Astro Nut

Some cool stuff about the Moon

admin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:51:08 +0000

Will the Earth fry future moon astronauts? by ZDNet’s Roland Piquepaille — Researchers working for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission have discovered that the Earth’s magnetic tail could be harmful to future astronauts. The moon stays inside Earth’s ‘magnetotail’ for six days every month — during full moon. This can have consequences ranging from lunar ‘dust storms’ to strong electrostatic discharges, according to one researcher quoted by NASA in ‘The Moon and the Magnetotail.’ So far, this is pure speculation: no man has been on the moon when the magnetotail hits. As added the same scientist, ‘Apollo astronauts never landed on a full moon and they never experienced the magnetotail.’ But read more…

Log Books

Russ — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:16:51 +0000

Make sure you check out our store.
Messier Observers Logbook is available

We have a new log book available
Light Polluted Skies Log Book

My Backyard Set UP

Russ — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 21:58:35 +0000

This is my backyard set up.
I put down 3 little concrete pads for the mount
and I know what branch Polaris hides behind.
So doing an rough Polar alignment is a snap.
I can drag the mount with the scope out of the house
all set up.

Jupiter

Russ — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:25:17 +0000

My first try with the new camera
Its not the best I have seen but its mine!
I used my 10″ DOB with no tracking.

Viewing was bad I had to play hide and seek with the clouds

StarShootII

Russ — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:03:05 +0000

I received my StarShootII yesterday! Whaooo

My first impression of the camera was how small and light it is, it actually weighs next to nothing!
The casing is made of lightweight plastic.
I installed the drivers and MaximumDL on my Vista equipped laptop without any problems all!

Here’s a picture of some Sunspots 20 minutes after the camera came out of the box!
It took longer to install the camera than it did to take this picture.
Overall I am pretty impressed and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with little camera.

Rubylith

Russ — Fri, 04 May 2007 12:42:38 +0000

The other day I got a different type of Rubylith for my laptops.
I had been using Rubylith Acrylic Sheets while these worked good the new Rubylith worked a whole lot better!
It comes a heavy-duty plastic sheets that very easy to cut.
Its not as thick or as heavy as the Acrylic Sheets.
Since its not as thick I can leave on my laptop and close it with no problem.

it also works very well on lights and flashlights.

If you are still looking for Rubylith
scopestuff.com carries it!

Can You See the Stars?

Russ — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:51:40 +0000

Join thousands of other students, families and citizen-scientists hunting for stars during March 8 - 21, 2007. Take part in this international event to observe the nighttime sky and learn more about light pollution around the world.

During the 2006 event over 18,000** people from 96 countries on all continents (except Antarctica) reported more than 4500 nighttime observations. Help us
The Globe At Night

Celestron StarSeeker 80mm

Russ — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 19:49:29 +0000

Update
I have only had a couple of clear nights to use the “The Little Dude”
but they were very enjoyable.

The Celestron Sky Align is very simple and fast to use.
I just pointed at 3 different stars and it came back with
MATCH CONFIRMED.
You don’t have to know the name of the star.
You don’t have to put it at a HOME postion.
You don’t have to point it North.

Just level it and pick out 3 stars and you are set!
What a delight to use.

The Little Dude

Russ — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 15:24:59 +0000

click on thumb for a big picture
This is my new Telesope and his name is
“The Little Dude”
It is a Celestron StarSeeker 80mm GoTo Refractor
and so far I have really enjoyed the scope!
GoTo telescope with 4,000+ object database makes stargazing easier than ever
Features the revolutionary SkyAlign technology for fast, easy setup
Includes GoTo hand controller, two Kellner eyepieces, red dot finder scope, and star diagonal.

I got him from Orion Telescopes
Their Main Page Orion Telecope has a very good reputation so give then a try!

NGC 869 and 884

Russ — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 15:30:24 +0000

click on thumb for a big picture
This double cluster is found in Perseus.
This drawing doesn’t even come close to capturing the sheer beauty of these two open clusters.
This is also a very good bino object!