Wind Power 2017 conference; Will the solar eclipse cause a utility backout? Upcoming AAS and SAS conferences; Seeing the back far side of a neutron star; Angular momentum and magnetic fields affect cloud collapse star formation; Ruby pokes her nose into general relativity

Greetings from Palmia Observatory


Well we missed out on what we hope was good weather at OCA Black star canyon because of vacation travel and now both of us have been ill and not filled with a lot of energy to do much of anything.  We're on the mend, but I didn't really have much desire to pack up the scope and do any observing.  My plan was to spend a couple of leisurely days just wandering

Getting past the bug; Miss USA 2017 studies science; AAS Planetary Habitability conference comments; Looking for dark matter in galaxy clusters; Looking at Chandra x-ray imaging; Funny cat video?

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well this has been a very trying couple of weeks since our return from our Amsterdam river cruise, in that both Resident Astronomer Peggy and I came under the influence of some bug and got ill about a day after we stepped off the airplane.  So, I had every intention of completing the attendance at the AAS Radio Observation of Planetary Habitability conference in Palm Springs, but found I had to drop out after only a coupe of days.  I just couldn't keep up the required attention span and also didn't want to infect any other attendees.  I also stayed away from the UCI Physical Sciences free breakfast speaker talking about how to weigh black holes.  Oh, well, it is just getting so busy.  So, only now do I have the energy to discuss some of what I learned there and also at one of the UCI physics colloquia events.

Before commenting about the

Back from tulips and windmills river cruise; Physics Breakthrough prize; Atomium in Brussels; Nine pounds in nine days; See you at the AAS Planetary Habitability Conference in Palm Springs

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, we are finally back from our tulips and windmills river cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium.  Resident Astronomer Peggy and I had a great time and just a couple of photos and events will show up in this blog.  When we left Schiphol Airport and arrived at the ship, our rooms were not ready, since the departing passengers and cabins were just being released.  It was just a random stroke of luck as we all waited for our cabins, we found ourselves at a table with

Hooray, good alignment and observing, M51, M104, M3 and comet Johnson (C/2016 V2) at OCA Blackstar; Use background stars to identify where your scope is pointing; More on surface brightness measurement

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well the weather was great for observing at this month's OCA Blackstar Canyon party; finally breaking the spell of many months of bad weather, and almost 50 observers made the most of this welcome opportunity.  Resident Astronomer Peggy was there with her binoculars and until the sun went down she volunteered with the signup clipboard for email signups.  Resident Astronomer George finally got dark enough skies to complete a 2-star alignment, something not easily done with the city lights at the observatory.  It was great to see so many

Exciting videos from readers; Summary of two galaxy formation lectures; Epiphany regarding Photoshop loss of pixels; Hope for good weather at Blackstar; Packing bags for river cruise

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well this has been a busy week with a couple of interesting physics colloquia and three other astronomy related meetings and lectures.  We are looking forward also to the OCA Astrophysics Sig and hopefully good observing at Blackstar.  It has also been a week where I finally had an epiphany regarding why my Photoshop processed images were not as clear as the original images on the DSLR.  It is sad to recognize that I have been doing the DSLR file format conversion for over two years now with old conversion software and have been leaving about 80% of the pixels behind.  But before getting into those details we should