Author: Roland Roberts

I was interviewed a month or two ago for an article in Time Out New York Kids about astronomy activities with children. The call went out from Rich Rosenberg or the Amateur Astronomer’s Association here in NYC to all members and I guess I was the first to get in line. Our neighbors saw the …

Article in Time Out New York Kids!Read More

The imaging conference (NEAIC) and the Telescope Show (NEAF) are over for this year. The last few days have been pretty hectic and I’m just now catching up. On Friday, I attended a spectroscopy workshop led by Olivier Thizy where he walked us through the process of using a spectrum taken with a diffraction grating …

NEAIC and NEAFRead More

The Northeast Astronomical Imaging Conference is starting its second day. Yesterday’s set of talks were great. The plenary session by Ken Crawford provided some interesting ideas on how to bring out image details. His focus was on techniques appropriate to what he labelled "technical art" wherein he spends quite a bit of time using various …

NEAIC Underway!Read More

If you haven’t seen today’s APOD image, go have a look. It’s a view of the night sky over Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff institutded dark sky rules years ago to limit billboard lighting, bad lighting fixtures, searchlight advertizing, and other light polluting activities. While Flagstaff is no New York City and I wouldn’t really expect our …

Dark SkiesRead More

This was originally supposed to be the rain date for the April 12th event, but there was enough interest in having a second event that we’ve decide to turn the rain date into a second showing.

Again, this is weather permitting. The location is the same, near the middle of the ball fields in Shore Road Park near 76th Street. The closest entrance is the ramp at 75th Street.

If the weather is clear, we’ll be looking at the (nearly) full moon, Saturn, and with a little luck, the Beehive Cluster in Cancer (the Crab). See this page for the map to the event location.

NB: If you come in the 79th Street entrance near the playground, walk north to find us. 

I’m supposed to keep on top of these things, and I’ve certainly read about them enough, but usually in passing and I immediately rush off to the next thing on my "to-do" list. What am I mumbling about?

"He was a real nuisance when I was taking high school physics. It was the classic thing…you ask for help and all you really want to know is the answer to problem 5B and he wants to explain it to you." Presis Drell, on being the daughter of a physicist San Jose Mercury News, December …

Is This What My Kids Think of Me?Read More

Yes, it comes early this year, you can thank President Bush for that. 

The moon will pass just to the north of Mars tonight with a closest approach of about 1.2 degrees around 11 pm EST. This is just over twice the diameter of the moon. This is best seen with your naked eyes, binoculars, or a low-power telescope. Unlike some part events, Mars will not be occulted …

Moon 1.2 degress North of MarsRead More