http://theodorakis.net/astroblog Amateur astronomy weblog Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:13:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 22 April 2009: Moon and Venus Conjunction An occultation of Venus by the waning crescent moon early in the morning was visible in much of the western part of North America this morning. I didn't get up early enough to see it; in fact, it was so cloudy last night that ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2009/04/23/venus-and-the-crescent-moon/ 31 December 2008: Double Conjunction Tonight just after sunset a double conjunction was visible: the crescent moon with Venus nearby, and, close to the horizon, Jupiter and Mercury. Around 6:00  pm I could all four objects from my backyard in the twilight of the setting sun. Venus and the Moon were ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2008/12/31/new-years-eve-conjunction/ 28 December 2008: Various nebulae It was a clear night, and not too cold, at least, by comparison to the rest of the month. I haven't done much observing lately (other than a quick look at Jupiter with my my small Dob a few weeks ago, that I didn't blog about),  ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2008/12/28/various-deep-space-nebulae/ 20 February 2008: Lunar Eclipse A total lunar eclipse was forecast for tonight. Earlier this day, I had poor hopes for good visibility; it was snowing when I woke up (the kids; school district called for a two hour delay, which just messes up everyone's schedule) and the sky was completely ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2008/02/21/lunar-eclipse-2008/ 25 December 2007 Around 10:00 pm I had few quiet moments. I had spent much of the day cooking (roast beef, pastitsio, roasted potatoes, and stewed green beans) and cleaning up. After dinner I watched It's a Wonderful Life with my daughters—one of them hadn't seen it before, and the other ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2007/12/26/christmas-day-2007/ 30 November 2007: Early morning naked-eye observations Around 6:30 am I was outside to let the dog out. The sky was still dark, and it was crisp and clear. I looked around and saw the moon (about half-full), Mars, Saturn, and Venus (shining like a bright jewel in the eastern sky) ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2007/11/30/venus-in-the-daytime/ 28 November 2007: Comet Holmes, Mars Over the last few weeks either circumstances or weather conspired to keep me from tracking Holmes, but tonight I had a chance and the sky was clear with only a few high clouds scattered about. Around 7:30 I scanned the area around Perseus with my ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2007/11/30/comet-holmes-3/ 4 November 2007 After a lot of messing around with the CSS for this blog, I think I finally got it to look something close to the way I wanted it, with only some minor glitches. http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2007/11/05/tweaking-the-look/ 2 November 2007: Comet Holmes This was my third night that I observed comet 17P/ Holmes (The first two observations were on Oct 28 and Oct 29). Around 10:30 pm I went outside to look at the sky. It was pretty clear; some scattered clouds were about, and the seeing ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2007/11/03/comet-holmes-2/ 29 October 2007: Comet Holmes Around 9:30 tonight I took the 10 in. Dob out for another quick look at comet Holmes. It looked much the same as it did yesterday, with the exception that there was only one bright point of light (perhaps the nucleus) just off-center. So yesterday's observation ... http://theodorakis.net/astroblog/2007/10/30/comet-holmes/