For over two decades, visual observers and astrophotographers have relied on the Bortle scale to gauge sky quality. But let’s be honest—estimating light pollution based on general visual cues leaves far too much guesswork on the table. It’s time to say goodbye to the limitations of the classic Bortle system.
Welcome back to the Blog! Today, I’m excited to introduce the Sky Performance Index (SPI)—a comprehensive, precision-driven system designed to give observers an exact, objective measure of what the sky is actually giving you on any given night. By combining real surface brightness readings with real-time atmospheric conditions, the SPI gives you a true picture of observational potential. Let’s break down why the Bortle scale falls short and how the SPI system will revolutionize how you log, plan, and evaluate your dark-sky observing sessions
For the introductory report and to get the Google Sheet so you can play with SPI, head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK.
What is going on with Betelgeuse? Orion’s famous red supergiant is acting up again, leaving astronomers and stargazers asking the same big question: is this routine variable star behavior, or are we witnessing the final countdown to a massive cosmic explosion?"
Welcome back to the channel! If you’ve stepped outside lately and looked up at the familiar hourglass shape of Orion, you might have noticed its bright right shoulder looking a little different. Ever since the historic Great Dimming event, all eyes have been fixed on Betelgeuse—and right now, it’s giving us a brand-new show.
In this video, we’re diving into the latest observations, unpacking the science behind its strange brightness fluctuations, and looking at what’s really happening inside this massive, pulsating monster.
Before we jump in, make sure to hit that subscribe button, ring the bell, and let me know in the comments: what does Betelgeuse look like from your location tonight? Let's dive in!
Full article is available over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK.
ver set up your telescope on a clear night only to find planetary details completely washed out, or attempted deep-sky imaging only to be left with gray, contrast-less backgrounds? The secret to avoiding wasted sessions comes down to understanding two critical atmospheric conditions: Seeing and Transparency.
In this video, we break down the fundamental differences between seeing (atmospheric stability) and transparency (atmospheric clarity), how each affects your stargazing and astrophotography, and quick tests you can perform with your naked eye or through the eyepiece before setting up!
Key Takeaways:
Atmospheric Seeing measures the steadiness of the air. High seeing stability is crucial for high-magnification planetary, lunar, and double-star viewing.
Atmospheric Transparency measures how much light passes vertically without being scattered or absorbed by moisture and aerosols. High transparency is essential for observing faint deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae.
The Pickering Scale (1–10) rates seeing based on how intact a star's Airy disk and diffraction rings remain under high power.
The Antoniadi Scale (I–V) rates seeing from I (perfect, motionless) down to V (severe, constant distortion)
For the full article head on over to Eadsy Astronomy! LINK
If a competition were held for the most unrecognized genius of 20th-century astrophysics, the winner would undoubtedly be the Swiss-American astronomer Fritz Zwicky. A bold, visionary scientist who was decades ahead of his contemporaries, Zwicky formulated foundational theories on supernovas, dark matter, neutron stars, gravitational lensing, and cosmic rays. Yet despite his astonishing intuition, his abrasive personality and radical ideas led his peers to dismiss him for decades, leaving him one of the most underrated figures in the history of science.
The YouTube video covers a lot of the article I wrote since some prefer to listen instead of ready. You can read the full article over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK.
In reading the article,"Green, Pink, and Purple—Astronomers reveal the surprising two colors of white dwarf stars." we find that a group of astronomers from the University of Warwick have shown that a white dwarf star can glow really in a whole variety of colors, including the first star that we ever found that if we could see it with our eyes, but actually appeared green. It's really cool.\
Most stars' color is a guide, really, to their temperature. Cooler stars will look orange, stars like our Sun will look white and the hottest stars—they're going to glow a pale blue.
It's kind of like a blacksmith's iron-glowing red, then orange, then white-hot as it heats up. That's the analogy they use in the article. White dwarf stars: the dense remnants left behind when sun-like stars reach the end of their lives, were thought to follow the same kind of rule.
They earned their name because the earliest examples found they were surprisingly hot and glowed this white, pale blue. So astronomers called them white dwarf stars.
But the real question that this paper answered: are orange, white, and blue the only colors a star in the night sky can be, especially a white dwarf? So the answer they found, and what they quote here, is most stars—including white dwarfs—behave like perfect radiators, so their color is set almost entirely by temperature.
But nobody had really looked into what else might be possible for white dwarfs, said Dr. Mark Hollands, Prize Fellow in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, University of Warwick, who led this work.
