Brian Ventrudo

Science of Stargazing – Galaxies

A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system made up of stars, remnants of stars, agglomerations of gas and dust, along with an unknown type of “dark matter” that has mass but does not emit light or interact with “ordinary” matter. The word “galaxy” comes from the Greek work galaxias which means "milky", a reference to the whitish path of th...

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Deep Sky Tours – November

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

This month it's galaxies, mostly, with a fine selection of double stars and a few worthy star clusters. Southern observers will also explore one of the nearest galaxies to our own, the Small Magellanic Cloud, an object without equal in the northern skies. Click here to download notes for 'Deep Sky Tours - November' (PDF, 1 MB) Click here to downlo...

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Sky Tours (South) – November

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

The Great Square of Pegasus, which looms large over the northern horizon this month, will once again guide our tour of the southern spring constellations. We arrive at the end of the zodiac at the constellation Pisces, then keeping on going to Aries, the first constellation on this band of twelve constellations along the ecliptic. We also look at t...

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Sky Tours (North) – November

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

The Great Square of Pegasus, high overhead this month, will once again guide our tour of the northern autumn constellations. We arrive at the end of the zodiac at the constellation Pisces, then keeping on going to Aries, the first constellation on this band of twelve constellations along the ecliptic. We also look at the constellation Andromeda, an...

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The Lunar 100

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

(Note - There are no downloadable notes or audio for this lesson. There are links and information below to get you started finding the 'Lunar 100'). A map showing the position of each object in the Lunar 100 (image credit: Sky and Telescope) This month, you look at the “Lunar 100”, a list of 100 interesting objects to see on the visible surface of ...

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