video of family events. On a lark, I decided to point it into the eyepiece on night and was pleasantly surprised that I got reasonable images. It just so happened that I picked the moon as a target and it was only slight after the new moon. …
60mm Refractor
About a year ago, someone on sci.astro.amateur mentioned that they had a couple of old 60 mm refractors in the closet. At the time, I was looking to buy one used and had been scanning garage sales and for sale ads without any luck. So I half-in-jest asked if you wanted to donate one. He …
Equipment
I’m trying to reconstruct my “old” page of equipment information and hopefully, I’ll be able to add some links with pictures to what I currently have since this is ahem, a bit outdated. Of course, I may be too lazy to ever get it systematically organized.
127 mm Orion Maksutov-Cassegrain
The 60 mm Tasco was great for getting me started on the road to photography with a good polar alignment. It’s chief failing is its small aperture which leaves me with a small selection of alignment and guide stars. So I went in search of something better (i.e., bigger) I had already found I really …
Astronomy Day 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.
News feeds okay again
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 …
Lunar Eclipse Visible!
[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 …