Star Party Tonight

Team to Transmit Messages to the Spacecraft During New Year’s Flyby in the Kuiper Belt NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has traveled 13 years to reach the heart of the Kuiper Belt – but you can get there in a matter of hours! In 2005, more than 430,000 people signed up online to place their names […]

One of my favorite places to hold a star party is in the desert east of San Diego. On Tuesday March 7th, 2017 I headed out to Aqua Caliente County Park to meetup with a dear friend Sandy H. and her band of home school parents and teachers. We had a lovely evening which started out […]

I am pleased to present this paper that I co-authored with two teachers and submitted to JDSO this year as part of the Boyce Astro program. Hilde van den Bergh1, Chris Olivas2, Jerry Hilburn3 Mentor, BEWiSE, Fleet Science Center, San Diego, California, USA. Chris Olivas, High Tech Middle School, San Marcos, California, USA. Epsilon Orion […]

I am excited to report the submission of a double star research paper to the Journal of Double Star Observations. I co-authored the paper with a team of College professors in the local San Diego area. This research project was part of an Astronomy Research Seminar offered by Cuesta College, supported by the Institute for Student […]

There are few places in America where you can go and not have Internet or Cell phone coverage. Today I will embark on a journey to such a place. Texas. Actually, not all of it, just McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis. And of course I will driving across the desert at the hottest time of […]

I shot this on July 4th 2016 with a Canon 6D and a 135mm EF Redline piggy backed to a AVX mount. 3 shots stacked, each 2 minutes long at 800 ISD. First pretty picture I have taken with the new camera. Click Link for Full Size

Friday night I started calibration and testing of the imaging system at 8PM. By 10pm I was ready to start taking data on the Halloween Asteroid. When I first moved the scope into position and started shooting I tried a series of 60 second shots, then 30 second, then 10 second shots. The challenge was […]

I love a spectacle, or more precisely the high energy motion of a fast moving rock. Join me Friday night at TDS as we attempt to shoot asteroid TB145  as it screams past earth beginning at 10pm. The asteroid will appear just below the moon near Orion moving northeast. The asteroid will move 12 degrees in […]

On Sunday September 27th West Coast lunar observers will be treated to a rare event. Starting at 6:45pm the Moon will rise already eclipsed by Earth’s shadow. The moon is also at its closest approach to the Earth in its orbit as well (known as a Super Moon by the public) and it is the […]

I present a stack of 10 – 2 minute photos, processed with DeepSkyStacker, and my own personal blend of Photoshop Filter steps. Andromeda is by far and away my favorite Galaxy to shoot near the end of summer. It it rises from the east as the Summer Triangle wends its way west. In a dark […]

The summer sky never disappoints us, especially the jeweled region of the southern Milky Way. Rising up out of steam from the pot of Sagittarius we find one sparkly pretty after another. Here I present to you a nebula known as The Trifid. I shot this using a 8″ f/4 TPO Newtonian with a Canon […]

This shot was released this morning July 14th 2015 and shows Pluto in full color. I have processed the shot a bit to enhance the contrast and improve saturation for purposes of making the detail stand out. I have to say that the reddish hue of Pluto is entirely unexpected, and the detail level has […]