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Issue #551: The Simple (Suburban) Astronomical Life…
2017 wasn’t a very active year for me in astronomy. The freaking weather, if nothing else, saw to that. The Deep South Spring Scrimmage, for example, one of two star parties I still attend each year...
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Issue #551: Merry Christmas Eve from the Astroblog!
Well, it wasn’t quitea white Christmas on the Gulf Coast, but, as you can see from the picture at left, taken a couple of weeks previously, we came close. Closer than in years, and years, and years....
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The Simple Way Redux: KStars
If you’ve been reading these little epistles for a while, you know I one of my uses for planetarium software—programs that create a graphic representation of the sky on your desktop—is to send my goto...
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Merry Christmas 2018 from the Astro Blog!
I’m busy with a new book (and maybe a revised edition of an old one), writing for Sky & Telescope with some regularity, and don’t have a lot of time for the old blog right now. However, I couldn’t...
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Merry XMAS 2019! Uncle Rod's Astro Blog Slight Return...
Seems like it was just Christmas 2018 a little while ago, and not so long before that it was Christmas 2017. At your old Uncle’s slightly advanced age, the years have begun to come thick and fast,...
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Meade on the Rocks, Rock Bottom...
Aw for—! Meade’s at it again! Muchachos, it’s barely been six years since we last had to visitthis subject: the failing fortunes of America’s beloved former telescope giant, Meade Instruments. Last...
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Better Late Than Never…
Yep, better late than never, I suppose—I got it done anyway. Finally.The whosit and the whatsit?! What in the aitch-e-c-k is your silly old Uncle Rod talking about now? My yearly M13, muchachos. As...
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Astrovideo: Slight Return
Now, when I say “astrovideo,” muchachos, I mean the real deal. The old-fashioned deal. A deep sky video camera putting out analog NTSC (or maybe Super VHS) video, not that newfangled “electronically...
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#559: Return of the Losmandy
“Return? Where did your Losmandy GM811G go, Unk?” It didn’t go nowhere muchachos—including onto an observing field or even into the backyard for almost two years. I received the mount in the latter...
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#560: The New Herschel Project, the Preparation
365 days. 400 objects. One astronomer and a less than perfect suburban backyard sky.How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait... The New Herschel Project. Coming soon to a computer...
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#561: Fifteen Years After the Honeymoon or "The New Herschel Project: 1 Down,...
If you’ve been following the AstroBlog for a while, I don’t have to tell you who Charity Hope Valentine is. If you haven’t? She’s my little Meade ETX125PE Maksutov Cassegrain. More than a few ETX...
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#562: The New NexRemote
Following my re-checkout of my Losmandy GM811G mount after not having used it for way too long, it was time to get to work on the New Herschel Project, muchachos. But then thunder began to rumble....
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#563: “Celestron Screws Up” or “Poor Emma”
It’s a good thing this is a family friendly blog, muchachos, or that title above would have been a lot nastier. As most of y’all know, when it comes to SCTs I’ve always been a Celestron man. Have been...
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#562: The New Herschel Project Night 2, 21 Down 379 to Go
For the moment, I will not tackle the existential query, “Why, Rod? Why more Herschels? Why now?” Instead, I shall stick to explicating the rules of engagement.”It was hot, humid, and hazy on the...
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Night of the Comet
Of course I’m talking about NEOWISE, C/2020 F3, muchachos, which has been hovering above the Northern Hemisphere’s northwestern horizon and shining at a respectable magnitude of 2. That’s down from its...
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Stars in the Palm of My Hand Redux
Yeah, muchachos, I know. I said not long ago that I hoped to put a new AstroBlog article on the air at least twice a month, but I barely managed one for August. What happened? The weather is what...
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Hello Sally!
It will be a short one this time muchachos. But I’m posting this for a couple of reasons. I’ve had numerous enquiries about how Miss Dorothy and I fared in Hurricane Sally, which came ashore just to...
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#568 My Yearly M13: 2020
My Yearly M13, like my Christmas Eve peek at M42, is a tradition I’ve maintained through the years—when I can, anyhow. “What the heck is Unk goin’ on about now?” One of two astronomical things I’ve...
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#569 Mars Redux
The ASI120MC, Shorty Barlow, and Meade flip mirror.This will be a somewhat short one this Sunday, muchachos, since there’s no need to re-cover ground I’ve covered extensively in the past, as in “How do...
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Issue 570: The New Herschel Project Night 3: 29 down and 371 to Go
When I resurrected the good, old AstroBlog some months ago, muchachos, I said it was my hope to bring you a new article at least every other week. ‘Twas not to be in November. In this time when...
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