Amateur Astronomy

National Astronomy Day 2008 Saturday, May 10, 2008 is National Astronomy Day, and there are plenty of FREE activities going on for anyone who has an interest celestial bodies. The University of Utah Astronomy Department will be starting their day at 10:00 a.m. with telescopes pointed at the sun. As the sun goes down and it gets dark the telescopes will be pointed at anything they can find, including stars, planets, galaxies and nebulae. The Observatory is in the South Physics Building at... Read Full Story

IC 4603: Reflection Nebula in Ophiuchius Explanation: Why does this starfield photograph resemble an impressionistic painting? The effect is created not by digital trickery but by large amounts of interstellar dust. Dust, minute globs rich in carbon and similar in size to cigarette smoke, frequently starts in the outer atmospheres of large, cool, young stars. The dust is dispersed as the star dies and grows as things stick to it in the interstellar medium. Dense dust clouds are opaque to... Read Full Story

Infrared Trifid Explanation: The Trifid Nebula, aka Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of glowing dust clouds and newborn stars. The spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data... Read Full Story

By David Wildash Although telescopes are the first thought for sky gazers, binoculars may be the ideal choice. Being portable, they are more convenient and inexpenseve compared with telescopes. It's wiser to buy a cheap pair of binoculars instead of a cheap telescope. 7 X 35 binoculars are a good choice because the size is light and easy to hold. The number 7 stands for the magnification produced by the binocular eyepiece, and the other number stands for the aperature in millimeters. If... Read Full Story

Explanation: Here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse. The shadow of the Moon can be seen darkening part of Earth. This shadow moved across the Earth at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour. Only observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse - others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears blocked by the Moon. This spectacular picture of the 1999 August 11 solar eclipse was one of the last ever taken from the Mir space station. The two... Read Full Story

Great Mountain Moonrise Explanation: On May 31st, a gorgeous Full Moon rose over Uludag Mountain in Bursa Province, Turkey. This alluring telephoto view of the twilight scene is a composite of images taken roughly every two minutes beginning shortly after Sunset, following the rising Moon as it moves up and to the right. Of course, as the Moon rises it gets brighter and changes color, becoming less reddened as the sight-line through the dense atmosphere is steadily reduced. Each of the final... Read Full Story

A common misconception among those new to astronomy is that magnification is the most important factor when it comes to choosing an astronomical telescope. This is simply NOT true. Telescopes which are advertised on the basis of high magnification are usually of poorer quality and should therefore be viewed with suspicion. While the ability to magnify an image is of course necessary, the most important feature of a telescope is its light gathering ability. The objects we see in the night sky... Read Full Story