Dec 30, 2024 | Rick's Picks
Transient Events That Can Give Us a Good Enough Reason to Get Outside and Do a Little Observing All month: the solar system is primarily an evening show again this month. Mercury is one of the exceptions: its gibbous disk graces the morning sky for the first half of...
Dec 4, 2024 | Focal Plane
December brings a mix of emotions for amateur astronomers. The nights are longer, so there is more time available for viewing. In addition to longer nights, winter also holds some bright stars and constellations. But it comes at a price. The weather at night will be...
Dec 4, 2024 | Focal Plane
The history of planetariums can be traced back to ancient civilizations. In Greece, Archimedes created mechanical devices to illustrate celestial movement. In 1229, Emperor Frederick II used a tent with holes to represent stars, and rotated the tent to mimic the...
Nov 30, 2024 | Rick's Picks
Transient Events That Can Give Us a Good Enough Reason to Get Outside and Do a Little Observing All month: the solar system continues to favor evening observers this month, leaving only Mars and Mercury for the sunrise crowd. Mercury is hidden in the Sun’s glare as...
Nov 12, 2024 | Focal Plane
The October 3, 2024 NASA Universe of Learning featured discussion on gravity. One of the topics covered was searching for gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers. Chiara Mingarelli, PhD – assistant professor of Physics at Yale...
