December 2023: Reflecting on Apollo 8’s 55th Anniversary December 21st, 2023, marks the 55th anniversary of the historic Apollo 8 mission (December 21–27, 1968), the first manned flight to the Moon. This momentous journey, undertaken by astronauts Lovell, Anders, and Borman, provided humanity with an unparalleled live, close-up view of the lunar surface and the…
Category: SkyWatch
Leonid Meteor Shower
November’s Meteors Unpredictable Brilliance: The Leonid Meteor Shower’s Mystique The Upcoming Show: November 16th/17th, 2023 Prepare for a celestial spectacle as the Leonid Meteor Shower reaches its peak in the early hours of November 16th/17th. This meteor shower is known for its enigmatic and erratic behavior, leaving observers at the edge of their seats. Historic…
Selling the Night Sky
Selling the Night Sky… An Observatory astronomer here once had a great idea for making a fast buck. He’d nab a copy of the city’s list of fire hydrants and sell them one at a time to anyone who’d send him a check for $50. He’d promise to name a plug after anyone whose check…
Making A Fast Buck
An observatory astronomer once had a great idea for making a fast buck. He decided to sell the city’s list of fire hydrants one at a time to anyone willing to send him a check for $50. In this way, he promised to name a plug after anyone whose check didn’t bounce and sent them…
The Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon
The Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon August 1, 2023. This is the Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon, according to the Chinese calendar. This is the night that thousands of magpies will form a bridge over the ‘silver river’ between the Earth and Heaven, and re-unite two young lovers. The Forbidden Love Many, many…
Cheap Thrills!
Cheap Thrills Let’s take a trip back to those warm summer nights during childhood looking for some “Cheap Thrills”. On these evenings, options seemed scarce, funds were limited, and parental restrictions were in place. However, whether we gathered with friends under a streetlamp or leaned back on the family Ford’s hood to gaze at the…
Summertime
Summertime! “How lovely it was out in the country, with the wheat standing yellow, the oats green, and the hay all stacked down in the grassy meadows! And there went the stork on his long red legs, chattering away in Egyptian…” Tales by Hans Christian Andersen The Summer Solstice. Midsummer, that’s what is happening. On…
Mayday
Mayday The first of May is Mayday, the second of the four cross-quarter Days of the year. It falls midway between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, two of the year’s quarter days. In Celtic England, Mayday was called Beltane. The Sun today will rise midway between the place it rises along the horizon…
A Brightly Lit Killing Field
“A Brightly Lit Killing Field…” A wrap-up in Washington, DC of a series of talks dealing with the problems in modern-day astronomy of light pollution, radio interference and space debris. Much of the information has been pondered for two decades now.. But, the eloquence with which the problems were presented, are daunting. On the problem…
April Skies
April Skies The first of April, some do say, Is set apart for All Fools Day, But why the people call it so, Nor I, nor they themselves, do know. Poor Robin’s Almanac, 1760 No one knows where the tradition of “April Fools” came from. It’s origin has been wrapped in obscurity for a long…