Aurora Borealis Kansas Style
It has been weeks of clouds, rain (which we needed), high winds (not needed), and schedule complications, so there has not been much observing from my urban observatory (yard) in Lenexa, Kansas. BUT, Friday and Saturday evenings I was finally able to do some...
LIGO Surprise
I was surprised and delighted by a gift from an astronomy friend this week, a LIGO cap (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). It was accompanied with a wonderful story in an impeccably hand-written card. Here is what the card says: Dear Fiske, When I...
Camelopardalis — Facing Our Fears
This time of year I find myself visiting Camelopardalis (really a giraffe not a camel -- see this post from last winter). Despite its large size (18th largest constellation), Camelopardalis attracts relatively few astronomical caravans (having a hard time shaking the...
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
After a cold, cloudy, and schedule conflicted January and February, March got off to a good binocular astronomy start thanks to an invitation from Bill Barlow to join him for observing at Lewis-Young park in Louisburg, Kansas Friday, March 1, on a clear if somewhat...
Christmas Vacation Astronomy
December was not an ideal month for astronomy. It was mostly cloudy, and my next door neighbor's Christmas Vacation style holiday lights are bright enough to cast shadows. 😆He is an awesome neighbor, though, very considerate about lights when I'm observing, and tis...
Pi Andromedae
My happy discovery of Pi Andromedae occurred on Wednesday 15 November 2023 while I was making observations of the double star STFA 1, which is near Delta Andromedae, just to the south of Pi, following up on this Cloudy Nights topic about using hand held binoculars to...
The Neglected Lizard
A list of the least observed constellations in northern skies would surely include Lacerta the Lizard, added to the celestial canon by Johannes Hevelius in 1687. Maybe THE least observed? How could that be determined, I wonder? 🤔The above image is a detail from Plate...
The Oberwerk 20×70 ED Ultra In Its Glory
On wednesday evening, September 20, 2023, among other binocular astronomy adventures I observed a hexagonal asterism pointed out by fellow Cloudy Nights member aznuge with an APM 20x80 binocular I had been using to log Cygni 100 list doubles (back left in image)....
48 Cygni Star Field
I observed the 48 Cygni starfield Thursday evening, September 14, 2023, from the east side of my yard because Cygnus is migrating to the west now and passing behind the dreaded pines of roam near my driveway. (Massive pine trees that block the western side of the sky...
A Cygni 100 Bow Shock Star
Work on the Cygni 100 catalog is underway, complete with its own numbering system. An unexpected challenge in writing the catalog, however, is the seemingly endless amount of information found while looking up details for each double star. Sort of a nice problem to...