Mercury transit Monday morning
Monday morning starting around 7:30 and lasting until 1:10, Mercury will cross the face of the Sun as seen from Earth. Some of you may recall when we viewed the last Venus transit from the helicopter pad back in June of 2012. While Venus transits are relatively rare...
Fall colors on trail 40
What a difference a day makes - Saturday was rainy and dreary followed by crystal clear Balsam skies and gorgeous fall colors on Sunday. Hopefully we have another week or so to enjoy it.
..and another Balsam sunset
Last Friday night the sunset from the Boarding House was amazing. Reports from all over the Southeast of amazing sunsets due to combination of weather fronts and favorable fall sun angle.
Just another Balsam sunset
Janie took this last Thursday from our back porch. "Lake Balsam" and clouds nicely frame mountains and sunset.

How to see 60 satellites!
You may have heard of SpaceX’s plan to launch a constellation of thousands of low earth orbit satellites to bring high speed internet service to underserved communities. He launched 60 test satellites on the Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral last week.
A White Easter
A surprise from mother nature last weekend with snow flurries all day Saturday and a dusting on the mountains above 5000 feet. It was a great weekend with friends and family to celebrate Passover and Easter.
Red Moon!
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Teaser image
This is a pre-eclipse image from Dogstar. The eclipse is going to be great! Bundle up and go out and take a look! Jim OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
A late, cold lunar eclipse
I am sure you have heard there will be a total lunar eclipse on the evening of the 20th and morning of the 21st. Unlike a total solar eclipse when a precise alignment causes the moon's shadow to fall on the Earth, a lunar eclipse is a more common occurrence when the...
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from Dogstar Observatory. It was great to see everyone at the party last night. The club staff did an outstanding job as always. Unfortunately the weather has severely limited our stargazing activities over the holidays. Hopefully there will be some...