greenvillesky

Perseids a washout

Here's a snap from the Bradford Creek Soccer Complex as the Carolina Skies Astronomy Club gives a presentation during tonight's StarGaze and Perseid Meteor Shower viewing.   As you can see, the clouds rolled in. Then a huge storm pounded the area in the middle of the talk with frequent lightning strikes.   Everybody scrambled for their cars.  So, no Perseids to be seen tonight, I'm afraid.  Of course, the skies might clear up later.   We will see... The show will still be going on all night.

Perseids may get clouded out

In Greenville, that is. There's a pretty good chance of some overcast skies tonight but, ya know, it's always something. Here's a reminder that the Carolina Skies Astronomy Club is holding a public Perseid Meteor Shower viewing at the Bradford Creek Soccer Complex at 8 p.m. tonight. They will also have telescopes set up to view other objects in the night sky. The pic above is one that I shot a couple of years ago while out observing the Perseids in a field near my home.

Public StarGaze tonight

Although I won't be able to make it tonight, the Carolina Skies Astronomy Club is holding a public StarGaze at the Bradford Creek Soccer Complex on Old Pactolus Road in Pitt County.  Go out there and say hi to Bill All, the president of the club and see what he's got his telescope pointing at.  He has also reserved the same location on the evening of August 11 for the Perseid Meteor Shower. Clear Skies!

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Another go at it

CURRENT MOON

moon info

Last night I hiked the eight-mile loop at Goose Creek State Park but the skies were cloudy and I had to use my head lamp to see. As luck would have it, I'm here again tonight and hopefully the skies will be clear. The weather is perfect, but no telescope, this trip. The moon is way too bright to see anything decent. -- Post From My iPhone

The Moon may be moot

I planned on a nice 8-mile hike in the nearly-full moonlight tonight but we will have to see what the clouds have to say about that. I am holding out that they will go away. The wind has picked up and the temp has dropped considerably making this a perfect night for camping. There was a small thuderstorm that barely missed me but I could see it across the creek. So, if the clouds move out I'll be able to enjoy a great hike among the blue-lit trees, but right now that plan is moot. I may have to get out the headlamp. -- Post From My iPhone

No better time than this

I've been spending the day reading the info on an iPhone application I've had for a while called Emerald Chronometer. This app reproduces 11 different very expensive watches with faces on the front and back of most. There's everything you could ever imagine needing if you are an astronomy buff, and it's on sale until July 11. Here's an iTunes link to the app. Check it out for yourself, but beware- you might be spending a lot of time just learning to use it.

Oregon Inlet dark sky

Here's a pic I took with my camera sitting on top of my car at a National Park Service campground at Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The exposure is thirty seconds so there's a little star-trailing going on, but not much. Jupiter is the bright planet rising at right. Click on the image to see a bigger version. Here's my blog for The Daily Reflector from Oregon Inlet.

The Marathon Man

The Observer's Blog has been updated with a complete listing of the Messier Objects. Each object is represented with it's own icon and links to much more information online. Click on the portrait of Charles Messier at right or on any of the icons above to find out everything you need to know about each object.
To view star maps of each object, click here

A view into Vulpecula

Here's a view looking into the constellation Vulpecula (click on photo for a bigger version) shot from Goose Creek State Park on July 13. It was taken from a primitive campsite at the park at about 2 a.m. There's not much of a clearing in the campsite so it was difficultt getting my telescope aligned properly but I managed and then I attached my camera to the scope and shot this image. The ISO is 1600 and the exposure is 31 seconds at f/4.0. More on the Observer's Blog

June 30, 2008 sky

Mars and Regulus with be separated by a mere .7º tonight with Saturn close by in the neighborhood of the Sickle in Leo. Keep watching Mars and Saturn as they Approach each other over the next few nights. Saturn is at Magnitude +0.8, Mars is +1.6 and Regulus is at +1.4. Make sure you go out early because the three are setting in the western sky early.

Back in the saddle lite

I finally made it out to the field to observe a few satellites as they passed over Greenville Saturday night. Go to GskySatellites for a list of what I saw. The Observer's Blog has also been updated with the latest goings on out in the field.

Archaeologists in the UK have been digging for two weeks at Stonehenge to try and discover a more precise date for the monument and also uncover it's true purpose. From new discoveries of fractured bones of Neolithic remains on the site, they are led to believe that the stones were put in place as a pilgrimage destination for the sick to come and be cured. The dig, sponsored by the BBC , is the first inside the stone circle in more than 40 years. It has been argued strongly that Stonhenge was built as a planetarium, with many of it's stones lined up to mark significant astrological alignments.