Star Gazer

August 9th, 2012

Perseid meteor shower peaks on Sunday

By PAUL DERRICK

It’s time once again for the popular Perseid meteor shower, and this year we might get two nights of increased meteor activity. The shower is predicted to peak the morning of August 12, thus there could be increased meteor activity the nights of August 11/12 and 12/13.

The best …

Big Bend Astronomers

July 12th, 2012

Hubbard to discuss Jupiter mission with Big Bend astronomers

ALPINE – Big Bend Astronomers will meet Thursday, July 19 at 6:30pm at the McDonald Observatory Visitors Center, and Dr. William B. Hubbard, Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson, will be present “The Juno Mission to …

star gazer

May 17th, 2012

Cosmic baseball region

By PAUL DERRICK

With the baseball season now underway, it’s fitting that the Cosmic Baseball region is prominent in the early evening sky.  It doesn’t take much imagination to hear the fans cheering as the players round the bases – but perhaps your imagination needs a little help finding the bases.

Baseball …

Star Gazer

May 10th, 2012

Solar eclipse May 20, transit of Venus June 5

By PAUL DERRICK

Come May 20 we will be treated to a relatively rare solar eclipse – a partial eclipse over much of the western half of the U.S. and an even more spectacular annular eclipse for the lucky ones in a 200-mile wide band stretching from …

Star Gazer – The winter circumpolar region

January 12th, 2012

By PAUL DERRICK

Polaris, popularly known as the North Star, is the star, which, by chance, happens to be almost exactly straight up from Earth’s North Pole. As such, it is the only star, which seems never to move, always being in the same place any time of night and every night of the year.

Star Gazer

December 8th, 2011

Tycho Brahe, an unlikely revolutionary

By PAUL DERRICK

December 14 is the 465th birthday of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), one of five key players in the 150-year long Copernican revolution – a revolution he didn’t even fully support.

Up to their time, it was believed the Earth was the center of all creation, a view called the …

Star Gazer – Scoping out a telescope

November 17th, 2011

By PAUL DERRICK

It’s the time of year when many are considering buying a telescope as a holiday gift – a decision many face with many questions – and given the options available, it’s no wonder.  While we don’t have space for Telescope Buying 101, we can offer some help in making the decision easier.

Cost. Prices …

Star Gazer – Pegasus

October 27th, 2011

By PAUL DERRICK

The constellation Pegasus the Winged (Flying) Horse is now high in the east in the evening sky. While it’s difficult to visualize a horse, with or without wings, the well-known Square of Pegasus is distinctive and easily recognized.  Four reasonably bright stars form an almost perfect square.

Jupiter, the brightest object in the east, …

Star Gazer, Mystery meteor sightings

October 13th, 2011

By PAUL DERRICK

Recently, Sonya Moyer of Boyertown, PA, emailed me asking about a mysterious night sky sight she couldn’t identify.

She wrote: This morning around 5 a.m., I saw an amazing sight. I was sitting on my back porch facing southeast looking at the stars.  A little above Orion a star just “swelled up” and seemed …

Star Gazer – Comet Elenin and other fables

September 22nd, 2011

By PAUL DERRICK

With my BA, MSW, and PhD degrees in the behavioral sciences, one would think I should have greater insight into a certain perplexing human behavior, one that overlaps with my vocational field of astronomy. In the two decades I’ve been writing “Stargazer” and presenting astronomy programs, I’ve been asked numerous times about “threats” …