Shallow Skies

Observing the night sky from suburbia is a battle with obstructing skylines and pervasive skyglow, yet with persistence and skill you can still target some of the universe's finest objects for your viewing pleasure!

Sunday, September 28, 2025

A Regal Conjunction

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On September 19, 2025, a rare celestial event unfolded in the pre-dawn skies over Maryland: the conjunction of the Moon, Venus, and Regulus....

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Mercury!

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As an avid planetary imager, I've had my fair share of accomplishments, but Mercury has always eluded me. One of my goals for 2025 was t...

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Achieving a Bucket List Item

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There are certain astronomical events that intersect our lives only episodically, and Titan shadow transits has been one of those elusive mo...

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Ghost Rings

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It’s been a frustrating few months here—cloudy skies, a rainy spring, and the usual march of obligations that come with being back in the of...

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Mounting Problems

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A few weeks ago, I was inspired by an ALPO webinar on daytime observing of planets, so I decided to try locating Mercury during it spring we...

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Carbon Capture

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A few weeks ago I found that my iPolar software in my HEM27 iOptron mount was routinely crashing when trying to perform polar alignment. The...

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Eclipse Cloudout

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A couple of weeks ago, the Moon’s orbit carried it into the Earth’s shadow during the early morning hours of March 14th. This eclipse was id...

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Jim Tomney

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