RichC | October 23, 2024
My daughter Katelyn forwarded me this impressive fireball image and earthsky.org article with a YouTube video captured by people from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and even Western NY (she hinted that it was “blogworthy” … so what is a dad to do? Share it, obviously). 🙂 The meteor (??) was clearly seen streaking over Lake Erie […]
RichC | April 24, 2024
RichC | April 7, 2024
Graphic at: https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety On April 8, 2024, much of North America will experience a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse (vs lunar eclipse) is an alignment of Sun, Moon, and Earth, verse the Sun, Earth and Moon. On Monday, the moon’s shadow path will make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, cross the United States from Texas […]
RichC | October 20, 2023
At first glance, a comet THREE TIMES the size of Mount Everest speeding towards earth is enough to get my attention. After a little more reading about this “horned” cryovolcanic comet … it will supposedly pass us by without incident. Whew. That said, it will pass close enough to earth next year (closest point on […]
RichC | October 12, 2023
Mark your calendar for a couple of chances to see the Moon cast a shadow as it crosses the contiguous United States during the annular solar eclipse: October 14, 2023 and then a total solar eclipse in the spring on April 8, 2024 (images above from The Old Farmer’s Almanac). These dark paths across the […]
RichC | November 9, 2022
Skywatching and politics have little in common, unless one is stretching for a to put the two together in a morning after a November midterm election blog post. In the early Tuesday morning hours, before the election polls opened, the Blood “Red” Moon was being photographed and viewed by skywatchers — often referred to at […]
RichC | October 7, 2022
Not that I’m trying to promote astrophotographers (although have mentioned this photographer before) or the selling of things on my blog, but since I enjoy maps and space photography … check out this from Andrew McCarthy (see Sunrise on the Highlands).
RichC | September 7, 2022
Be sure to click on the photo or download to see the larger version
RichC | July 19, 2022
This is what the Andromeda Galaxy would look like from Earth … IF it were a little brighter. Very impressive.
RichC | July 12, 2022
For the good and the bad, Twitter’s AI algorithms do feed my astrophotography and amateur astronomy interests. Here’s a space photo of galaxy Messier 104 or better known as The Sombrero Galaxy. For a max sized download from NASA.gov of the Sombrero Galaxy, click this LINK
RichC | June 16, 2022
As the warm evening and nights of summer arrive, I catch myself looking up at the sky again. It may have started with a purpose back when Charlie (Kamikaze) and I were locally sailing the “Fiberpile” and studying celestial navigation before there was much more than radio directional finders (LoranC was too costly and wasn’t […]
RichC | June 9, 2022
There are days we humans need to be reminded that we are small in relation to the universe, but unique (Genesis 1:27) and loved (John 3:16) in relation to God’s magnificent creation. TIDBITS: Voyager 1 continues into heading into our outer solar system as the space probe continues to communicate with the Deep Space Network […]
RichC | April 17, 2022
No time for a post today so I’ll include an amateur astronomer’s photo of M51 – Whirlpool Galaxy from a space-oriented social network group that was impressive.
RichC | January 23, 2022
Right-Click to download the full 2649 x 3288 Hubble photograph of spiral galaxy NGC 976. It’s located 150 million light-years away, in the constellation Aries.
RichC | December 21, 2021
The planetary astronomer and science guru, Dr. James O’Donoghue, that I follow on Twitter posted a great video illustration that explains today, December 21st … or more appropriately a couple of days that occur as the seasons change. Today is the winter solstice and it marks the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. On December […]
RichC | December 6, 2021
I took a quick photo as the Moon and Venus are lit up by the sun well down in our evening sky in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Cold, clear and beautiful. Be watching for Saturn and Jupiter!