And turns out, he said, "that these incredibly dense stars can produce colors nobody detected and some of them generally surprised him."
So why do white dwarf stars break the rule? Watch the video or go over to Eadsy Astronomy at the link below to learn more!
As always I have an article on this over at Eadsy Astronomy and a link to the article and paper over there so head on over. Please subscribe to Eadsy Astronomy if you want notificaiton of my items I share as it always is there first. If you find value in this, please consider becoming a contributing member. It helps to offset some of the apps and other resources I use to share this. As always, the content is and will remain free.
This is a REALLY cool site if you are an amateur or wanting to know when you can see the Milky Way or if you can from a certain locaiton. It explains what the Moon Phases are, what the Dark Window is for observing or imaging and when to focus on that. It also shows you the New Moon dates and windows for 2027!
There is so much here and in the video I touch on it. Over at Eadsy Astronomy I did a full article on it with more images and information so head on over there and take a look. I also have the link to the site and its pages there.
If you find it helpful remember you can join Eadsy Astronomy at Paetron and become a member. You can be a free member or if you find value in what I share become a contributing member at $3 or $5 a month. The money just goes to offset some of the costs for apps and software and other things I use to bring this to you.
Also here on YouTube hit the like button, and subscribe! If you do or have thank you so much as it helps a niche site like mine to grow.
For the full article which has a lot more than the video on this site, head over to Eadsy Astronomy for the LINK to the site and for my article on it!
This is a wonderful story how a young man, Julian Shapiro who in high school began using online free resources to develop a theory on dwarf galaxies. Watch the video and follow the link to learn more!
In this article LINK it is announced that using the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of 11 astronomers looking at a brown dwarf 7.5 light years away have seen water clouds getting thinner and thicker on another object in our galaxy for the first time! It shows why we need a variety of telescopes as we continue to explore and learn about our universe above!
As summer’s muggy air recedes and crisp, steady autumn currents settle over dark sites, the night sky undergoes a profound transition. The bright, crowded rich fields of the summer Milky Way pivot westward, opening a vast window into the deep-sky treasures of autumn.
This 45-target seasonal program spans seven cornerstone constellations—ranging from rich star clusters riding high along the Milky Way band to nearby island universes glowing millions of light-years away. Whether observing with a portable 4-inch refractor or driving deep contrast with a large-aperture Dobsonian under dark skies, this guide connects each target’s visual character with practical star-hopping notes.
The full program for the Google links or the Excel or PDF's are over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK.
Fascinating article that discusses why none of our nearby explanets most likely do not have advance life on them ready to head our way. Why? It comes down to plant growth and in truth, most of those exoplanets are behind us evolutionary and IF there is life on them, it is most likely at the microbial stage.
To get a LINK to the article head on over to Eadsy Astronomy.
This is the next installment of the newsletter. It is for September 28th through October 15th, 2026. During this period we move from a waxing gibbous moon to last quarter and then new moon. Finally we end with the waxing crescent.
Lots to see and observe during this period. Plenty of lunar features, craters, planetary highlights! We say goodbye to Venus being the evening star as the planet will soon transition back to the morning sky. Saturn rules the evening into the early morning! Pre Dawn Mars is positioned well.
We have two comets we can chase though one is early evening and the other will not be favorable until late November here in the northern hempisphere.
Finally, I share an abundance of both easy, intermediete and challenging deep sky targets. We include many fall ones and a few late summers as we say goodbye to those summer constellations and objects.
The full newsletter is over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK and you can get a PDF or a Google Doc version there. Please hit the like button, subsribe and thank you if you do or have. We are trying to reach 500 subscribers by the end of October.
NASA Scientist with the LROC, Robert Wagner, and no, not the actor, has discovered the newest and largest crater in our Solar System recently. The crater is named officially McGetchin, after Tom McGetchin, a pioneering lunar scientist. It is estimated that the crater formed between April 11th and May 22nd 2024. The cause was most likely a comet or asteroid the size of a three story building that impacted the surface!
The newly formed crater is 728 feet wide, spanning the length of almost two football fied. It is 141 feet deep
As always I have a full article and images over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK.
Also, on this object I do have a FULL article on it on Eadsy Astronomy LINK and I tie in that you can image or visually observe this object for youself. I think that makes it rather cool to tie in what we learn about it to our own imaging or observing!
ALMA Watches a Massive Binary Star System Develop in Real Time!
The telescope ALMA was used by astronomers to caputure one of the most detailed images of a massive binary star system being born!
