July has been way too fucking hot, and while I would like to believe that the change in arbitrary labeling that we engage in will somehow make a difference in the climate, I’m a bit skeptical, especially since August has never been known as a cooler month. Yet here we are at the month-end anyway, which does at least mean we have the abstract to consider, and I’m going to do something
Category: Astronomy
What’s your sign?
I’m old enough to remember when that was a big factor in dating, though not quite old enough to have used it in such a manner. But in this case, it’s only in reference to two meteor showers due to peak in a few days, the southern delta Aquariids and the alpha Capricornids, both coming in right before the end of the month, which means anytime from this point on. Unfortunately, there’s
Scattered, the start
I have a collection of semi-recent but unrelated images in the blog folder awaiting my attention, either to include them in a post or simply discard them as irrelevant, and so I decided that I’d do posts around a single image, partially because I haven’t been posting much and this is easier. Somewhere in there will sneak in a couple of longish, philosophical posts as I get motivated
Blink and you missed it
The conditions held and I did get out to watch Spica disappear behind the moon. I tried a short video clip, unable to tell if it was actually capturing Spica or not but suspecting that it wasn’t – the frame rates for video translate to a pretty short shutter speed and even as bright as it was in comparison, Spica was still pretty dim. Upon returning home, I found that
Preliminary
Just now, took a peek out there as the sky was darkening, noticed that it was more than clear enough, and did a couple of test shots. I also noticed another speck in the viewfinder and reframed, but I was still working handheld and sharpness was lacking. As I was setting up the tripod and getting the remote release out and the camera set for mirror lockup*, the last little light
Watch Spica vanish before your eyes!
I really haven’t been finding posting material recently, because I’ve had a lot of other things going on, though I have a few unrelated pics that may show up a little later. Right now, I’m providing what little warning I can, having discovered only this morning that the moon will be occulting Spica this evening.
Basic orbital dynamics: the stars move across the
Fermi and physics
I’m up to these kinds of things again, by which I mean, thinking exercises that won’t ultimately mean a damn thing – but then again, that’s the story of my life, so why stop now?
Most people that have even the faintest interest in the idea of life on other planets are familiar with the Fermi
It’s, like, cosmic, man
On this date a whopping 60 years ago, there came an accidental discovery that helped confirm, and inform, our present view of the universe: the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was first measured.
Here’s the quick run down. Observations of many stars in the observable universe, generally around the early 1900s, showed light spectra that were very similar to our own sun, with gaps in certain
One more for Hubble
Sorting finds n+8
Just two today – or is it three? How does one count these accurately? I don’t want to get in trouble with the IRS…
This one comes from the same session as these, but I didn’t notice this detail until I had brought the image up at full resolution to see if it retained