Get ready for the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction on December 21; Wow, SN8 finally does test hop, completes belly flop maneuver, but explodes after hard landing on launch pad

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well here we busy with American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2020 Fall Meeting, but we took some time to practice photographing the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjunction and to watch the SpaceX Starship SN8 test hop attempt.

Effects of Social Isolation?; Seeing the Earth's actual shadow during lunar eclipse? Arecibo? Stern-Gerlach experiments and quantum superpositions and density matrices; Schrodinger's Cat: Dead or Alive?

 Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, did everyone get out and look at the lunar eclipse on November 30?  We first revisit one movie family that did not do well with social isolation, but can offer one "artist's" impression of what the eclipse might show and reserve the rest of the post for a discussion of quantum mechanics, density matrices and decoherence and the like.

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.

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.

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.