They tracked the motions of these two stars for the last 8 years and found that the pair follow a highly stretched out orbit and are surrounded by strongly tilted disks. This suggest that the the two stars didn't form together from a single spinning disk of material as is often assumed. Instead they formed independent of each otehr and entered into their binary relationship during a close and chance gravational encounter.
I have a full article if you want to read this and a link to the orginial article over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK.
Here is the Eadsy Astronomy Newsletter for September 16th to September 27th, 2026. I am moving to do two a month now, a lunar and double star with comets focus for the waxing Moon period. Then the second will be a waning gibbous to New Moon period for a focus on Deep Sky Observing and imaging each month .
Here I give 2 eye candy targets for lunar objects and double stars each night and 1 challenging object for the Moon and for Double Stars. I share some eye candy deep sky objects with an emphasis on open clusters and bright Messier's. I also discuss in detail the 3 comets that we have that we can still image or observe right now!
I also review the planetary objects in our sky from bright Venus (which you can see low on the western sky in the image I took on September 14th from the West Desert of Utah with a waxing Crescent Moon chasing it) at around mag -4.1 or so to Saturn and Neptune which by 10pm or 11pm here in Utah are position great for observing during this period. Finally Mars and Jupiter are up in the early morning.
Because I have a variety of objects up in the early morning, on the double stars and deep sky objects I am going to include some of the winter objects that are now up in the early morning sky!
Also, on the Google Doc I've updated it to where there are drop downs so you can focus on day, challenging or eye candy objects etc. I hope the drop downs help you to use the newsletter a little bit easier.
To see and/or get a copy of the Newsletter, head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. If you find value, please consider joining our community there as you get first notice of my posts, docs and other information as I always post there first. Materials are free but if you find value in this, and want to make a donation or become a contributing member you can at the $3.00 or $5.00 a month level. Donations cover some of the apps, materials and other items I use to bring this to you. I appreciate those that are contributing members!
Went observing last night and the clouds went away after sunset! Wonderful night and can I say that SN 2026 aaiv in NGC 7331 visually is AMAZING in my 17.5"! Look for my report in the next couple of days over at Eadsy Astronomy!
just show my recap of my observing from September 7th, 2026 near Ashton Idaho (north of there) in SQM skies of 21.8 to 21.9. I show the Milky Way and my sketches and SeeStar Images from two nights (September 7th and September 9th, 2026 for the SeeStar).
To read and watch all the material head over to Eadsy Astronomy and please join our community there to get first notice and my indepth articles on my observing and other information there! LINK.
The unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus—often referred to as "the Milky Way’s twin"—has offered observers a rare occurrence. Between July 2025 and September 2026, the galaxy hosted two consecutive Type Ia supernovae.
Let me share that this is significantly rare. Extragalactic supernovae typically erupt once per galaxy every few centuries, making back-to-back "supernova siblings" within ~14 months in a single target a fascinating cosmic coincidence.
Discovery Team: Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey
Discovery Magnitude: m 17.3
Peak/Current Magnitude: m 12.5-13.0
For my full article head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK and to see images of last year's and this year's supernova there and my sketches of NGC 7331.
Forecast of rain in Utah from September 4th to September 12th, 2026. Not a ton in northern Utah but some and with that rain will come clouds
My video and Chris Tomer's are both over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. I encourage you to head over and watch Chris'! My video here simply highlights his and if you want the indepth version, please watch his. I am not affliated with Chris, I just really apprecaite his work. Also, if you're into skiing and snow sports that is why he does his channel. Just goes to say it helps with our hobby as well!
This is a really basic newsletter as I am getting ready to head for Island Park in Idaho and Yellowstone. My wife's birthday is next week and she has chosen this year to take the family with us and visit Yellowstone. I've been before, she hasn't. I am taking a scope, a refrator and stuff and my SeeStar S50. The forecast is for clouds and rain with maybe one or two nights so we'll see what we can see!
Anyway, I include the Moon Progression, a Crater a Day to observe, 3 double stars to observe per day, a comet 10p Tempel 2 and 20 Eye Candy Deep Sky objects and 15 more challenging ones. Combine them, do them daily, however you want to use the info! Most importantly, keep looking up and enjoying the night sky above and all that is up there! It is truly a marvel!
As always the link for the Google Doc and/or the PDF is over at Eadsy Astronomy so head over to get your copy! LINK
NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet, Emission Nebula in Canis Major; February 4th, 2016, 9:10pm MST; FR006 Site 1; Antoniadi I, clear, cold, 17 degrees F; 17.5" Dob; 5mm, 7mm, 10mm, 14mm 20mm Pentax XW; 24mm Explore Scientific 82 degrees, 27mm Panoptic; Type II Paracorr; OIII Filter.
