Jellyfish Nebula, originally uploaded by david parmet.

The Boy Genius and I were visiting my neighbor Doug Baum the other night. Doug is the inventor of the BIPH – aka the Binocular Photon Machine – a light amplification device that brings jaw-dropping views to even the most mundane telescopes.

Doug, his own Boy Genius, my Boy Genius and I retired to Doug’s observatory to do some astrophotography. Doug’s got a Takahashi FSQ-106 set up purely for CCD astronomy. You can see some of his photos here.

The above image was created by my little guy with some encouragement from Doug and his guy. It’s a five minute exposure with some refinement and polishing post-processing. The Jellyfish – IC 443 – is 2,000 light years from Earth.

One of the true revolutionary trends in amateur astronomy is the availability of inexpensive and high-quality CCD cameras – leading to pictures that rival those created by the professional astronomers of only a few decades ago. Just compare the above image to the one on the Wikipedia entry (link above). Imagine what we could have done if we had a half hour.

Now that I’m using an LX-200, I can understand the logic of setting up a semi-permanent (or permanent) structure to house a telescope and accessories. It’s certainly easier on the back.

DSC_0040, originally uploaded by david parmet.

Orion is chock full of interesting things to look at. Everyone knows the Great Nebula – M42 and it’s neighbor M42, but there’s also the Flame and Horsehead Nebulea as well as a host of interesting stars, star clusters and other things to look for.

You can scan the region of Orion’s belt and sword (pictured above) with a good pair of binoculars and see the Great Nebula. Orion is up in the East this time of year – you can catch it just after sunset right above the horizon.

Moon-1.31.10, originally uploaded by david parmet.

You might have noticed that the Moon looks awfully large this week. In fact you are correct. The Moon is at perigee – at the point in its orbit that it is closest to the Earth.

At this point, the Moon is a couple ten thousand miles closer than it is at apogee, the furthest from Earth. And its roughly 14% larger than normal.

So if you felt a bit loony this week, blame the Moon.

More information at Moon Connection.

My first attempt at serious astrophotography.

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by david parmet.

This here puppy arrived last month. A neighbor of ours bought it on a whim several years ago. He never figured out how to get it working and so here it is, currently living in my office but making frequent trips to the back deck. The electronics are shot but even using it manually is a pleasure.

The scope is rated at f10; looking through it with anything smaller than a 12mm eyepiece is like looking through a straw. My 32mm gives me fantastic views of the Moon, Saturn and Mars and many DSOs.  I’m still figuring this big baby out but having a great time doing it.

Slate’s Emily Bazelon admitted her own astronomical ignorance and wondered why her children were so fascinated by the stars and planets.

Needless to say, she was promptly schooled by her readers and the resulting article is a great introduction to astronomy resources on the web.

The sign of a perfect star party – the company, the equipment, the quality of the sky and the number of targets you can check off from your list. Last night had a bit of everything.

The Westchester Amateur Astronomers gather monthly at Ward Pound Ridge in Cross River to enjoy the dark skies. Last night we started with a 20 hour old Moon and quickly moved on to Mercury, the Orion Nebula, the Beehive and (my own personal long-time, never realized White Whale) the Leo Triplet (which I might add I managed to find manually).

And all night long we enjoyed great views of Saturn from the variety of telescopes assembled.

The clear skies are expected to continue at least for tonite, so I’ll be out late again.

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• Welcome to The International Year of Astronomy! (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
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• Life and Death in Orion (via The 365 Days of Astronomy, the daily podcast of the International Year of Astronomy 2009) (c2.libsyn.com)

DSC_0073, originally uploaded by david parmet.

Astronomy is one of those esoteric hobbies that have pretty much been saved by the Internet. Online retailers like Orion Telescopes have thrived where once we only had mail order and a few retail stores in major cities from which to purchase the tools of our trade.

And like other hobbies down the far end of the Long Tail – it’s a lot easier for us all to find each other online than it was back in the day when all we had was a subscription to Sky & Telescope.

NEAF – the North East Astronomy Forum – is the SXSW of amateur stargazing. Every April the Rockland County Astronomy Club throws a two day shindig in the bowels of a Community College gymnasium and thousands of the faithful come from all over the North East to gaze and paw at the latest in telescope gear.

This is a ‘hold on to your wallet’ event – unless you have a few grand in the bank, it’s hard to come back from NEAF with much of anything. But in addition to the vendors, there are demonstrations of archaic skills like mirror grinding and collimation. And the schwag is second to none.

So if you are a stargazer and live in the North East, don’t miss NEAF.

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Taken at NEAF

DSC_0018, originally uploaded by david parmet.

Spring always arrives with Leo the Lion rising in the East as Orion the Hunter leaves the scene, setting in the west. So for the next few weeks I have both right outside my back door and it’s almost warm enough to stay outside for an extended viewing session.

The last few nights have been perfectly clear – tonight is looking good as well.