Science on Your Desktop May 14, 2008
Posted by webmaster in : Real Science you can do , add a commentLast week’s answer: Our luckless Venus transit astronomer was none other than 18th century French scientist Guillaume Le Gentil. Had he been successful, he would have no doubt been a more recognizable name today!
Courtesy, Flickr.
The Contributions of Amateur Astronomers to Modern Science November 19, 2007
Posted by webmaster in : Real Science you can do , add a comment(Author’s note; the essay below was a paper submitted recently by yours truly as part of my quest for a bachelors degree in science teaching. I’ve posted it here pretty much intact. Some explanations on the graphs have been expanded; I thought it was a shame for all of my research on the subject to go to waste. The bibliography is also included.)
Today, the modern science of astronomy is growing like never before. New technologies are opening up unseen vistas scarcely imagined just twenty years ago. (more…)
Viewing a Low Altitude Occultation June 21, 2007
Posted by webmaster in : Real Science you can do , 5 commentsDaytime Moon & Venus. Photo by Author.
This past Thursday, I got an e-mail from Sky & Telescopes’ automated alert system; Monday, the 18th of June, there would be an occultation of Venus by the Moon visible from extreme northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes. This occultation would also span the Atlantic, Europe, and into Asia, but would be especially difficult to spot from the continental US (what we in the miltary refer to as ConUS) due to its extremely low elevation in the day time sky.

