29.03.10-Machholz Bags his 11th!

 
   It’s encouraging to know that comets can still be found the old fashioned way. While robotic surveys scan the skies down to the nth magnitude, Don Machholz of Colfax, California recently made his 11th comet discovery by patiently sweeping the dawn skies visually with his 18” reflector. Comet Machholz C/2010 F4 was confirmed by [...]

How Far Can YOU See?

“How far can you see with that thing?” I hear that one a lot at star parties. It’s a sort of ambiguous question to an astronomer; distance varies with the scale of the structures in our universe observed, and a myriad of factors both near and far conspire to make this number an enigma not [...]