RichC | December 4, 2021
The scientific community which tracks asteroids has known about the “potentially hazardous” asteroid 4660 Nereus, which is the size of the Eiffel Tower, since it was discovered in 1982. It will pass at its closest point in 20-years on December 11, 2021, although still a safe distance from earth. The “egg shaped” asteroid may contains […]
RichC | August 21, 2021
The Milky Way Over Monument Valley, 2012. APOD/NASA This was a great Milky Way photo from 2012 and gives me inspiration if Brenda and I ever do a US road trip. I’d love to plan one once we are retired, but road trips and “the journey vs destination” (and inside joke) are really not Brenda’s […]
RichC | August 4, 2021
TIDBIT: Although Jupiter and Saturn can look “relatively close” from our perspective, they are actually 456 million miles apart. Saturn is nearly twice as far away as Jupiter. We have had a few unusually cool evenings for early August (50-60F degrees) and the clear skies have me looking up. For stargazers and amateur sky watchers, […]
RichC | December 20, 2020
For those who enjoy astronomy, space exploration or just looking at the night sky, an event know as Saturn and Jupiter’s Great Conjunction is happening on December 21st (although look in the southern sky shortly after sunset any night this month). A “conjunction” is an event that happens every 20 years for these two planets […]
RichC | September 28, 2020
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RichC | August 12, 2020
An image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is just too beautiful not to include on MyDesultoryBlog. I many not be the biggest astronomy or space geek, but I do spend time looking up at the stars in the evening. Although I didn’t get a good look at the NEOWISE comet last week (not for […]
RichC | July 21, 2020
If you enjoy nighttime sky watching, the next couple of days will have Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) at its closest point for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Hopefully the sky will remain clear and you’ll be able to see the “beautiful crescent” of this 3 mile wide glow. I’ve personally yet to see […]
RichC | June 3, 2020
Every once in a while when seeing what cellphone cameras can do, I wonder why I even bother to ever grab my camera bag and relatively expensive DSLR camera anymore? Last night the weather in Cincinnati was clear and humidity low. The moon was large and rising in the sky in the southeast and looks […]
RichC | March 31, 2020
Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain and largest volcano on any planet in the solar system. It is about the size of France (or the U.S. state of Arizona) and is a shield volcano 624 km (374 mi) in diameter, 25 km (16 mi) high, and is rimmed by a 6 km (4 mi) high […]
RichC | January 31, 2020
A wide-angle view of the solar surface from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is the highest-resolution image of the Sun ever taken, showing details as small as 30 km wide. Seen here are granules, the tops of giant convection cells. Credit: NSO/NSF/AURA Whether it is gazing at the millions of stars night sky (the […]
RichC | June 14, 2019
With the colder weather and clear sky over Cincinnati late Thursday evening and Friday morning this week, I took my Lumix GX-8 camera and 100-300mm lens out in the backyard to see what I could photograph. Not much as expected from Jupiter, but I think I could make out a couple moons in the pixelated […]
RichC | June 12, 2019
Just north of Cincinnati the sky was perfect for viewing the rise of Jupiter as the sky darkened about 9:30PM. The bright dot (photo below from my iPhone) rose in the SE sky and arched slowly until reaching its highest point due south at about 12:30AM and then moved lower well after I was in […]
RichC | October 20, 2018
Earlier in October, as well as mid summer, I’ve been trying to get a better nighttime view of the International Space Station (ISS) passing over our house. It has been tracking overhead for the last few weeks an hour or so after the the sun set. The angle was such that our sky was completely […]
RichC | July 23, 2018
The moon and Jupiter circled from my iPhone on Sunday night July 22, 2018 I have fond memories of sitting out with Katelyn when she would get out her telescope and was learning astronomy … but I do also still enjoy special nights like last night to "try" to capture the amazingly bright and large […]
RichC | July 14, 2018
It was a great week of skywatching in our backyard in Cincinnati this week. The sun magnificently lit up planets, especially Saturn and Jupiter while Mars, Venus (the brightest) and Mercury (doubtful) remained a bit low in the sky while I was out viewing. I was purposely out for Mars, but it will have to […]
RichC | June 20, 2018
Here are a couple dots from an evening of star-gazing; the photo on the left is Saturn and the one on the right is Jupiter — wouldn’t it be nice to have a telescope (hint – to my spacecamp daughter!) Actually I was attempting to get a glimpse of the asteroid 4 Vesta, which is […]
RichC | January 31, 2018
A Supermoon chat with John Rowe & Mike Hasking – 1/31/2018 Tonight is your last chance to witness a once in a lifetime lunar event. A super blue blood moon will be visible in the night’s sky for just over an hour, from 11.50 tonight. It’s the third in a trilogy of large, red […]
RichC | December 3, 2017
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RichC | November 16, 2016
The autumn Supermoon of 2016 has certainly been a beautiful sight in the night sky these past few days. The last couple of evening I’ve enjoyed the view and "attempting" to capture the using only my iPhone 5s since my son has my DSLR for an upcoming trip to Hawaii; I’m hoping he will practiced […]
RichC | September 28, 2015
A few of my photos on Sunday night of the Super Moon Solar Eclipse in the sky over Cincinnati, Ohio. Very cool. Graphic from skyandtelescope.com and usatoday.com below.
RichC | August 11, 2014
A plane flies in front of a supermoon above Westminster in central London en route to Heathrow airport on August 10, 2014. The full moon is positioned closest to the earth on its orbit in over 20 years. It is 50,000 kilometers closer than normal and 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual. The scientific […]
RichC | October 9, 2013
The U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich and National Maritime Museum awarded Mark Gee’s photos showing the Milky Way galaxy as it lights the sky at Cape Palliser, New Zealand lighthouse this year. The photo (click for VERY large) was made by stitching together 20 individual images to create this panoramic photo which as the Space.com article […]
RichC | March 15, 2012
This month Venus and Jupiter are putting on a great show and stand out in the evening sky. The warm temperatures and clear atmosphere gave me an excuse to sit outside and take a couple photos. (a few facts)