Viewers in Europe, Africa, and the Middle-east will get  a chance to see a partial solar-eclipse on Jan. 4, 2011. Swedish watchers will see over 85% of the sun covered by the moon. Not as thrilling as a total eclipse, but, hey, we take what we can get.

The first total lunar eclipse in nearly two years happens tomorrow UTC, or late tonight in the most favorable location of the US West Coast, but all of the US and Central America. Europe will see the beginning, with totality right around moonset. Could make some beautiful photos with local landscapes in the foreground. A lot of news outlets are making a big deal that this is the lunar eclipse on the Winter solstice in about 4 bazillion years....

Early Thursday morning, November 18, is the peak of the legendary Leonid meteor shower. It is expected to deliver a modest 15 to 25 meteors per hour as compared to thousands at peak years (2002/2003), but fun nonetheless. Best times to observe are predawn on Thursday, but if you’re hardcore about this, you can start late Wednesday evening. Bring popcorn and hot cocoa, and of course, your iPhoneTouchPad. To commemorate this event and to help my...

After leaving my cameras in the men’s room at Gate 25 of the Santiago, Chile airport (D’oh!), it became necessary to make my iPhone 4 my exclusive camera to shoot the July 11 total solar eclipse. This posting is merely some observations about the phone’s handling in less than ideal conditions. The eclipse’s path began in Argentinean Patagonia, the most southern province in Argentina. Our target was the town of El Catafane, pop. 25000, a popular...

So I was on my way to South America last week for the July 11 eclipse, and a funny (as in really stupid funny) thing happened to me. I left $600 of camera gear in the men’s restroom. Fifteen minutes later when I discovered this little jewel in the crown of stupidity, my new Canon ELPH, and relatively new Canon SX10IS had vanished to the hands of some lucky, bas….er, “fortunate traveler.” As a longtime amateur photographer, I always yearn (yes,...

With the crescent moon and Venus, it should make for a spectacular scene. Details and times at your location: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html