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Author Archives: astrobob
Morning crescent moon anticipates weekend solar eclipse
As the solar eclipse approaches, we watch with anticipation as the moon slims to a thin crescent in the morning sky. Each day it slips a fist eastward toward the sun as if drawn by a tractor beam toward Sunday … Continue reading
Complete viewing guide to Sunday’s annular solar eclipse
It’s almost here. Time to get ready for Sunday’s annular eclipse of the sun, the first one visible from the U.S. since 1994. Anyone living in the approximately 150-mile-wide band from southern Oregon to northern Texas will see the moon’s … Continue reading
Tagged annular eclipse, Astro Bob, moon
8 Comments
Bye, bye Venus, see you on the other side
A reminder to keep an eye out for halos around the moon and sun. We’re outside more often during the warmer months with more opportunities to notice things in the sky. Yesterday I caught the bottom edge of a colorful … Continue reading
Tagged Astro Bob, halo, phase, Venus
9 Comments
A journey from Cassiopeia to the Southern Cross
Walking with my older daughter the other night, we noticed how low Cassiopeia had dropped in the northern sky. It’s also back to looking like a “W” instead of a zigzag. The familiar constellation reaches its nadir or lowest point … Continue reading
Tagged Astro Bob, Cassiopeia, circumpolar, Southern Cross
4 Comments
Chance to own a piece of Sutter’s Mill meteorite
Two of the meteorite hunting community’s most respected hunters, Greg Hupe and Mike Farmer, are selling small fragments from the 10.3 gram Sutter’s Mill meteorite (provisional name) that hit Suzie Matin’s garage. The price isn’t cheap – $2000 per gram … Continue reading
Tagged Astro Bob, meteorite, Sutter's Mill
8 Comments
Jupiter’s disappearing act plus exciting news from Vesta
Back in the day before orbiting telescopes and 24/7 sky surveillance, when a planet got too near the sun, it was invisible in the solar glare. Not anymore. Thanks to the two coronagraphs aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), … Continue reading
Tagged Astro Bob, conjunction, Jupiter, Rheasilvia, SOHO, Vesta
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Purple aurora majesties
Last night a stranger approached me in the dark. I was out in the country in a pullout along a gravel road just setting up my telescope. You never know what to expect when someone drives up to you and … Continue reading
Tagged Astro Bob, aurora, nitrogen, oxygen
6 Comments
Solar blowout and a wicked star-planet alignment
It’s always worth getting up to see a sunrise. Sure, you can’t concentrate and your eyes weigh a pound a piece by afternoon, but it’s worth the lift you feel watching a star rise out of a lake. I saw … Continue reading
Tagged Arcturus, Astro Bob, flare, region 1476, sun, sunspots
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Spitzer sniffs out alien super-Earth
Astronomers have spied the light of big, Jupiter-sized alien planets but never one as small as 55 Cancri e, a “super-Earth” orbiting the star 55 Cancri 41 light years away in Cancer the Crab. Super-Earths are extrasolar planets more massive … Continue reading
Sutter’s Mill meteorite tally at nearly 60; auroras possible tonight
Nothing but clouds since May began until last night, when the sky cleared for an hour during twilight. It was wonderful to see Venus again and its close “companion”, the star El Nath in Taurus. One benefit of the frequent … Continue reading
Tagged Astro Bob, flare, meteorite, Sutter's Mill, Venus
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