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The Heart Nebula Dogs It
Tinged with a touch of insomnia, I woke at 2:35 a.m. Wednesday and wondered whether I would fall back to sleep. When an answer didn’t arrive 10 minutes later, I was up and at ‘em. Perseus is a circumpolar constellation for anyone living north of 40 degrees latitude. I’m at 44 degrees north latitude. Each…
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Owl Hunting With the Third Earl of Rosse
I have a confession. Here it is: The people who “discover” cosmic objects or originate theories or tools to better understand the night sky are almost as interesting as the object or idea linked to their lives. Up until last week, I never knew there was a Third Earl of Rosse, or even what a…
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Sailing Into Cygnus
The rain stopped. The sky cleared. I cheered. I settled in for a few hours under Cygnus the Swan on the last day of June, 2024. The Northeast Wisconsin monsoon finally took a breather. Ours was a wet June, as it was for most states in the upper Midwest of the Lower 48. The prolonged…
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Summer Delights on Late May Nights
After two weeks dominated either by the moon or wet weather, it cleared up during the week of May 26. I was able to get outside on the evenings of May 29-30 to do some photography with the SeeStar S50, the little two-inch trumpet of discovery that I’ve had a crush on for the last…
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The Aurora Arrives
I drove 10 miles west to escape the Oshkosh, Wisconsin light dome. Rain moved through the area earlier in the evening, and fog began sitting on its silent haunches. I found a country road and parked at the top of a small hill above the moist air. I used a Pentax K-70 camera mated with…
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Massive Solar Storm Heads to Earth
The plasma is coming. A massive solar storm is ejecting massive streams of radiation, which may intersect Earth this weekend. If that happens, people as far south as Alabama may experience a generational display of aurora borealis, also known as northern lights. Staffers at Rogerdier.com photographed the sun this afternoon. “I’ve never seen sunspots this…
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The May Galaxy Hunt Continues
Leo’s Trio I decided to escape the Oshkosh Light Dome Sunday and drove about five miles west to a country road. Multiple astronomy Apps promised fine conditions but it wasn’t as clear or transparent as forecast. What else is new? It was quiet as dark settled over that country road in Winnebago County; the only…
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May Means M51
Friday night on May 3rd revealed mostly brighter stars in the sky over our home on the south side of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. At this time of year, viewed from 44 degrees north latitude, Ursa Major, aka the Big Dipper, is virtually overhead. I took advantage of the clear night and set up the SeeStar S50…
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The Ten Tenets of Amateur Astronomy
Six decades ago, I fell into the splendid misery of amateur astronomy. Along the way, certain natural and human patterns seem repetitious. I’ve identified 10 of them. If you have more, add them in the comments. When the full or nearly full moon is in the night sky, the sky is cloudless, insanely transparent and…
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Dark Day in Doniphan
We rolled into Doniphan, Missouri about two hours before the April 8 eclipse shadow darkened the highway town of about 2,000 people. We found an empty parking lot behind the Doniphan Baptist Church and waited for the shadow. The sky was spring blue, with sprigs of altocumulus clouds the only visible threats to photographic clarity.…
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Three Photos From March 28
If you’re reading this on Monday, April 1, we’re one week away from a potentially spectacular celestial event. Whether you are able to see the solar eclipse on April 8 depends on where you are and what portions of earth are covered by clouds on the afternoon of the day. The path of totality sweeps…
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A Comet Returns
I heard that a periodic comet known as 12P/Pons-Brooks was visible in the evening sky, hanging out in the constellation of Andromeda. So I packed my SeeStar S50, kissed my wife and drove west on Highway 44 to get a little darker sky and a better view of the western horizon.
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Flaming Starfish
In 2024, while photographing the Horsehead Nebula, I discovered NGC 2024, also known as the Flame Nebula. It looks like an earthen flame, but a case could be made to call it the Tree of Life nebula. Either way, it’s a spectacular object with dark clouds of gas and dust that create shadowy lanes that…
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Late Winter Sun Spotting
A particularly interesting sunspot group is currently making its thirteen-day trip across the face of the sun. When I first spotted it a few days ago, both the umbra and penumbra were rectangular shaped, especially the penumbra, which had a state of Iowa feel to it. The two photos at the top were taken on Feb.…
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Williamina’s Horsehead
Before we discuss her horse head, let’s meet Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming. Born in Dundee, Scotland in 1857, Williamina’s intellect shimmered like the Venus over the horizon. Her father died when she was seven. At age 14, to help support her mother and eight siblings, she worked as a teacher. When she was 20, Williamina…
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