Here's the Wolf-Rayet Star and Nebula Program I said I was doing. It has 13 of those objects and I included the Fetus Nebula in Cygnus which also has a high speed stellar wind but the main star is a white dwarf that is pushing the outer layers away and it looks cool! That gives us 14 objects and like Bilbo in the Hobbit, that gives us 14 which is not an unlucky number 😉
Head over to Eadsy Astronomy for the program and to get the Google Doc copy or the PDF! LINK
James Webb Space Telescope Image of Wolf-Rayet Star WR 125
So I made this video and created an article on What is a Wolf-Rayet Star over at Eadsy Astronomy and uploaded it here. Why? Well one of the things I try to do is educate on the objects that I post observing/imaging programs for.
I have a small program for Wolf-Rayet stars and the shells that surround them. I think it enhances the experience of observing or imaging them if we understand what we are seeing and imaging!
As always, I have a full article on this over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK so head on over and take a look! Thanks!
In this video I share my full post over at Eadsy Astronomy on my observing trip out to Wolf Creek Pass, Duchesne Ridge on the night of August 16th and 17th, 2026. I usually am too busy on a Sunday to head out, but I finished all my needed things that day and it was the one window I had in August.
So I had considered doing Top View/Toon Rd but the forecast went south and Wolf Creek opened up. I absolutely LOVE this site so anytime I can go there I will. I had planned in July to do several nights there but the weather didn't cooperate! Go figure.
So here I share what you'll see if you head over to Eadsy Astronomy. Probably my favorite observing and sketches that I share are Sharpless 2-91, that OTHER Supernova Remnant in Cygnus. Thanks to my good friend Shane I was able to observer for the first time Sharpless 2-94 and 2-96! I also got some planetary nebula so this observing trip has fit right in with some of my posts lately!
For the full report, including additional video of how to get there and of the site with images and my sketches and SeeStar images, please head over to Eadsy Astronomy! LINK
Here is a list of the sketches over at Eadsy Astronomy:
This is a fun summary of the article that shows that the Milky Way hasn't just undergone two mergers with dwarf galaxies; the Sagitarrius Dwarf Galaxy that started over 6 billion years ago and is still ongoing and the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus merger that occurred 10 billion years ago.
Guess what, they now have found a third merger that occurred 11.8 billion years ago which is only 2 billion years after the Big Bang! Come learn more about that merger and how they found it!
My summary article and images are available over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK along with a link to the release and my highlights of the article.
Yesterday, I posted a LOT about planetary nebula. I discovered this article/news release from the James Webb Space Telescope Website on NGC 2392 the Lion Nebula. Here they use the NIRCam and MIRI instruments/cameras on the James Webb to image it. The article discusses how all this is being caused by the white dwarf star seen in the center!
Head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK to see the images from Webb and a link to the news release!
Real cool article on possible ways the moon formed. In the image above (and in their video I shared) they show how the Moon may have formed when a Mars size object that formed relatively close to the Earth in the protoplanetary disc, so they had the similar composition, resulted in material being blasted around the Earth that later formed into the Moon. OR if the protoEarth and the Theia object were of the same temperture basically, the Moon could have formed within hours of the impact! Cool! More to learn and more for our astronomers and scientists to study and learn!
To see the simulation that SwRI put out on YouTube and get a quick snapshot of this video, head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. You can also go and see the article for yourself!
NGC 2392, the Clown Face or Lion Nebula in Gemini; My Sketch from winter of 2017.
My purpose here is to get more of you looking up and observing Planetary Nebula. They are some of the most beautiful objects in our night sky and they represent the end stages of a main sequence star like our Sun, one that is between 0.4 to 8 solar masses and is at the end stage of life. I guess I love them for a couple of reasons. They are the opposite of my other favorite objects, Supernova Remnant which is the leftover of a massive star that went supernova and basically destroyed itself, leaving in most of their cases, a neutron star.
So I'll show you what I have done here. I broke the Astronomical League's Program into seasons. It is NOT perfect. Some objects probably need to go in another season or could. If you find such, please let me know by making recommendations in comments or by contacting me. I'm not the type that is set on anything and will always make adjustments if the logic is good and sound.
I've also included my own observation, or as most show, Steve Gottlieb's
Anyway, they are in both a Google Sheet and Doc format. I"ll include them both in the links below. I'll also attach as either a PDF or a Excel Doc also if that helps.
