New Observing Site: Lakeside, Jedediah Smith Rd Corral Site

 I went out to the Lakeside Mountains to look at some possible observing sites off the valley floor. The North Alkaline Rd Site is a wonderful site but in the fall and spring, dew can easily form on the valley floor.  The valley floor is an ancient lake bed which explains why dew in these seasons can easily form in the right conditions. 

As I drove down Puddle Valley Rd. I found a dirt road that went off to the northeast. I passed it and  then  I turned around on Puddle Valley Rd, drove south and turned left onto the dirt road. 

I followed it out and ended up at guess what, a corral. The corral was newer, set up with newer wire and boards.  I REALLY like observing at corral sites. This had flat areas and was up off the valley floor.  The corral would be used to gather cattle that graze out on the BLM land in April and May, then are gathered up in early June. 

These videos show the site and it will be where I observe this week.

The Milky Way's Latest Supernova We Missed G1.9+0 3 in Sagitarrius

 

Around the year 1900, as astronomers on Earth were refining photographic plates and cataloging stars through visual refractors, a star died near the heart of the Milky Way.

It was not a subtle death. A white dwarf star in a binary system exceeded its structural limits and detonated in a thermonuclear Type Ia explosion. The blast unleashed an incomprehensible quantity of energy, hurling heavy elements outward at thousands of kilometers per second.

Yet, if you look through historical astronomical journals from 1900, you will find no mention of it. No visual observer pointed a refractor at Sagittarius and saw a brilliant new star flare into naked-eye visibility. The event passed in complete silence.

How could the youngest supernova in our entire galaxy go completely unnoticed?

As always the full article is available over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK. Please head over to take a look and join our community there! 

Wide Field Spring Campagin/Observing Guide for 4 inch telescopes with wide field eyepieces

 So I have shared my summer, fall and winter wide field program. Spring is a little different here. There are some definite wide field targets here, but on several of these I move down to the 16.5mm Pentax XW or even the 7mm and 4mm Delite. So with not a lot of fan fare since spring is SO far off from now, here is my wide field list for next spring.

Again, I'll be adding to this and updating it as I do some more research but this is a decent start I feel.

The full program is available over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK.  Please hit subscribe on YouTube and join our community at Eadsy Astronomy if you want to get the items I share as they go there first! Thanks! 

The Day a Star Exploded Near the Earth: The Short Story of SN 1987A

 

On February 23, 1987, the night sky gifted modern astrophysics its most significant event in over 380 years. Located just 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)—a dwarf satellite galaxy of our Milky Way—SN 1987A exploded into view. Come watch and learn more about the nearest observable supernova in recent history.

For the article and to see more images and info, head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK and join our community there to get first notice of new posts. 

The Explosive Mystery Inside Andromeda: SN 1885A

 

Simulation of SN 1885A or S Andromedae 

On the night of August 19/20, 1885, Irish amateur astronomer Isaac Ward noticed something unusual while gazing through his telescope at the heart of the Great Andromeda Nebula. A tiny, reddish star was flickering just 16 arcseconds from the brilliant nucleus. It's brightest was estimated an close to -6 magnitude (quite bright and almost naked eye visible) and it outshown the nebula's core. See, in 1885 Astronomers didn't know that Messier 31 was its own Island Universe or separate galaxy. They thought it was a star forming region creating another solar system. Then in 1923 Hubble proved them wrong! Come learn more about the only supernova we've yet to visually see in Messier 31! 

For the full article and to get full access when I post, head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK and join our community there! 

Wide Field Winter Campaign/Observing Program for 4 inch Refractor and Wide Field Eyepieces

 

I shared my the Fall Campaign Observing Program that I made for my TeleVue NP101 with the 31mm Nagler (and have included the 22mm Nagler and could use the 26mm Nagler). I am sharing today the Wide Field Winter Campaign from December through February (sooner if you are up later in the night in the fall) since I have it ready. Spring is also done minus the image from LiveSky which I'll do either Sunday or Monday.

Please realize I am sketching each so I don't have as many objects as I could here. I'll add more as time goes by and I get done with these.

The Object is listed and underline and under the image is the FOV by the specific eyepiece. Hope that helps! I look forward to this! If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them in the comments and I'll add them in!

As always, you can get the full program over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK.  Please join the community there to get notified when I post news, observing programs/reports and other astro related stuff as it goes there first! If you can support us with a small donation of $3 to $5 it is really appreciated! Thanks to Andrew Witt for being a contributing member!