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Cosmic Challenge: Alcor and Mizar

Is there any constellation in the sky more universally known than Ursa Major, the Great Bear? Most of us learned of it as a child, perhaps from a relative or friend, or possibly as a Scout working our way toward a merit badge in astronomy. The seven brightest stars in the group, known in North America as the Big Dipper or in England as the Plough, always draw our attention, especially in the spring when they ride highest in our sky.

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Understanding the ZWO ASI 294MM Pro Camera

Like other new CMOS cameras being introduced into the astrophotography market, the ZWO ASI 294MM Pro seems to be a strange beast (but not in a bad way). The first thing to notice is that it has a “jump” in performance at Gain 120.

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First Steps Into Variable Star Photometry

This short white paper aims to demonstrate that it is possible for the average amateur astronomer who is engaging in digital astronomy to step into the world of photometry. Why might you consider this? Well, it opens up opportunities for advancing one’s knowledge in the hobby, as well as the potential to participate in valuable citizen science projects, such as the upcoming Exoplanet Watch program. Participating in a course on exoplanet transit measurements hosted by the Boyce-Astro Foundation started my interest in photometric analysis. I wondered if my modest telescope setup could carry out such measurements.

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A review of the Unistellar EVscope

Well here is another product that has received a lot of hype and press, but without divulging much useful information about the telescope itself. Well needless to say, the hype worked on me….and I took delivery of my (used) Unistellar EVscope today.

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The Skies of June, 2021

Highlights: Comet Journal, Martian Landers, Meteor Showers, Summer Solstice, Planet Plotting, June Moon Focus Constellations: Ursa Minor, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Camelopardalis, Ursa Major, Leo, Coma Berenices, Virgo, Bootes, Corona Borealis, Ophiuchus, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus

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The Skies of May, 2021

Highlights: Comet Journal, Martian Landers, Meteor Showers, Planet Plotting, May Moon Focus Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Camelopardalis, Lynx, Leo, Virgo, Coma Berenices, Bootes, Corona Borealis, Hercules, Lyra

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The Discoveries of Galileo – Part 5: The Milky Way, Orion, and Asterisms

This is the final article on the Discoveries of Galileo from 1609 to 1612. His discoveries of Jupiter, sunspots, the Moon, and Venus were covered in parts one through four of this series. This article will cover Galileo’s observations of the Milky Way, the constellation Orion and star clusters or what we term today as asterisms.

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Switching to iOptron: What I learned from my new GEM45

These are short notes on things I learned about using my new iOptron GEM45 equatorial mount, moving from Celestron mounts (AVX and CGEM). The CEM40 is very similar to the GEM45, and other iOptron mounts are also rather similar. I assume you have the instruction manual for your (actual or planned) iOptron mount; manuals are available on line.

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Cosmic Challenge: Markarian's Chain

Aim your telescope anywhere in the large, seemingly empty gap between the stars Denebola [Beta (β) Leonis] and Vindemiatrix [Epsilon (ε) Virginis] and, given sharp eyes and a dark sky, you are bound to see one or more faint splotches of light somewhere in the eyepiece's field of view. You've entered the Coma-Virgo Realm of Galaxies, a collection of upwards

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BASIC EXTRAGALACTIC ASTRONOMY Part 8: Central Supermassive Black Holes - Discovery and Properties

The only primary evidence available to an astronomer about a very remote object consists of photometric measurements, a spectrogram, and an image which is in many cases no more than a pinpoint of light. In this article we present basic cosmological concepts and simplified mathematical methods which allow an amateur to derive from this meager data a surprising number of physical properties of distant extragalactic objects with a precision of several percent within professional results.

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