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Free Engineering Book
Just a quick note to alert you to a free book download for the Kindle. The book, Engineering Stories, is written by an engineer colleague of mine, and contains seven short fiction stories about...
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Dance of the Planets
23 May to 11 June – 8:30 pm CDT In my posting yesterday I described the orbital motions of these three planets without the use of a graphic to help visualize that explanation. This animated graphic...
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Preview June Issue of Qué tal
As the subject line states, the June preview issue of Qué tal in the Current Skies is now online and available at this temporary web address: http://currentsky.com/2013/jun13/index.html It will...
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Flip the Sky!
3 June 9:30 pm CDT and 3 August 5:30 am CDT It is one thing to write about celestial events but it is an entirely different ‘thing’ when my local sky has been overcast every evening since I started...
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Venus Transits M-35
If the sky is clear this evening, Wednesday 4 June, and you have a reletively level western horizon look for the planet Venus to be merged with the open star cluster M-35. Depending on the time of...
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Thin Moon and Planets
10 June – 9:15 pm CDT Look westward this evening, Monday 10 June, at sunset to see the very thin waxing crescent Moon to be about 7 degrees away from the planets Mercury and Venus. Both of the...
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EarthKam Opportunity
Students and educators are invited to join NASA for the Sally Ride EarthKAM Summer 2013 Mission from July 9-12, 2013. Guide your students in hands-on research as they program a camera aboard the...
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June Solstice
Sun’s Apparent Motion Along the Ecliptic – from Taurus to Gemini Northern hemisphere spring comes to an end and its summer begins at 12:04 am CDT (05:04 UT) on 21 June as the Sun ‘reaches’ the...
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The Twins, Venus, and Vesta
Click on image to see it full size. This evening, 22 June, look toward the west for two stars, more or less side-by-side. These are Pollux and Castor, the ‘twin’ stars of the constellation Gemini....
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Preview July Issue of Qué tal
As the subject line states, the July preview issue of Qué tal in the Current Skies is now online and available at this temporary web address: http://currentsky.com/2013/jul13/index.html It will...
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Super Mini-Sun
Sunrise – 5 July This Friday, 5 July, the Sun will be its smallest appearing and most distant for the year as the Earth reaches aphelion, the point in its orbit around the Sun where the Earth is at...
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Moon and Venus Conjunction
Click on this image to see it full size. This evening the waxing crescent Moon will be near the brightly shining planet Venus. If the weather cooperates this evening I will be taking pictures of...
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Moon Meets the Lion
Click on this image to see it full size. This evening, 11 July, after sunset, watch for the waxing crescent Moon to be further to the east from the planet Venus. Above the Moon, to the right, and...
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And the Lion Jumped Over the Moon
For the past week I have been in Tucson Arizona hoping for a clear evening or even a clear morning before sunrise. However this time of year it is the Monsoon Season – a time for cloudy and rainy...
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Waxing Moon-A Slam Dunk?
This evening the waxing Moon has moved further east from its location yesterday and is now poised (with some imagination) to be slam-dunked into the constellation Crater the Cup. Crater the cup,...
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Arizona Pans
For the past week or so I have been in Tucson Arizona visiting family. One of the benefits of this part of the country is that the skies are clear — most of the time. With every visit here I make...
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Moon and Spica Conjunction
Click on this image for full size This evening, 15 July, the first quarter Moon will be about one-half degree away from the blue-white star Spica in the constellation Virgo the Harvest Maiden....
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Moon and Saturn
Click on image to see it full size This evening, 16 July, the just past full Moon (waxing gibbous) will be a few degrees below the planet Saturn. Both will fit within the field of view of binoculars...
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Martian Flight-Seeing
The ESA, European Space Agency, recently released a short 5 minute video of a fly over of the Hebes Chasma, a canyon lying along the Martian equator near the Mariner Valley. This canyon is around...
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In the Scorpion’s Grip – Again
The Many Views of Scorpius This evening, 18 July, the Moon is once again the claws of Scorpius the Scorpion. However unlike last month, the month before that one, or even the next months coming up...
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