Astro-Challenge: Spotting Slender Moons

By David Dickinson - April 17, 2019 12:43 PM UTC | Observing
Up for a challenge? Some of the toughest targets for a backyard observer involve little or no equipment at all. Northern hemisphere Spring brings with it one of our favorite astronomical pursuits: the first sighting of the extremely thin, waxing crescent Moon. This unique feat of visual athletics may be fairly straight forward... but it's tougher than you think. The angle of the evening ecliptic in the Spring is still fairly high for mid-northern latitudes, taking the Moon up and out of the weeds as a waxing crescent.
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SOFIA Follows the Sulfur for Clues on Stellar Evolution

By David Dickinson - April 10, 2019 10:34 AM UTC | Stars
A high-flying space telescope is shedding light on where some of the basic building blocks for life may have originated from. A recent study led by astronomers currently at the University of Hawaii, including collaborators from the University of California Davis, Johns-Hopkins University, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Appalachian State University, and several international partners, including funding from NASA, looked at a lingering mystery in planet formation: the chemical pathway of the element sulfur, with implications for its role in the formation of planets and life.
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See the Moon Photobomb Saturn in an Amazing Capture

By David Dickinson - April 03, 2019 11:04 AM UTC | Observing
It's always awe-inspiring to see the clockwork motion of the heavens, transpire in real time. In a slow motion Universe, occultations give us the chance to see the cosmos pull off a celestial hat trick. This happen in a blink of an eye type event such as when the Moon, a planet or an asteroid winks out a distant star, or transpire as a leisurely affair as the Moon covers, then uncovers the disk of a planet.
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