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Articles from Homeboy\'s Astronomy Blog

Planets in December - a List of Planets You Can See in Northern Hemisphere 2007-12-12 08:25:27 Are you looking for planets in the night sky? There are a number of interesting planets you can observe in northern hemisphere in December. This short article provides you a list of those planets with tips for locating those planets. For further information of objects in the night sky, check out my previous articles, such as “what constellations can be seen in different times” and “what can you actually see in a night sky“. Let’s first define which planet cannot be seen in December. Those are Pluto, Mercury and Jupiter. All the other planets can be observed in December. Venus - Morningstar Venus can easily be seen low in South-East. Venus is also called as a Christmas star because it can be seen very well in December. Venus is very bright in the mornings, so you should easily locate it. Mars - Exacly on Christmas eve, in December 24th. Mars will be in opposition in the constellation of Gemini. It will rise from North-East during the Sun set, will stay high ...

Launch of Atlantis Delayed to January 2007-12-11 15:45:01 Nasa has delayed the launch of Atlantis to January due to problems with sensors controlling the engine. According to Nasa, Atlantis can be launched earliest in January 2nd. Atlantis was supposed to be launched in December in order to carry the Columbus science laboratory to the International Space Station. The laboratory is the biggest European contribution in building the space station. Read more about this news in Nasa’s mission website. Image source: Nasa mission website.  ...

How to Find and Photograph Northern Lights - Tips and Tricks for Locating and Photographing Aurora Borealis 2007-12-07 15:45:15 Some time ago I wrote about northern lights, also called as Aurora Borealis. Northern lights are very common in northern hemisphere, especially in the area I come from, Lapland in Finland. I grew up above the Arctic Circle and I am used to see lots of northern lights. Few times I have seen a corona which has been absolutely awesome, a stunning moment. My best northern light experience was in New Year’s Eve in 2002. I saw a corona that was so incredibly big, white and shiny that most probably I will never see such a northern light anymore. Anyhow, I love northern lights. They are really interesting and fascinating phenomena. As I promised in the title, let’s talk about how to photograph northern lights. What is needed in order to capture northern lights? First of all you need a camera. I am an old-school photographer and I own a Canon EOS 5 35 mm. body. It is not the best one for shooting northern lights because it is made of plastic. It can easily get damaged in -25-40 celc ...

How to Teach The Moon to Your Child - Tips and Tricks for Teaching The Moon to Children 2007-12-04 08:15:33 Has your child asked you about the Moon? Has he/she asked questions such as “what is the Moon?”, “what does the Moon do?”, etc. I have three children, one 13 years old son, one four years old son and one two years old daughter. The oldest reads by himself but my four years old son keeps on asking me difficult questions from “what is electricity?” to “what is a black hole?”. Last time he asked me exactly those questions mentioned in the beginning of this article. I decided to write an article on “how to teach your child about the Moon”. Little kids are fascinated with stars and the Moon. They do not understand much about them, but they get interested in them because they can see the stars and the Moon, and they can sense something mystical related to them. How could you best teach your child about the Moon in a way that he/she can understand the basics and will become afraid of it. There is always a risk that some mystical obje ... Children

Locating Planet Mars - Tips and Tricks for Finding the “Evening Star” Mars 2007-12-02 15:30:05 Mars has always been a fascinating object in the night sky, probably because it is one of the brightest objects (not taking the Moon into account) in the night sky. Another reason for being a fascinating object has probably been that Mars moves in relation to the background stars. This happens because the planets orbit the Sun and are much closer to us than those in the background. Therefore people on Earth have seen the movement of Mars. Ancient people believed that those moving objects, planets, are actually gods. Therefore they named them from Greek gods. Jupiter is the “King of Gods”, while Mars is the “God of War”. All the planets move along the Ecliptica, which is the rotation line of the planets. All the planets can be found close to the Ecliptica. Planet Mars looks yellow-orange in color and it can easily be spotted without a telescope or binoculars. Mars is easy to locate, but its position depends on the time of the year and the location you are observi ...

