Deep Sky Blog

November 14, 2007

Ursa Minor

Constellation Name: Ursa Minor
Observed Date: 11/13/07, 8:05pm EST
Sky Conditions: Clear
Coordinates: (Will be updated)

November 11, 2007

My thoughts frequently drift to the Mars Phoenix Lander, which at this moment in time, is hurdling through space at astounding speed to the red planet Mars.

The Phoenix will once for all run definitive tests on the orangish-red soils of our less than hospitable neighbor. In honor of my thoughts and wishes for the Phoenix team, I am creating a countdown clock until the day Phoenix lands. Once it lands, who knows what it will find out about the organic (or inorganic) history of Mars' geology.

A Few Projects...

First of all, let me apologize for my lack of posting recently. I have officially moved to the country, and its been a long, hard work, and I couldn't get off of work. That being said, here's a few things I have in store:

For this blog, the next post will be a detailed post about building your own newtonian refractor.
I have also created a photo blog only for my astrophotography. Check it out at http://deepskyastrophotography.blogspot.com.
I am creating another blog about eco-friendly living at http://leanergreenerlife.blogspot.com.

This blog is not dead, I apologize for the lack of updates and these should pick back up to normal pace shortly.

November 3, 2007

Blackberry Gets An Astronomy Lesson

Starry Night software is now available, and get this, FREE of charge! Simply type this URL into your Blackberry's browser:

http://www.starrynightsupport.com/widgets/blackberry/StarryNight.jad

The download will begin automatically. Enjoy; you now have mobile access to awesome sky maps! Generate real images on-the-fly!

This is a huge deal to me because if you're a corporate-type like me, you live on your Blackberry! Finally, something a little less stressful comes from my Blackberry (besides BrickBreaker)!

BTW, for all you Apple fans out there, and iPhone version is available too.

Enjoy!

Some More Astrophotos!

This is a photo of Venus over the treeline on my property. I zoomed in to get a better shot, but if you look at the stars in the picture, you can see them start to trail. If you use a zoom lens on your camera, 30-second exposures are out of the question unless you have some sort of tracking.

This is a picture of the open cluster, the Hyades. Notice they form a perfect 'V' with the tip pointing to the upper-righthand corner of the photo. Again, this is a 20-second exposure with NO zoom.