Observing with Street Lights

Observing with Street Lights
Dark sky sites not always necessary to see the Milky Way (This image was taken ouside of a B&B in Julian, CA)

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Venus/Jupiter Conjunction; Letting the tripod settle down before opening the shutter; Sadly, Starship blows its top!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well we are in a lull period for visual early morning observing Starlink satellites in Orange County until December 7, when the rotation of the Earth and the satellites orbit make visibility possible, so we can capture the Venus/Jupiter conjunction, clear up some Starlink imaging loose ends and report on planning (or not) a visit to Brownsville, TX, to watch the first liftoff of the SpaceX Starship.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Hooray; Starlink satellites arrived as predicted, but they are no longer a string of pearls!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well here we are on Saturday morning waiting for our next chance to get some more images of the Starlink satellites before they disperse into their assigned positions.  This image from is what I hoped to get again, minus the trees.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Finding out about the NASA mission to visit asteroid Psyche 16; Clouded out and missed out on finding the Starlinks satellites, but another chance tomorrow

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, tomorrow, Thursday morning, we planned to try again to get some images of the Starlinks satellites, while still in the string of pearls configuration.  In the meantime, it is time to check out another lecture in the Distinctive Voices series at the Beckman Center in Irvine.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Clouded out from observing Starlink string of pearls; New early morning times for Starlink; What are satellite TLE's?

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, the early Wednesday morning observing session for the Starlink satellites string of pearls was clouded out and rained out.  But we have found some more early morning viewing times hopefully with clearer skies.

Professor Aomawa Shields on Recipe for a Habitable Planet; Getting a bucket of air?; Poor observing conditions for transit of Starlink satellites string of lights

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well again this week we are waiting for the next potential transit of the 60 Starlinks satellites, hopefully still all in a line, to make a transit over Orange County and the weather forecast is looking very poor for that event, so let's review some of the ongoing weather and climate predictions for exoplanets.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Hooray, followup on what the next transit of the Starlink satellite might be and some photographs! More Starlink technical details

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well after our chance encounter with the SpaceX Starlink satellites yesterday, Monday, November 11, as described in the blog post of November 12, we were hooked and wanted to try to find the next visible transit.  This post shows some successful images of the next transit and some other technical details about the future Starlink constellation of satellites.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

What is that long string of lights in the Orange County skies? Hmm, it looks like it was a successful SpaceX launch of 60 Starlinks Satellites!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well after a successful view of the Transit of Mercury, as described in the November 11, 2019 blog post, it seemed like it was just going to be a relaxing walk with Astronomer Assistants Danny and Ruby, but no, the early nighttime view had a strange long string of lights in the Orange County city lights polluted view.  What were they?

Monday, November 11, 2019

Upcoming meetings in Hawaii and New Mexico; Setting up your own remote observatory; At the edge of time with Dan Hooper; Hooray, transit of Mercury, without clouds!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory,

Well, this week we are waiting for the November 11 transit of Mercury but we can report on two upcoming astronomy meetings that might be of interest and also comment of OCA presentation of setting up your own remote observatory and a new easy to read book on cosmology.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

LIGO back online! Mendeleev's 150th and the Elementouch; There was no Big Bang? California Power and "emergency coffee"

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well this time of the week we can report on LIGO coming back online, 150th celebration of Mendeleev, relationship between the big bang scenario and inflation and finally review what California used for lighting before candles?