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It’s Sunday evening, November 1st, 2026 as I write this. Daylight Savings Time ended at 2AM earlier this morning. To most folks that means an extra hour of sleep, but to the amateur astronomer that means you get an extra hour of night… well, you know what I mean. Sundown was at 16:55 Central Standard… Read more
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On Tuesday evening October 27th, 2026, just after 7PM CDT, the moon rose here in Birmingham and passed in front of Messier 45. The wife and I (and the dog Barbie) had set up in a nearby parking lot where there is a clear view to the East; ready to observe this neat celestial event…… Read more
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There are still a lot of these around but you never hear much about them. They have been pushed aside by today’s high end APOs, SmartScopes, and all those amazing plate solving mounts. So why do I still have one? Let’s talk about that for a minute. I’ve had my Astroscan for a long time.… Read more
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I was out early this morning around 5AM and the skies had cleared up nicely. I had planned on a quick look around with binoculars but when I looked at Mars I realized that not only was it in Cancer – it was in M44, The Beehive. My grab-and-go scope is an old AT72ED on… Read more
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The video in the link below was made on Thursday, October 8th, 2026 looking SW from the Southside of Birmingham, Alabama. They were filming a large flock of Swifts when they caught a meteor in the upper part of the image as it starts to pan right. Please take a look. https://youtube.com/shorts/iJwYE7UlavQ?feature=share This video looks… Read more
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By then I was wide awake. I stepped inside and brought out my grab and go scope: an AstroTech AT72ED (first version) mounted on a DesertSky DSV-Mb alt/az mount sitting on top of an old Televue Telepod. It’s perfect for a quick peek. With a 19mm Panoptic I get almost 30^0 field of view at… Read more
