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!