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)

Friday, November 20, 2020

More ISS photos and tracks across the night sky; New viewing opportunities to get out your eyeballs, cameras, or binoculars

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, this week has been all about the ISS and new Crew-1 arrival there and we still have lots of opportunities to view the ISS as it passes overhead in the night sky.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Hooray, completed a month of observing the lunar phases for one orbit of the moon about the Earth!

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, we have finally completed making a month's worth of observations of the moon as it goes through the course of its changes in phase.

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Photographing the ISS overhead; Making measurements from pixels to miles; Hooray, ISS welcomes Dragon crew onboard!

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well we have been busy with online meetings and just about to complete our month long study of lunar measurements, but we were lucky enough to go outside and capture an image of the ISS passing overhead.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Wondering about cold gas giants and white dwarfs; Asking Astronomer Assistant Willow about conic sections; COVID-19 risk assessment tool and search for volunteers

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, the Exoplanet Demographics 2020 meeting is pretty much over now.  One topic  I meant to listen more to this interesting discussion on photoevaporation of cold gas giant planets by white dwarfs, but unfortunately got interrupted or maybe took a nap.

Friday, November 13, 2020

Starship SN8 completes 1st Static Fire Test; Exoplanet Demographics 2020 Meeting; Post main sequence exoplanets; Finding free floating planets with microlensing

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well here we are just settling in for a week long series of meetings at the online version of Exoplanets Demographics 2020, where we learn all about what is being learned by the ongoing study of all of the exoplanets that have now been discovered, but before that we have a bit of Starship SN8 news.

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Hey, the sun has more sunspots!; Nearby stars from which Earth could be seen as an exoplanet; Sources of Fast Radio Bursts identified? Sixteen proposed theories of quantum gravity

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, now that we have some clearer skies we can look at the sun and see that more sunspots have come into view.  So, get out and take a look now that the sun is starting to wake up.

Saturday, November 7, 2020

We will always miss you, Astronomer Assistant Danny!

 Sad greetings from Palmia Observatory

Astronomer Assistant Danny, who joined the observatory staff in 2009, was put down on November 7, after a week of painful suffering.

Monday, November 2, 2020

Hooray, the sun had more spots; Is free discussion still possible on social media? SN8 Starship with 3 engines get ready for test hop; Juno looks inside Jupiter at AAS 52nd annual Division for Planetary Sciences meeting

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well here we are with some sunspots, more news about Starship SN8 and an example of social media freezing out some discussion and we end up with the week at AAS 52 Division of Planetary Science (DPS) meeting.