Brian Ventrudo

Stargazing Tools – Finders, Barlows, Sky Charts, the Caldwell List

A red-dot finder mounted on a small refractor telescope. This month, you find out about some extremely useful stargazing tools, namely finder scopes and Barlow lenses. These tools, finders especially, belong in the toolkit of every stargazer. You also learn about useful online weather tools that forecast the state of the skies for astronomy. And yo...

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Science of Stargazing – Star Clusters

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

Each star cluster is as distinct as a European city, each as beautiful in really dark sky as a spray of diamond dust on black velvet. Open star clusters-- sometimes called galactic star clusters-- are congregations of a few hundred young stars that have emerged from the cocoon of an emission nebula and still hang together through mutual gravitation...

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Deep Sky Tours – October

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

We look away from the Milky Way this month into the regions of the constellations Pegasus, Aquarius, and Scupltor to see a range of deep-sky sights including galaxies, planetary nebulae, and star clusters. Click here to download notes for 'Deep Sky Tours - October' (PDF, 1 MB) Click here to download audio for 'Deep Sky Tours - October' (MP3, 10.3 ...

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Sky Tours (South) – October

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

The only bright star near the zenith in October is Fomalhaut, the chief star of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The exotic southern birds—Phoenix, Grus, Tucana—are visible, as well as Pavo, which you met last month. Capricornus lingers, and its zodiacal neighbor Aquarius approaches the zenith. North of Aquarius, you find the prominent northern ...

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Sky Tours (North) – October

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

You will recall the stars of spring were fainter than the stars of northern winter. So it is with the stars of northern autumn. The plane of the Milky Way, which contains many bright stars visible in northern summer and winter, moves westward and is replaced by the sparse and somewhat bleak sky of northern autumn rising in the northeast. As you loo...

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