Solar Eclipse of August 21

Posted on June 25, 2017 by Bob Riddle

I too have written some information about the solar eclipse, aka “The Great American Eclipse”, of August 21^st. It is my attempt to compare two different views of the eclipse. One will be from within the path of totality where I will be, and the other in my hometown of Lee’s Summit Missouri just south of the path of totality by a few miles. As a result residents in Lee’s Summit, unless they drive north, will only see a partial eclipse with 99.986% of the Sun covered.
So without further ado click here to go to Eclipsed Thoughts.

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

Climate Change and Bees

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Bob Riddle

So why the bee pictures? It’s all about climate change and the significance of these little residents that we share our planet with. A point is that climate change will certainly have an impact on the human population but perhaps even more serious will be the harm it does to Earth inhabitants like the Bee and its important work of pollinating plants.

Here is an interesting an informative video from NASA about Bees, pollination, and how the Bees are used in a study about climate change effects..

Keep informed about climate change with these smartphone apps from NASA.

Some of my Bee Pictures:

Remember: Earth is our home, our only home.

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

ISS This Morning

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Bob Riddle

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This morning I braved the chilly temperature and caught the International Space Station as it orbited a little to the north over my space on the surface.

A great way to start the end of the year!

   This graphic is a screenshot from my cellphone showing the display from ISS Detector, an extremely useful APP for Android and IOS and tablets like my Kindle Fire.




   The track across the sky lasted about 7 minutes. It started in the west and then followed a path between the two ‘Dippers’ passing the Pointer Stars in the Big Dipper on the way toward Polaris, the North Star.

   Camera Settings: 18 mm; 3.5 sec. F5.6; ISO 1600

Caution: Objects viewed with an optical aid are further than they appear.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

ISS This Evening

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Bob Riddle

Despite a temperature of 6^oF and standing in a couple of inches of snow it was worth it as Venus and Mars shined brightly over my neighbor’s laser light show and I waited patiently for an ISS orbit over my home this evening. This orbit had the International Space Station rising in the northwest and setting in the southeast in a 6-minute visibility that took it nearly to the zenith with its maximum altitude of 85^o above the horizon. It’s orbital track had the ISS pass along one side of the ‘Summer Triangle’, the stars Vega and Deneb. As it nears the zenith the ISS will pass very close to the star Alpheratz, the upper left corner star of the asterism “Square of Pegasus”. Alpheratz is actually a star in the constellation of Andromeda the Princess, but it it is commonly used to complete the ‘Square of Pegasus” asterism.

Camera settings were 18mm; ISO 800; F6.0; 3.2 sec. Pictures stacked using StarStaX. StarStaX is available as Freeware for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

ISS This Evening

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Bob Riddle

   This evening, Thursday December 1^st, the International Space Station, ISS, did another orbit over my part of the world as it first appeared in the southwest near the setting waxing crescent Moon. It climbed to nearly straight overhead as it passed by the stars of Delphinus the Dolphin, Sagitta the Arrow, and Deneb in the Cygnus the Swan, until it passed out of my camera’s field of view. I continued to watch it cruise past the stars of Cassiopeia the Queen high over the northeast horizon.

   This was my first time for seeing the entire flyover from when the ISS appeared in the southwest until it faded out near Cassiopeia. Pretty cool.
   Camera settings: 21 stacked pictures at 18mm; ISO 1600; f3.5; 3.5 sec; at 2 second intervals.

ISS Flyover This Evening

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Bob Riddle

The ISS, International Space Station made an appearance over the southwestern horizon this evening. As this map from the Heavens-Above web site illustrates the path the ISS will follow – which it did. (see below)

   Here is a stacked sequence of 30 pictures showing the path the ISS followed as well as Venus, Mars, and the stars of Capricornus the Sea Goat. All pictures were taken at: 18 mm; 2 sec.; ISO 1600; f3.5

It Was An EarthKam Week

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Bob Riddle

This past week was an EarthKam week. During the week participants are able to view the daytime orbital path for the International Space Station and request a picture to be taken of whatever the ISS happens to be passing over. This could be your hometown if the ISS happens to have an orbit that passes over where you live. The one time, so far, that there was an orbit over where I live we had completely overcast skies and rain. Nonetheless as you can see from these pictures, there is a lot of the Earth to see from the perspective of the International Space Station.
Click on any picture to see it, or any of the rest of the pictures larger. The picture may also be viewed at its full size, which for some pictures will show an amazing amount of detail. If you are familiar with Tucson Arizona look at the picture labeled ‘tanque verde and speedway‘.