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Goldilocks Moons
The search for extraterrestrial life outside our Solar System is currently focused on extrasolar planets within the ‘habitable zones’ of exoplanetary systems around stars similar to the Sun. Finding...
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Carnival of Space #232
Run, don't walk, to the latest Carnival of Space. This week's host is Vintage Space, a blog about the history of spaceflight and exploration. This is an excellent blog worth adding to your RSS feed or...
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Adjusting the clock again
Personally, I find Daylight Saving Time to be mostly an annoyance. I don't see why we need to spring forward and fall back every year. It gets dark earlier in the winter and later in the summer...big...
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IW Andromedae is a Z Cam star!
This is not a newsbreak. Taichi Kato, Ryoko Ishioka and Makoto Uemura described this system as a Z Cam dwarf nova back in 2003, in the International Bulletin on Variable Stars...
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Puckett Scores, AAVSO Gets the Assist
As most of you know, there are astronomers searching the sky every clear night in an attempt to discover new supernovae in distant galaxies. Some individuals, like Berto Monard and Tom Boles, excel at...
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Rod Stubbings- Aussie Amateur Awesomeness
Rod Stubbings at home in the observatoryI've known Rod Stubbings since 1999, when I got heavily involved in monitoring cataclysmic variables for outbursts for the AAVSO and VSNET. Rod was by far the...
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Carnival of Space #234
This week's Carnival of Space is hosted at the Dear Astronomer Blog. The site is run by Ray Sanders, an astronomer with nearly fifteen years of amateur astronomy experience and an education in...
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Exploring Mars by Scott Hubbard (a book review)
I looked forward to reading this book after the publisher asked me if I wanted a review copy, and eagerly tore into the package when it arrived last week. As you know, I don't usually read or write...
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Carolyn Hurless
Carolyn Hurless 1934-1987From the AAVSO archivesCarolyn J. Hurless was the most active and prolific female observer in the history of the AAVSO, with a total of 78,876 observations in the International...
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The Kruta Telescope- A Labor of Love
The Kruta Telescope on display at AAVSOIf you've ever been to AAVSO headquarters, you've probably seen a small Maksutov telescope in a clear plastic case sitting on a shelf or cabinet in the front...
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Hubble's 1923 Nova in Andromeda Erupts Again!
The position of M31N-1923-12c plotted by the AAVSO chart plotterOn December 11, 1923, Edwin Hubble discovered a nova in the Andromeda galaxy. Novae occurring in our Milky Way's sister galaxy are not...
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Carnival of Space #236
This week's Carnival of Space is hosted at the AARTScope Blog by Peter Lake, aka AstroSwanny, my friend and fellow AAVSO observer from down under.The Carnival of Space is a community of interest blog...
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Chicago Astronomy Weekend
It seems like almost all the traveling I do these days is astronomy related, and this weekend was no different. I'd been invited by my friend Roger Kolman to come visit him in Glen Ellyn,...
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Orange Juice Maps
Winter Star Party - Days one and twoThe Florida keys are about 1600 miles away from our home in Michigan by car. No matter how you divide it up, that's a lot of driving, about 24 hours worth. Irene and...
View ArticleIt Was Just A Tuesday
It was just a Tuesday, not unlike any other Tuesday, except I happened to be working in my office on the first floor of AAVSO headquarters in Cambridge. I opened my email and began responding to the...
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My Favorite Double Star
Epsilon Lyrae, the Double DoubleIf you have spent any time looking through binoculars or telescopes you have undoubtedly come across a double star or two. Someone probably showed you Alberio (beta...
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Reaching Across The Great Divide
Yesterday I received an email containing pictures of an Iranian astronomy magazine cover and the article pages of an interview I gave several months ago. To be honest, I'd forgotten about the whole...
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Fireflies like little variable stars
While checking out my bedroom window for clear skies last night, I noticed the first fireflies of the season, blinking and darting in the horse pasture behind the house. And it reminded me of a Robert...
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In Praise of Paper
I have fully embraced the digital age as much as anyone. I have a smart phone, I'm on Facebook and Twitter, I write a blog, I sit in front of a computer for hours each day, and I'm nearly always...
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Koji Mukai on X-rays and Dwarf Novae
This is the second time Koji Mukai has granted mean interview. The first time we discussed magnetic CVs, intermediate polars specifically. That interview can be read here. Now Koji is back to discuss...
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