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)

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Hooray, this is the 500th blog post for Palmia Observatory! LISA Canada 2021 Workshop; LISA might see our cosmic dawn when the very first stars formed

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, here we are and I am not quite sure how it happened, but this is the 500th blog post from Palmia Observatory, which started seven years ago.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Hooray, Super Moon comes out of the clouds; Carnegie Observatory on Black Holes and Tidal Disruption Events; Hooray, Starship SN15 completes static fire test!

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well the moon arrives at its closest approach at its elliptical orbit about the Earth and appears about 14% larger during this full moon.  But, we had to wait for the clouds to part to get a clear image.

Sunday, April 25, 2021

How low is the July sun in the night sky in Iceland? What is the Muon g-2 experiment and findings?

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well as we look forward to our upcoming cruise to Iceland, we are glad to find that the people there, with low rate of COVID-19, especially welcome US passengers and don't have many restrictions.  So, now we can return to possible astronomical sightings of the Northern Lights, while there?

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Friday, April 16, 2021

See you at APS April Meeting! How close is the Blue Origin Van Horn, TX launch site to the SpaceX Starship launch site in Boca Chica?; Possible viewing location in South Padre Island;

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well last week we described some of the Blue Origin reusable rocket testing at their launch site near Van Horn, in west Texas and now want to consider visiting there too, but first let's remind everyone of the upcoming APS April Meeting.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Hydrated crust and Missing Martian Water; Iceland a Portal to Mars?; With Blue Origin successful launch, is the New Shepard ahead of the Starship?

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

In astronomy related news this week is this interesting article in Science that identifies what might be a more important explanation for why Mars today is a dry and arid planet.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Hooray, success in capturing the Zodiacal light; Further analysis of all collected images found one in the right direction and long enough exposure to see the light!

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, this time we do have some happy news and can celebrate the photographic capture of the Zodiacal light.  This happy news comes just after our earlier post describing our failure to actually capture the light, but now after reviewing all of the images for our recent road trip trip, we have a successful image!

Monday, April 12, 2021

Unpacking from local road trip and packing for Iceland; Beauty and the Beast; Flaming Surprise; Maybe Zodiacal lights from Kingman; Aliens in Oatman, AZ; Astronomer finds Las Vegas?

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well we just got back and unpacked from our road trip looking for the Zodiacal light and now have to repack for a cruise to Iceland in lieu of the cancelled Ukraine cruise.

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Packing our bags for road trip in search of Zodiacal light; Viewing of SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica; Review of viral evolution and example of tracking the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well here we are packing our bags for our road trip in search of the Zodiacal light in the dark skies around Needles, CA., and at the same time unpack our backs for the September cruise from Romania, in search of vampires, up the Dneiper River, from Odessa, to Kiev, Ukraine, which has been canceled, but in the meantime we can report on observing opportunities in Boca Chica and look into some science of viral mutations and variants of concern.