Starship Asterisk*

Did anyone see a flash of red light a few degrees away from NGC 2362 in the Canis Major constellation tonight? I went out to the edge of my driveway around 9:13 EST tonight to set up and there was a bright red light shining on par (in brilliance) with the dogstar. It led me to pause as I thought it ...

Well, for once luck was on my side here in Central Pa. I was able to catch all five planets last night- Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the sky altogether. It was really a beautiful night for viewing. I am hoping these clear skies stay with us over the weekend. Did you use a telescope? ...

Well, for once luck was on my side here in Central Pa. I was able to catch all five planets last night- Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the sky altogether. It was really a beautiful night for viewing. I am hoping these clear skies stay with us over the weekend.

That is a really pretty picture.

Well, yet again Central Pa proves it is not the most ideal place to be an amateur astronomer! :) Clouds blanketed the entire evening into the dawn. I did however get out Saturday night/ early Sunday morning. I did catch one meteorite that went screaming overhead. I caught some views of Mars on my sc...

I have always had an interest but was relatively poor growing up and couldn't really afford a telescope but I do remember my dad at least trying to show me the constellations. I never felt like I could dedicate the time and effort necessary to make a good effort towards learning about astronomy. Now...

Thank you for that clarification Chris. It was an exciting view, even though it wasn't what I was hoping I was seeing.

I was viewing last night and the weather was exceptional for Central Penn this time of the year. It was in the mid 60's with a slight wind and no humidity. I was able to view Jupiter and what looked like 8-10 moons. The four normal Jovian moons were obvious but then there were several other smaller ...

Any guesses what the land mass is underneath? Iceland?

This morning was one of the clearest we have had since I started observing. I had beautiful views of Jupiter and 4 of her moons, Mars and Saturn.

I really like this picture- it helps amateurs like myself identify objects in the sky better.

That was quite an impressive sight to behold. Terrifying when shown at that speed.

I thought the forum might enjoy this writeup...........

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/at- ... 70609.html

I think I'm finally using my 6" scope and budget video camera about as well as they can be used in this Jovian sequence. I recorded enough data for ~30 separate images of Jupiter and its moons (each a ~1GB video of ~1000 frames), over a four hour imaging session. But I don't yet have enough ti...

I DID IT!!! :) YEsterday morning I was able to get Saturn. I have been hunting that bad boy for a while now. I noticed a brighter than normal object in the sky as I took my dogs out around 4:30am. I set my scope on it- at first it was hard to see because it was blurry but then THERE IT WAS!!! Rings ...

Is the comet still visible or has it left the building?

This was a very helpful picture/chart as it allowed me to understand what I have been seeing with Venus (and also through explanations from Ann )
Thank you APOD!!!

Just curious as this picture is very timely for me. I just booked my plane tickets for a trip to Germany this DEcember. I have a one day layover iN Reykjavik. There are companies that are selling cruises to see the Northern lights. I am hesitant to do something like that as I believe I should be abl...

But what seems strange to me is that according to my software, Mercury set at 20:53 Universal Time on February 16 here in Sweden, whereas Venus set at 1:50 UTC here - nearly at 2 a.m., much later than Mercury! Surely it must be the same where you live? So why should you have seen Mercury an hour af...

I was out Tuesday night around 7 pm EST. I believe I saw Mercury (an hour or so later). I also believe I saw Venus. Question- on Tuesday night, it appeared as if I saw a "Gibbous" Venus- is that possible? It appeared for about 30 minutes I could not see the entire planet and that there was...

The clouds parted for about 15 minutes this morning and I was able to view Jupiter again, with two of her moons.

The blue object that you saw would have been Spica. It is a first magnitude star of blue spectral class B, it is very easy to spot in the sky, and Jupiter is currently located close to where Spica can be seen in the sky. Note the color contrast between Jupiter and Spica! Ann YESSS!!!! :P :P I thoug...

Or rather Neptune as I initially thought- because it looked "blue" and I had recently read that it is possible to observe Neptune with the naked eye. FWIW, you're not likely to see Neptune without a telescope. It is barely on the edge of visibility by the most expert observers with extrao...

Good to hear, Chris! Keep watching the skies! Ann I think I would have made you and Mr. Spock quite very happy of me this weekend!!! :D :D Soooooooooooo. I awoke rather early Sunday morning and took my dogs out to the bathroom. It was around 6:30 and I noticed the sky was quite rather clear, a very...

My youngest son and I viewed the moon this morning while he waited for his bus. It was a great time!