To get the full copy of the Google Doc, Sheet or the PDF or Excel version, please head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. The links and attachements are at the bottom of the post.
Messier 57 The Ring Nebula Planetary Nebula in Lyra; August 30th, 2016: 2:15am MDT; Antoniadi II, mild; 17.5" Truss Dob f/4.4, Star Catcher; 22mm Nagler T4, 10mm & 7mm Pentax XW; FarPoint UHC 1 1/4 Filter.
It's been awhile but it is the Ring Nebula. The outer edge has varying levels of brightness and the inner region is even surface brightness with some hint of varyness at higher magnifications. Central Star visible with averted and direct vision.
So besides Supernova Remnants, one of my favorite Deep Sky Objects to observe are Planetary Nebula. I love them because of what the represent, a main squence star that is from 0.4 to 8 solar masses that has lived its life and is now in the end stage. I also find them challenging to see how much detail I can pull out whether I am imaging them or observing and sketching them, or both! Finally I am constantly amazed at how our Universe recycles materials and uses that material to create even more stars, planets, solar systems and continues on.
So I've done several things that I am going to share in this post and the next post. First, I made a Planetary Nebula Observing Prorgram by season and have included images, sketches and descriptions of most of the objects. That's in this video. I'll share the Google Doc and PDF's below and the program. The list is also in XLS formation for Excel.
In the next video, well, you have to watch that one to see what that is!
As always, I REALLY encourage you to head over to Eadsy Astronomy to see the program, get a copy of it and to admire the many wonderful observations, images and sketches done of this wonderful objects! Please hit subscribe and like here, and thank you if you do or have already done so. It really helps a niche site like mine.
Also, please join Eadsy Astronomy. You can join as free member, my content is always free or you can, if you find value in what I do, become a contributing member at the $3 or $5 a month value. It just goes to offset the cost of some of the apps and materials I use to bring the content to you. I'll keep doing it and I won't get rich, it just offsets some of my time and my costs and is deeply appreciated!
As always, I REALLY encourage you on this one to head over to Eadsy Astronomy. There you can get the program, see the sketches and images of the objects, and read observations done by many who have observed or imaged these! Here is the LINK!
I've spent a lot of time lately discussing super massive stars, their explosive ending as supernova and shared a program for seeing their remenants, ie supernovae remnants.
Now we'll take a look at the opposite side of the coin. Here we discuss main sequence stars that are from 0.4 to 8 solar masses (stars similar to our own Sun) and discuss their lifecyle and how they end up as planetary nebula with white dwarf stars.
The video is long, and I share my notes that I have created on this from my Astronomy Class way back in college many, many years ago. I've tried to update it. Anyway, this is to prepare to share a Planetary Nebula Observing/Imaging Program.
For the full article and additional items and movies, head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK. Please hit subscribe and like on YouTube and join our Community at Eadsy Astronomy! I always post there first so you can have immediate access to the material from there!
This is a recap of the sites I use to make a weather forecast to determine if I want to drive out to a dark site for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and observe. I've shared parts of this before, and I've added a few items also now.
For the complete set of videos and the article with all the links to the sites I use, head over to Eadsy Astronomy at the this LINK. You can do the same as I do by using these sites or do a search for similar sites in your area. I do strongly believe that if you really want to ultiilze a dark site, it helps to become an amateur weather forecaster for your region and locations you observe.
Please hit the like and the subscribe button and thanks if you have or do! It helps a niche site like mine a lot! Also join our community over at Eadsy Astronomy!
8/28/2026
Over 70% of massive stars are born in binary systems, but after mass transfers, mergers, or supernova explosions separate them, surviving stars often appear solitary. Until now, astronomers struggled to trace whether a single star had a violent binary past.
A new study published in Nature Astronomy by researchers at the University of Bonn and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics introduces a novel, model-independent method to uncover these hidden histories. Come learn more in the video and over at Eadsy Astronomy below!
For my article and the LINK to the original head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK.
Here is the Eadsy Astronomy Newsletter for next week, August 30th to September 5th. Really this needs to work through September 12th as the week of the September 6th I will be in Yellowstone for a family vacation.
Here are the segements if you just choose to watch those portions.
00:00 to 4:03 is Intro; Lunar Phases by Day and Craters and Features to Observe
4:04 to 7:03 Planetary Items and Double Stars
7:04 to 9:10 Comets
9:10 to 10:07 Deep Sky Targets/Objects
As always head over to Eadsy Astronomy for the full article/newsletter! LINK.
