When I was asked last week about how many eclipses I’ve seen, I must respond define ‘seen’. Ultimately, I’ll answer with “1.5.” My very first total eclipse adventure in 2010, had our group missing the eclipse by 500 feet. Huh? The drivers hired to take us to the viewing site in Patagonia planned four years earlier, decided at the last minute that they had a better place for us. With totality being a scant 1 degree above the horizon, there was...

At the end of May, took another one of my slightly wacky vacations, this time to Chile and Peru. The first week in Chile was dedicated to visiting various observatories and other astronomy related sites. Due to some of the best seeing in the world along with the dry, stable climate in the Atacama Desert, Chile is gravid with observatories. Collectively these sites form the European Southern Observatory, www.eso.org. Besides visiting all of...

On  July 19, the Cassini probe currently orbiting Saturn will image Earth from nearly a billion miles away in true color. It is asked that all “be sure to smile, knowing that others around the world are smiling too, in the sheer joy of simply being alive on a pale blue dot.” And of course, aimed towards Saturn. Even if the earth is less than 2 pixels across. From the Cassini imaging team: “Straighten up, brush your hair, go outside,...

In the next couple of weeks you will likely hear much about a comet with the decidedly unglamorous name of “Pan-STARRS” (or technically: “Comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS”). The first significant naked eye comet since Comet McNaught in2007, Pan-STARRS is already visible to the southern hemisphere and brightening steadily each day. Dozens of comets are discovered each year, most quietly anonymous, meekly shining at magnitudes that require very good...

Aboard the MS Finnmarken north of the Arctic Circle. A couple of things I have always wanted to do were: go on a cruise (not one of those gaudy drink-yourself-to-the-emergency-room kinda cruises, but something a little more mellow), and to see the Northern Lights. What fun when I discovered that there was a cruise to see the Northern Lights (not to be confused with Friday Night Lights, that was a different network). I signed up almost...

I finally slogged my way home from Cairns, Australia, where I went to see the Nov. 13 eclipse. The WiFi was too crappy or expensive in most of the hotels that last thing I needed to do was upload a something to YouTube. I shot two videos, one with my old iPhone 4 that had already been eclipse tested (for your safety) and hardened at the great Patagonia-almost-eclipse in 2010. The other was using my iPad-Mini. Watch how the Moon’s shadow...