Howards Astronomical Adventures
: Tales From The Night Sky
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Earth Day: Lyrid Meteor Shower
The Lyrid meteor shower (LYR) often falls on Earth Day and it’s a nice treat for night watchers. This year the nearly full moon was a problem for visual observers. While this also affects the limiting magnitude of meteor cameras they are watching all night regardless of conditions. This is last nights stack of detected…
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A Good Day
Saturday on April 20th? Yeah its been a good chill day. And a bit colder as well being in mid 50s. After a week of work good to just hang at the house. Weeded the lettuce out. Spent time watching a Swainson’s Hawks hunting in the yard. Filled the feeder. I was going to review…
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The Waxing Moon
Full eclipse the prominence’s around the sun’s edge were incredible. Naked eye visible! A week ago I was preparing the for the big eclipse adventure. Even today I still reflect on the experience of totality because it is that powerful. I thought about it last night looking at the waxing moon. I’ve not talked much…
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Afterglow: Eclipse Experience Thoughts
Tuesday I needed time to process and recover from Monday’s road trip. A total of 820 miles driven, 15 ½ hours driving time. The last 7 hours returning home I did non-stop. Since I was sore all day afterwards perhaps non-stop was not a good idea. One thing is certain: I want to experience the…
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Spectacular!
April 8th was the day, the path of the total solar eclipse would cut through the United States again. Last time, in 2017, I was in Nebraska and the weather did not work out well. In the days leading up to eclipse I was nervous about the weather. It turned out good! A quick picture…
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New Meteor Camera Online
A few days ago, Tuesday the 12th, my new Global Meteor Network (GMN) camera was officially online. I had requested and been assigned station ID US004L. It points to the SE and seems to capture more meteors than US002J so far. The picture below was captured its first night and is a rather bright meteor!…
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Two Years of Lithium Power
Two years ago I took the picture above showing I had gotten the parts together for my super battery (as I call it). The four blue cells are temporarily clamped together for a test charge / discharge cycle. Total capacity was right about 270Ah (at 10 amps per hour rate), a serious amount of power.…