Nova Sagittae 2026 or V488 Sagittae (N Sge 2026 / PNV J19450648+1822422) erupted on August 25, 2026, making it one of the most accessible Milky Way transients of the year due to its high altitude in the summer sky.
What it is: A classical nova caused by a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf that is actively pulling in material from a companion star in a close binary system.
Prior to the outburst, the progenitor star was a faint speck down around magnitude 19 to 21, but it rapidly flared up by tens of thousands of times in brightness. Because it is sitting right around 7th magnitude, it is easily reachable with standard binoculars, even from urban or suburban backyards, though it remains just below the threshold of naked-eye visibility
For the full article and finderchart head over to Eadsy Astonomy LINK and join the community there! I have had this up for several days over there now.
Life is sometimes definetly like a box of chocolates and sometimes you just have to roll the dice to see what comes up. Last night was one of those. I wanted to experience this partial Lunar Eclipse and the forecast went from bad to horrible. However, I foudn a window at a place called Five Mile Pass, about 35 minutes from my home so I went there.
I posted the video shorts here on this channel but over at Eadsy Astronomy and I shared the images I took, the videos are all in one place and it covers what I experienced. Was it a perfect session? Nope, I missed the main event but I did maximize my opporutnity and sometimes in life, that is what we have to do.
To get my article, see all the images and videos head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK. You can join the community there and get first notice of all my posts as they up there first. Thanks for watching!
Tomorrow, Thursday, August 27th, 2026 from 9:24p.m. EDT to 3:01 a.m. on Friday, August 28th, 2026 EDT we have an almost full lunar eclispe. Maximum will occur at 12:12 am EDT (August 28th) when 96.2% of the Moon will be covered. This is a wonderful event that you can just look up with your eyes, or with binoculars or telescope to view.
As always I have the full article over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK and I include the weather forecast as of this morning (Wednesday) for various locations here along the Wasatch Front area. Head on over to take a look.
The future of Amateur Astonomy? Could this be what going to a dark site looks like in the future?
First, Ed's Video:
My thoughts:
As always I have a full article over at Eadsy Astronomy and encourage you to head on over there and take a look LINK. You can join the community there and get first notice of all my posts as they go there first.
The Waxing Gibbous Moon with faint Antares up in the upper right corner
So last night at sunset, the sky was just wonderful. Since the sky was so promising, I decided to head out since the 57% waxing Moon was close to Antares in the constellation of Scorpius and I wanted to give my Eadsy Astronomy Newsletter objects a go.
So I did my usual. I pulled out my backyard old 4 foot long Lifetime table. It fits perfectly in my shed and is easy to pull out. Then I got my Tripod and then the Skywatcher Evostar 100mm ED refractor. My friend Shane and I had recently gotten the old finderscope out, the set screw was broken off when I got it and so it had to me removed. I put in the 8x50 right angle finder I have for it, and a red dot finder.
As always, the full article, images and videos are all over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK.
In this newsletter I share Lunar Progress, Lunar craters to observe, 1 a night. I go through the planetary lineup with Saturn now coming up in the late evening and early morning sky and Venus moving from a gibbous stage to a crescent stage. Mars is up in the early morning hours and Jupiter is making its way to the morning sky also.
I give you four double stars and three deep sky eye candy objects to also observe or image each night of this waxing Moon phase!
For the full newsletter head over to Eadsy Astronomy and know that I've added a few videos of objects to go after there!
In the article and in the video I share a pet peeve of mine. Amateur Astronomers who use a SQM or SQM L reading to determine the Bortle Scale rating of their observing or imaging site. The bottom line is you SHOULD NOT do this. Here is review what the Bortle Scale is, what NELM is and the SQM and SQM L and which should be used to determine sky darkness. I also explain why you have to understand the reading your taking, the time of year and impacts to the reading. For example did you know that the summer Milky Way on a SQM or SQM L reading will reduce that rating by .3 to .5? Did you know when we are in solar maximum that that will also reduce the reading by .2 to .4?
I also discuss the 3 ratings I believe you must include in an imaging or visual observing session IF you wish to communicate how your observing location was for THAT observing session. They are the darkness reading, the transparency of the sky and the seeing in the sky. So come learn and I hope this helps to clarify why you must use the Bortle Scale, the NELM and the SQM readings separately and the pro's and con's of each.
I highly recommend that you read the full article over at Eadsy Astronomy, LINK. There is a LOT of information in the video and the article.
