Leaving Santiago and flying close to the eclipse viewing site near La Serena, Chile

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well this is  another travel day as we fly to La Serena, which is close to our eclipse viewing site.

Today we fly from Santiago to La Serena.  On the map below you can see La Serena just north of Santiago.  The map also shows our future flight locations.

Resident Astronomers tour around in Santiago, Chile; Veramonte Winery; Beautiful Valpairiso

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, here we are in day 2 and 3 of our Chilean adventure as we tour parts of the country as we wait for the eclipse on July 2.  We can report on some of our adventures, but first the cloudy sky with barely visible sun in Santiago has us a bit worried.

Flying to the Southern Hemisphere for the July 2 eclipse; White dwarfs and age of the universe; Finally had a great Pisco Sour

Greetings from Palmia Observatory,

Well we are on our way to the Southern Hemisphere seeing the sights and waiting then for the total eclipse on July 2.

Anaxagoras and the Moon; How we know the Milky Way is a spiral; Summer Solstice and Clouds; About locat time for sunset & sunrise & wine in Chile

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

We are busy packing our bags for travel to Chile for the  total solar eclipse and will post our progress and hopeful success from there.  For now we can report that clouds prevented us from seeing the sun on the Summer Solstice but will report on some considerations of time and season differences between observing in the northern and southern hemispheres.  Also we share an interesting article on the moon and a video on the Milky Way.

OCA meeting on exoplanets and NASA exoplanet archive; APOD with Bruce; Strawberry Moon; Meteorology and southern hemisphere; Pisco Sour and other Chilean wine tasting homework

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

First up in this blog posting is the monthly OCA general meeting where this time the presenter, Dr. Robert Zellem, JPL, spoke on finding exoplanets and how amateurs can do "sciencey" type things by observing the latest transit times of selected exoplanets.

Didn't see any Falcon 9 rocket exhaust; Looking at the moon with Nikon P1000; Hartlefest group; Big Bang and Inflation

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, this week we start off with a rocket launch viewing opportunity and a chance to try out the Nikon P1000 superzoom camera on the Moon and Jupiter.  Also we will review some aspects of how the idea of the big bang and inflation are turned into a scientific hypothesis and how predictions made by that hypothesis can then be verified or rejected based on observations.

Upcoming Exoplanet Workshop and International Mars Conference; Moons of Jupiter; More on Hartle's No-Boundary Proposal

Greetings from Palmia Observatory,

Well Hartlfest is over, and we had a cloud free night to observe the moons of Jupiter, but we should first review the calendar of upcoming events and then do some more review of Hartle's No-Boundary Proposal, which has been a very productive exploration of how to explain the big bang without the usual drawbacks of the singularity predicted by general relativity.

More eclipse preparation; HartleFest; Jim Hartle's 80th birthday celebration at KITP at UCSB: A Physicist without Boundaries

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, there was just time this week to attend the OCA Astroimagers SIG before packing up the bags and driving to Santa Barbara for HartleFest at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Curved Space and the Big Crunch; Can straws find their way to the ocean; If Betelgeuse blows, will we burn?: Newport Jazz Festival - Can you woo woo woo?

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, here we are again waiting for the clouds to go away and now have to contend with "June Gloom", but we can still review some astrophysics of curved space and supernova explosions and enjoy the jazz festival under cloudy skies.