Viewing a Low Altitude Occultation

Daytime 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, [...]

Starting into Astronomy: To Buy (Or not Buy) a Telescope?

   One of the questions I most frequently recieve is “what kind of telescope should I buy as a beginner or for a child?”  Certainly there is a lot of pitfalls to avoid, and very few hands on resources to test drive a potential new scope.