07 Aug, 2018

The first time I read Walden all the way through, I thought Henry David Thoreau was stretching a comparison beyond its breaking point. In the chapter "Spring," he writes, with quotations chosen from two separated paragraphs, "Few phenomena gave me more delight than to observe the forms which thawing sand and clay assume in flowing down the sides of a deep cut on the railroad through which I passed on my way to the village. ... Innumerable little streams overlap and interlace with one another,

27 Jul, 2018

The galaxy Messier 33 is a beautiful spiral star-city that is relatively close and therefore huge from our viewpoint, but it has such low surface brightness that it can be hard to find by telescope. M33 is also unusual for other reasons, including that a New General Catalog object resides within it. A quick explanation of the Messier (M) and New General Catalog (NGC) numbers: *** Charles Messier, 1730-1810, who served as chief astronomer at the Marine Observatory, Paris, searched diligently

17 Jul, 2018

Sunday night presented one of those astronomical alignments that can soothe the mind: Venus and the Moon were nearly cuddling, about one degree apart. [Here and above: telephoto view of the conjunction of Venus and the Moon, taken by Richard Garrard of the Utah Astronomy Club about 9:30 p.m., June 15, 2018. This exposure was made to show the part of the moon illuminated by Earthshine.] Cory and I were out to shop and walk in the park. We first noticed the lovely conjunction as we prepared to

07 Jul, 2018

We had just called on a globular star cluster and Paul Ricketts wondered where our next adventure should take place. Knowing he likes nebulas, I suggested that we try to photograph one. He chose a complex, sprawling, breathtaking example in the summer sky, the Eagle Nebula. Ricketts ordered the University of Utah’s great 32-inch-diameter telescope to slew toward the nebula, technically named Messier 16 (M16), and the instrument began to shift position. This was Saturday night, June 30. A few