The forces of rotation caused red hot masses of stones to be torn away from the Earth and to be thrown into the ether, and this is the origin of the stars.

— Anaxagoras 428 BC

Solar System

Observing the Sun

By ebfaulkner6a at Sat, 09/06/2008 - 5:16pm

Remember when John Miksits?  We were having a public observation of the Sun at Pleasant Acres Campgrounds in Sussex, New Jersey.  John brought his homemade Solar scope.  John is on the left in the photo, followed by Gene and Gail Faulkner (brought along 11" Celestron).  Some nearby campers came for the viewing.  What was the year John?

Observing the Sun

New Jersey State Botanical Gardens

By JohnMiksits at Fri, 08/29/2008 - 8:17pm

I went to see the gardens up in Ringwood today.  It's really beautiful.  The annuals and perennials are still in bloom.  You can spend quite a bit of time up there.  Member Maja Britton advised us to see the new scale model of the solar system that runs the length of the Crab Apple trees. 

There seems to be some controversy up there with caterer renting Skylands Manor. 

Full Moon

By dtrapani at Tue, 08/19/2008 - 5:03pm
Full Moon

Pluto Charon

By myamiphil at Tue, 08/19/2008 - 3:51pm

A composite of 13x13 arcsec wide images taken with the adaptive optics camera NACO on Yepun, one of the Unit Telescopes of ESO's VLT (Paranal). The images were taken in the K-band (2.2 microns) from about three hours to about one hour before the occultation. All images were centered on Pluto and Charon, the double object visible near the center, with a separation of about 0.9 arcsec. Because of the system's motion, the occulted star, at the right of Pluto and Charon, appears as a dotted trail, and so does another star in the lower left corner.

Pluto Charon

New Dwarf Planet

By Kevin at Tue, 07/15/2008 - 12:44pm

The IAU has designated "Makemake" a dwarf planet, with Ceres, Eris and Pluto, that brings the total to
four. Makemake (pronounced MAH-kay MAH-kay) is named for the Easter Island creator of humanity.

Full Moon 9/25/2007

By myamiphil at Fri, 02/22/2008 - 1:45am

Full Moon, modified to B&W, and auto corrected & sharpened. Meade ETX 90 with 26mm ocular. Camera Nikon Coolpix 4500, shot .036 sec., f 4.5, 26.8 mm, ISO 100

Full Moon 9/25/2007

Receding Eclipse with Blue/Green glow

By myamiphil at Fri, 02/22/2008 - 1:21am

Shot with Nikon Coolpix mounted on a Meade ETX 90, unguided.Photo data, 1 sec, f 4.0, 21.3 mm focal length, ISO 400, at 11:16 PM.

Receding Eclipse with Blue/Green glow

Receding Eclipse from Bloomfield NJ, 11:07 PM

By myamiphil at Fri, 02/22/2008 - 1:14am

Shot with a Nikon Coolpix 4500, mounted on a Meade ETX 90, with 45 deg adaptor, and without guidance. The shot was ISO 100, 21.7 mm focal length, f 4.0, 1/7 sec.

Receding Eclipse from Bloomfield NJ, 11:07 PM

Moon close up

By marzulloj at Sun, 02/03/2008 - 4:01pm

A close up of the Moon

Moon close up

Lunar Eclipse as seen in Clifton, New Jersey

By JohnMiksits at Sat, 01/26/2008 - 9:31pm

March 3, 2007  Lunar Eclipse
 
Clifton, New Jersey.  Taken with a Celestron SPC-6 attached to a Olympus Camedia C-4000.  There appears to be some sort of flaring in the photo. 

Lunar Eclipse as seen in Clifton, New Jersey