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Binocular night time viewing |
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By Matthew Fox on
11/4/2007
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The easy and low cost alternative for a wonderful and exciting celestial night viewing. Binoculars and a lawn chair are the only tools needed to make the most of those lazy nights.
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Collecting Micrometeorites |
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By Matthew Fox on
11/4/2007
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Our solar system is full of miniature meteorites. Miniature is probably not the right word to describe it. Micro-miniature is more like it; literally. Micro comes from the word micron which equates to one millionth of a meter or 1/25,000 of an inch. Lets try to put that in perspective shall we? This dot (.) is approximately 1/64th of an inch wide, or 615 microns. The eye of a needle is around 1,300 microns. A micrometeorite is anywhere from 2 to 100 microns. Typically they are only a few microns in diameter. It's true that any micrometeorite you find probably wont make a good paperweight but nonetheless they are just as exciting to find as a regular meteorite, and you will amaze your friends when you show them how smart you are by using such a scientific approach to finding and viewing your micrometeorites!
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Vulpecula et Anser |
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By Matthew Fox on
11/2/2007
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For the newbie this find is worth the time as Vulpecula houses two "easy to see" deep sky celestial objects. The Dumb-bell nebula and the Coat-hanger cluster are easy enough to spot with minimal equipment. Hone your astronomy skills by starting with this great find.
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Finding Your Way - The Planisphere |
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By Matthew Fox on
11/2/2007
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Planispheres can help you plan the best times to observe any celestial object of your choosing. A planisphere is a disk which shows you which stars should be visible from your location at any date and time you select. They sometimes go by the name of "Star and Planet Locator". A planisphere is simply a disk with bright stars and constellations drawn on it and a cover which has a window showing what stars are visible from your location.
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Space Weather - How solar storms affect the earth. |
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By Matthew Fox on
11/2/2007
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Percival Andrews of Tokyo, Japan has a nice project that you can work on to beat the heat, even though it involves the Sun! I would like to thank Percival for writing this months Classroom Session article, Space Weather. He takes FM Radio astronomy one step further using Very Low Frequency (VLF) technology to listen to the calls of the Sun! Read the Classroom Session article and follow the included link to his web-site to learn more about building your own, low cost, Solar Storm Radio Telescope (SSRT).
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