While the weather allowed

I mentioned earlier that the Orionids meteor shower is supposed to peak soon, while right now, comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon is brightening and visible just after sunset, naturally to the west. We had perfectly clear skies on Saturday night, so I decided to try my hand at both, beginning with the comet.

[A note about comet names: They start with ‘C’ for comet, then the year read more

New York state of mind

I know, no posts for five days and I come back with that previous one. You’ve probably already switched over to some celebrity gossip site, haven’t you?

I blame it on conditions. For over a week we’ve been dealing with the side effects of some storm system and it’s been solid overcast the entire time – that’s simply not normal for this area. However, this is directly read more

Mere trivia

As if most of my posts aren’t the exact same thing…

So, two purposes for this one. The first is a reminder that the Draconids meteor shower is going on right now and expected to peak tomorrow night, actually around 19:00 UTC on October 8th, read more

Well, yes, and no…

Today marked another opportunity to capture a transit, and this time, we had clear skies and I kept the timing straight in my head and everything. The target was the Tiangong space station, China’s own entry into low-Earth-orbit experiments and observations, and the waning crescent moon. I checked everything, read more

Visibly different, part 55

Sure, this was the weekly topic three years ago, but who says it can’t be resurrected?

I mentioned a few days ago that I could illustrate something better, and now I’m keeping my promise. We’ll start with an image from several years back, with new annotations.


With the light angle of approaching 1st quarter, waxing crescent now, Theophilus crater stands read more

I’m selfish

I’ve been having reminders popping up from my calendar that the Perseids meteor shower is peaking within the next few days, and various sites that I’ve visited have been promoting it as one of the best showers of the year, insofar as number and display. But I’ve been neglecting posting about it for two reasons, the first being very self-centered: the skies have read more

I’m an idiot

Actually, it’s hard to believe that, in over sixteen years of posting, I haven’t used that title before…

So early this morning, the ISS was supposed to pass in front of the moon again, at least in my location, and I was all prepared to go out after it again. I didn’t have visibility here at Walkabout Estates Plus, so I packed my gear down to a spot just off the waterfront, read more

Another attempt

I’d found the website transit-finder.com last year, which takes a given location and lists the upcoming transits of the sun and moon for the International Space Station (as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Tiangong Space Station.) Last September I’d read more

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