Don Parker gave a fascinating and humorous talk on planetary imaging which has got me ready to head back out with my ToUCam to try some more imaging. I’ll have to work through some of his formulae to see how I ought to be setting up my camera and, given that I live under a flight path to LaGuardia, I might have to consider replacing the ToUCam with something that supports USB 2.0 so I can take images at a higher frame rate to try to beat both the seeing conditions and the lovely jet wash induced turbulence.

After an adventure getting out of NYC (got halfway through Manhattan and realized I had left my wallet at home, necesitating a return home to retrieve it), then finding that the first talk actually began at 9:00am, not 8:00 which was breakfast.

Stargazing event for scouts interested in learning more about the night sky and getting a change to handle a small telescope. By invitation only. This is the rain date for the event. The original event was planned for May 19th. Stay tuned for weather related updates….

I have the parks department permit in-hand! They verbally confirmed it was approved a week ago, but the paperwork takes a while, so it was only yesterday that it was finally ready. Today I went over Prospect Park and picked it up. As I was walking out, I noticed it read "no vehicles in the park at any time." Oops!

The Summer Star Party is held at Shady Pines Campground, a privately owned and operated facility located in Savoy, Massachusetts. PDF registration documents and other information can be downloaded from http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/events/SSP2006/index.html. The SSP is an annual family event with activities for children an sight-seeing opportunities in the Berkshire Mountains region of western Massachusetts.

Okay, that’s not the actual words used and the front office person at the Mayor’s Correspondence Unit was very polite and helpful. In fact, everyone I’ve spoken to over there has been both courteous and professional and usually downright friendly. It’s the people I haven’t been able to talk to that are the problem. The …

Response Coming “Real Soon Now”Read More

For the past (almost) two months, I’ve been trying to get a response from the Mayor’s office regarding the New York bill A7404/S4474, The Healthy, Safe and Energy Efficient Outdoor Lighting Act. It’s seeming like a lost cause.

The 15th Annual Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show will be held in Suffern, NY on the campus of Rockland Community College. For more information see http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/neaf.htm

The Rockland Astronomy Club is sponsoring the first-ever imaging conference in the northeast. For some time, a similar conference has been held on the west coast. For more information, see http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/neaic/index.htm

The stargazing was rained out on Tuesday, so we will be meeting Saturday evening. Bring a light jacket even if it was warm during the day since the breeze off the harbor can make it pretty cool.

Also, be aware that at 7:30 it is not dark yet. In fact the sun hasn’t quite set. So from roughly 7:30–8:00pm we can can play “ask an astronomer.”

Look here for a Google map of the location. Meet between first base of the middle ball field and third base of the lower one.