Moon - April 29 - C8 & SCB2k

Show Notes for 4/15 episode & Spring Time Doubles Observing Report

Astrophoto Insight Online Magazine. If your into astrophotography, or wanting to get into AP, you gotta check them out.

Amateur Astronomy Magazine Spring 2012 edition is out! Great mag!

Astronomy Technology Today ....THE magazine for astro gear-heads!

Orion Telescopes releases some interesting new products. Check out the LCD DVR. 

Dedicated iOS App for Double-Star Observers.

DSS Brower for iOS now has DSC capability. Check out this thread for more info.

SkiFi USB by Southern Stars recently released new firmware to support encrypted Wi-Fi networks.


Below is my observing report from tonight's show in xls format. These are all from the Astronomical Leagues Double-Star Club. Please scroll to the right to view my observing notes for each object.

Lunar Week Observers Challenge - Lunar "?" Mark

Last month, while enjoying the splendid lunar landscape, I came across a very interesting shadow and lighting phenomenon within the crater Oenopides. I posted up a brief write-up here on the blog, as well as surveyed other backyard stargazers to determine if this feature as ever been viewed and discussed or documented before. Similar to the famed Lunar "X", this feature no doubt occurs when the Sun and Moon, and thus lighting conditions, favor the angles necessary to illuminate the ridges while other areas are maintained in complete shadow. The Lunar "?", as I have termed it, should again occur this Wednesday, April 4th. Seems that this feature will only be visible on a 12.5 day old moon, when the terminator rides right along this region of the Lunar landscape. 

Now the crater Oenopides is located in the NE portion of the Moon, and you can locate it just to the NE of the great and prominent Sinus Iridum. It also helps a great deal to located the crater Pythagoras,  then scoot to the SE, right along the terminator, and you should find Oenopides.

Below is an image generated from LTVT (Lunar Terminator Visualization Tool), and is correct view orientation. Do you see the crater just about center? Do you see that curvy feature that kind of resembles and "S" just in the shadow? That's the Lunar "?" Mark that I'm referring too. Now I should note that SCT users, or anyone that uses a compound scope with a diagonal, the "?" will be correct orientation. For others, well, you will see it backwards or flipped, depending on your optical orientation, so keep this in mind.

Please share with me if you have viewed the Lunar "?" Mark for yourself! What a great way to celebrate and participate in Lunar Week, part of the Global Astronomy Month 2012 celebrations as coordinated by Astronomers Without Borders. For more information, check out their great site.

Show Notes for 3/35 and 4/2 Episodes

I've been so busy lately, but I finally have the show notes for this discussion points from the last two episodes below.

4/1/2012 - April Events Episode Links

Texas Star Party

NEAF 2012

Mid-South Regional Stargaze

Tennessee Spring Star Party

Delmarva StarGaze 2012


Moon Atlas for the IOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc)

Moon Map for the IOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc)

LTVT - FANTASTIC program to use to plan interesting Lunar events

Virtual Moon Atlas for PC 

Lunar Republic - Great online Lunar Atlas

3/25/2012 Episode Links

LTVT - FANTASTIC program to use to plan interesting Lunar events

Supernova discovered in M95

My "discovery" of the Lunar "?" Mark feature

Nexus, a new advanced wireless telescope interface

William Optics Zenith Star 70mm APO

Astro-Tech 72mm APO