Lightning in Venus - NASA Reports Latest Astronomy Findings 2007-12-01 15:30:11 European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission has proved that there is lightning in Venus. According to the measurement results, there might be lightning in Venus more often than in our planet. So far we have detected lightning only in three planets, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. In all these three the lightning is associated with water clouds, but in Venus lightning is unique because it is associated with sulfuric acid clouds. Christopher Russell, a NASA-sponsored scientist on Venus Express from the University of California, says that Venus “is not a very good place to vacation, for sure”. When looking at the figure left, I agree with mr. Russell.. Read more about Russell thoughts and this news in NASA’s website. Are you interested in reading more astronomy news? Check out also a very interesting article of Earth-Rise HDTV image taken by Jaxa as well as another interesting news Heaviest Small Black Hole Found. ... Astronomy

How to Find Vega - Tips and Tricks for Locating Vega 2007-11-30 15:30:44 Vega can be seen well now in November. It is the main star in the constellation of Lyra. When watching the sky from Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway), Vega is the third brightest star. Only Arcturus and Sirius are brighter. In northern hemisphere, Vega is fifth brightest star. It is, by the way, interesting to know that Vega was the first star photographed in 1853. Vega is a little more difficult to locate than Polar Star for instance. This is because Vega does not line up with the most well-known constellations such as Orion. A good point is that Vega is one of the brightest stars in the northern sky, so it helps a little to find it. Few days ago I posted an article describing how to locate Big Dipper. Read it now if you have not seen yet. Locate first Big Dipper. When you see it, you should be able to recognize Cassiopeia above Big Dipper. Use this same logic to find Lyra. Turn your head to left and try to locate a bright star close to Big Dipper. You should be able to recog ...

How to Start Astronomy Photography - Few Good Tips for Starting Star Photography 2007-11-30 15:29:24 Watching the stars is a great hobby and it can bring lots of joy to your life, but watching may not be enough. You might feel that it would be great to record those images, to save them for later times and to share them with your friends. You get interested in astronomy photography. This usually happens to those who have already been interested in astronomy for few months or years. This article provides a short introduction to astronomy photography. It provides answers to a question, “what is needed in order to start astronomy photography as a hobby”? How to start astronomy photographing? Purchase the needed equipment and start shooting pictures, right? Yes, exactly, but that does not tell enough. Let’s take a deeper look inside those words. What is that equipment you need? The very basic thing you need is a camera. There are CCD cameras designed for photographing stars, but let’s not take them into account because they are for advanced skywatchers. Start with a ... Astronomy

Locating Sirius - Tips & Tricks for Finding The Brightest Star Sirius 2007-11-28 08:12:13 Yesterday I wrote about locating Big Dipper and North Star. Today I am writing about locating Sirius, the brightest star on nightsky. This article belongs to the category of Astronomy Tips & Tricks. By clicking that category you can read more about locating objects, such Orion Nebula M42. As said above, Sirius (Canis Majoris) is the brightest star when looking from Earth. It belongs to Canis Major constellation and it is located 8.7 million light years away from Earth. Sirius is the third nearest star we can see with plain eyes with its high luminosity (23 times the luminosity of the Sun). Only the Sun and Rigil Centaurus are closer to us than Sirius. Sirius, also known “the dog star” is known from its binary star system with a tiny and high-density white dwarf. As many stars, also Sirius has been very important star in many cultures. For example, in the ancient Egypt seeing Sirius in July-August was a sign of upcoming floods. The ancient Romans believed that Sirius was ... Amp

Locating Big Dipper and Polaris - Tips & Tricks for Finding Big Dipper Constellation and the North Star 2007-11-27 07:52:53 Today I am writing about one of my favorite objects and topics in astronomy, finding Big Dipper constellation and the North Star (also called as Pole Star and Polaris). Why am I enthusiastic about these two “easy” objects in astronomy? Because they are usually the objects people find first and from which people get interested in astronomy. As I was a little kid in 1980’s and lived in northern Finland (Pelkosenniemi, in the heart of Lappland), I remember watching the Big Dipper and North Star with great passion and interest. They were my very first contacts to astronomy. Ok, there was the Moon as well, but when talking about stars and constellations, the Big Dipper and Polaris were my very first objects. I am willing to write about those because I believe it might help someone becoming interested in this fantastic hobby. This might also be helpful for teaching astronomy for kids. Big Dipper is a star constellation (asterism), which is part of a bigger constellation, Ur ... Amp

Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive - One Stunning Astronomy Picture 2007-11-24 04:00:37 Astronomy Picture of the Day publishes one astronomy picture a day. There are plenty of fabulous pictures in the archive, but this one is rally stunning. This picture contains around two million galaxies which is an unbelievable amount of those giants. Even though this picture does not contain all the galaxies in the universe (not even close to), it tells us a little bit of the huge size of the universe. Just imagine how far our nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is from the Earth. Andromeda is currently around 2.3 million light-years away from Earth, and it is just one of the millions of galaxies in the universe. Think about the size a little bit more. It takes 2.3 million years for light to travel from Earth to Andromeda, even though the speed of light is around 300 000 kilometers per hour. So the universe is just huge. I keep on watching this image which is full of galaxies. Wow, our universe really is huge, so huge. Credit & Copyright: S. Maddox (Nottingham U.) et al. APM Survey, ... Astronomy

New and Recent Astronomy Findings Articles - My Top 3 Current Event Articles on Astronomy 2007-11-23 03:57:42 There are zillions of great new astronomy findings articles in the Internet. When you start surfing, you quickly find out that there are just too many recent findings articles to read. You cannot get a “big picture” and you just don’t know which astronomy article you should pick up. No worry, I provide you my top three recent astronomy findings articles to read. These are short and easy to read articles, so you can spend some quality time after your lunch break by reading these interesting findings articles on astronomy. For more astronomy findings, check out my astronomy news. If you are interested in skywatching and equipment, check out my astronomy basics and astronomy tips&tricks. Recent Astronomy Article #1 - How I Found a Comet The most interesting astronomy findings article for me right now is the one provided by Astronomy.Com. It is a faschinating story telling how comet-hunter Don Machholz found comet 96P (Machholz) 21 years ago, just by using homemade binoc ... Articles  Astronomy

Kids Astronomy - How To Teach Black Holes To Your Child 2007-11-19 15:45:44 I was driving car with my four years old son today. On a highway he suddenly asked “Dad, what is a black hole”? I was suprised. As said, my son is four now. I just wonder how did he come up with this question. I have never said anything about the black holes to him, so he must have heard it from a movie or his brother who is 13 years old. “Hold on, daddy is driving”, I said. I needed few seconds to think about this, because there is a danger if I don’t explain it well. The danger is that he understands black holes too mystique and starts being afraid of them. I needed to explain it to him so that he understands it and will not be afraid of it. Clearly I was in a trouble.. “Well, how did you heard about black holes?”, I asked. “Are they dead stars?”, he replied. Wow, I was impressed! “How do YOU know THAT?”, I continued. “Teo (his brother) has said”, my son replied. That’s it. I found the “guilty&r ... Astronomy

Sunday Video: Voyage to the Planets - Mars 2007-11-18 01:00:12 It is Sunday morning again and the time for Sunday video post. Today I would like to share this great BBC film of ‘being in Mars’. This is the second part of the whole document, called BBC documentary ‘Space Odyssey: Voyage to the planets’. It describes an imaginery mission in Mars. It is very well done and provides fabulous ‘Mars images’. BBC documents are always really stunning. This one makes no difference. Check it out! Here is ten minutes of Mars voyage for you. Check out also my previous Sunday videos, such as Astronomy Lecture (planets) or building a Dobsonian telescope. ...

Astronomy Observation Tips - What Constellations Can Be Seen In Different Times? 2007-11-17 01:00:18 If you have just recently started astronomy as a hobby, you might have already spotted constellations as such Big Dipper and Orion. Next you might think what else I could watch? Not all constellations can be seen at all the time. This article provides you the information what constellations can be seen and when. Constellations to Be Seen All the Time Let us start from those constellations that can be seen all the time. Northern hemisphere includes five constellations to view all the time. Those are Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Cepheus, Cassiopeia and Draco. They circle the north celestial pole in 24 hours. I am not providing information in this post on how to find those constellations because otherwise this post would grow too big. Anyhow, you can start finding the constellations by spotting first Polaris, the so called “North Star”. It helps to navigate the constellations. I will provide later detailed information on how to spot those constellations. In southern hemisphere the ... Astronomy