MnAstro Forums

Today's WSJ had an interesting article titled: NASA's Asteroid Defense Mission. It's about the $324mm DART mission to deflect distant asteroids that might be on a collision course with Earth. Feel free to call or text me if you cannot locate this and I will send you a copy. Happy Thanksgiving everyo...

I know many in the hobby found this book to be outstanding. Terence Dickinson is releasing an all new version this fall.
See link: https://backyardastronomy.com
FYI,
Brandon

This morning’s Wall Street Journal has a really interesting review of Emma Chapman’s book First Light. The book talks about missing cosmological data at the very early stages of our universe. This read is about as “techie” as I get, but I found it compelling. Please text/call me if you have any trou...

Hi Luis, I had another idea for you which might be helpful. Under the MAS Announcements and Discussion section of our forums you can find a post made on Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 9:18. The post provides a link to a filter expert who spoke to our club during the October meeting. It was very informat...

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2021/01 ... hit-earth/

Link to an interesting short article that buddy of mine in a club down in Kansas sent to me.

Scary stuff!

FYI,

Brandon

I thought I would chime in on this debate as I get both of them. Frankly, it is simply hard to keep up with reading both of them. I also seem to find they clearly benchmark off of each other - meaning if one has an article on a topic, that topic often will appear in the other publication shortly the...

I tend to get annoyed when people confuse our wonderful astronomy hobby to that of astrology. Today's WSJ had an article titled: "Your Zodiac Sign Isn't Aligned with Stars." I was very relieved to read this as I thought the planets were controlling my life! :-) As most of us know, because ...

This Thursday's Wall Street Journal had a great article titled: Astronauts Can Withstand Longer Space Trips, New Study of Twins Finds The story was about one twin in space, the other on Earth: Biomedical comparisons show how a year in orbit revs up genetic activity and fine-tunes brain power. It is ...

Tonight turned out awesome and remarkably there were no mosquitos! Suresh, I bet you had well over 40 in attendance and I know my daughter Rachel and I had a lot of fun setting up our telescopes for the new people at this event. BSIG seems really on a roll. Nice job!

I am planning on attending both Friday and Saturday nights and I will gladly conduct training on the visual rig at anytime while I am down there. Just come find me if you arrive late. I want our fantastic new 16” SCT to get use and I do not want lack of training to be an impediment. Like Suresh sai...

This is an interesting topic. It seems all of us have our personal go-to websites for forecasts. I tend not to do deep analysis and just use the clear sky chart and AccuWeather Astronomy. However, if you want to go deeper, I know some of the Kitt Peak astronomers are using windy.com to evaluate the ...

This upcoming Thursday night I will be presenting "The Continued Adventures of the Traveling Astronomer." Several of you have seen me present in the past. However, this will be mostly brand new content highlighting astronomy travel adventures that I would like to encourage all of you to re...

Suresh, I will be coming too. My son has a baseball in Rochester, so I won't be arriving until 9pmish. I am Hoping to get my daughter and some of her friends to come as well.

Great Nancy! I am looking forward to seeing you tonight. The weather forecast looks stunning for this evening. See you in a few hours!
Hoping for an observing field full of fellow members and guests!

Kris,
I am planning on driving down to Cherry Grove on Saturday night. The forecast looks fantastic for Saturday. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
The more the merrier!!!
Brandon

Robert, they apparently took down the offer. I was able to successfully renew/extend my subscription yesterday afternoon for $13.99 and I had a couple of other friends who did as well. However, I just checked and it is no longer showing up as being on sale. I did not use any code yesterday. I just c...

I wanted to let everyone know that DiscountMags.com is offering subscriptions to Astronomy Magazine for a deep sale price (for both for new and renewals) for this weekend only at a price of $13.99. The regular subscription rate is $42.95. I know our MAS club has a discount, but nothing like this scr...

All, Take a peak at the September 14, 2016 edition of the Wall Street Journal. They had an article titled: "As LED Streetlights Spread, Some Critics Look for Dimmer Switch." I found it to be a hopeful article as New York City has stopped installing bright, bluish lights that impact sleep a...

Check out today's WSJ.COM article: "Man- Made Shooting Stars in Eyes of Japanese Startup." The article describes a startup company working to provide artificial shooting stars on demand for festivals, civic events or any occasion that calls for fireworks. They have a five person team worki...

Last night was a lot of fun at Cherry Grove. The field was mostly full. The aurora was spectacular! I wanted to publicly thank Vic and Steve for talking to our neighbor to the west. They were able to get him to try out an IDA approved light shield for one of his two garage lights. Hopefully, he find...

Below is a link to a CBS news story about preservation efforts in West Texas. The story references retrofitting bad lights to night friendly lighting with grant money they received. I have shared with some of you that I met with a member of the Dallas, TX astronomy club and they too had gotten grant...

I think Vic's comments are spot-on regarding Minnesota weather. Therefore, I am planning on driving down to Cherry Grove tonight. Hopefully, more join in as well.
Brandon

Thanks guys for the input. I'm all set now. Dick you are certainly welcome. The Alley Lutheran Church 8499 Indahl Avenue South Cottage Grove, MN 55016.
Good luck to the club for the event out at Onan on Sunday night.
Brandon

This Sunday night (8-11pm) I am hosting a "Lunatic Block Party" on the front lawn of my Lutheran Church down in Cottage Grove. I suspect I am going to have a lot of folks showing up for my "Eclipse Event." Does anyone know of a good way to explain the whole total lunar eclipse ph...

Skies look great for tonight and the Mewlon telescope has been collimated in the Sylvia Casby dome. I'm heading out there tonight with a couple other folks. The more the merrier. I will bring my scope and set up on the plaza when I'm not using the Mewlon. I know of at least one other member coming o...