Review: The Telescope by Geoff Anderson.

 
 
   Few inventions are as near and dear to our hearts as that of the telescope. Before its invention, astronomy was scarcely better than its pseudo-science companion of astrology in its knowledge of predicting the universe as it truly is. In this week’s review, we’ll look at The Telescope by Geoff Anderson out from Princeton Press [...]

26.10.09:Seeing Starspots.

We know more about our Sun than any other star because it gives us the opportunity to study solar activity up close. But just how normal is it? Recently, astronomers have been able to spy activity on other suns, teasing the data out of exoplanet transits. These are planets that happen to cross the tiny [...]

23.10.09:Fermi Pegs Gamma-Ray Pulsars.

NASA’s Large Area Telescope aboard the orbiting Fermi gamma-ray observatory continues to turn out some amazing science, picking up where Compton left off in 2002 as it surveys the gamma-ray sky. Of particular interest are gamma-rays emitted from pulsars. Pulsars are the swiftly rotating remnants of massive stars that have gone supernova, leaving a superdense [...]

02.10.09: A Small Observatory Helps with a Big Discovery.

When it comes to cutting edge astronomy, many think of lofty mountaintop behemoths, such as Keck, or the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. But how many of us think of… Gainesville, Florida? This article caught my eye this morning because its literally right in our backyard here at Astroguyz HQ in Hudson, Florida. As any would-be [...]

Event of the Week: 29.06.09: The Deepening Solar Minimum.

Two tiny active regions (light spots) just starting to make themselves known…(credit: ESA/SOHO).
Something mildly bizarre is happening on our nearest star, the Sun. Or should we say, a lack there of… This weeks astro-event is a sort of non-event, but one of the big mysteries of 2009; where exactly are the sunspots? Turning that newly [...]

Constructing the Very Small Optical Observatory.

The Very Small Optical Observatory in its heyday. (All Photos by Author).
Ahhh… eternal the lure of having ones’ own observatory. Batman has the Bat-cave, Superman has his Fortress of Solitude, and sooner or later, every astronomer heeds the siren song of having a place he and his mammoth telescope can call home. The perks [...]

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