Lunar Eclipse 2008

I’ve always wanted to take a shot of the moon during a total eclipse because it is the only time you can get stars in the background. Usually the moon is so bright that it drowns out all the stars. So I snapped a few photos tonight with my wife’s digital SLR. It didn’t have as much zoom as I wanted but I still got a bit of the effect I was hoping for. Make sure you click the image to see the large size. I’m looking forward to looking at all the other images that are popping up around the net.

The eclipse was very nice here in Minneapolis although it was cold  at around -2F (-19C). Did you get a change to take a look?

Angry gods to eat moon tomorrow

I loved Merit-bound Alley’s post title so much that I just stole it entirely. So you owe it to Joe over there to go read his post: Angry gods to eat moon tomorrow.

And then get out and experience the eclipse tomorrow!

Amateur Sky Survey founder dies

Thomas F. Droege, founder of The Amateur Sky Survey (TASS), died on Monday, February 4th, 2008. He had been battling cancer.

Tom was a unique character and TASS was a project I got involved in early in my amateur astronomy days. He was recently awarded an honorary lifetime membership to the AAVSO, something that made him very happy. I had sent this to him when he told us about it on the TASS list:

Tom, I want to add my congratulations. TASS was the thing that accelerated my interest in variable stars. The AAVSO was there, too, but it was working on new TASS variables that really lit the fire under me. I’ve enjoyed your philosophy, as well, that the errors, mistakes and misfires should be just as public as the successes. It is too bad more researchers don’t share that view.

Thanks for the data, Tom. I know you enjoyed yourself and that is all that matters.

Cassini-eye view of Saturn

Check out CASSIE (Cassini at Saturn Interactive Explorer). It uses some weird plugin but once installed you can zoom around the Cassini timeline and watch the view from the spacecraft.

(Thanks Ben!)