by Jim Stratigos | May 16, 2022 | Balsam skies
Unfortunately the weather and trees made it very difficult to get any good photos last night. This time of year the ecliptic (the path the moon and planets appear to travel) is very low in the south where spring leaves blocked most of the view from Dogstar...
by Jim Stratigos | May 14, 2022 | Balsam skies
If the weather cooperates, head out around 10:30 PM Sunday to see a total lunar eclipse. The total phase begins just before midnight and lasts for over an hour. Check this link for complete details. Photo below is from January 21st, 2019 when it was -4 degrees!...
by Jim Stratigos | Apr 26, 2022 | Balsam skies
Check out the action in the pre-dawn sky this week as Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn get cozy. A visual conjunction happend fairly often and just means that the planets appear to be close together even though they are millions of miles apart. On May 1st, Jupiter and...
by Jim Stratigos | Apr 22, 2022 | Balsam skies
April 22-30 is Dark Sky Week and the International Dark Sky Association is sponsoring a number of events around the world to highlight the damage that light pollution does to our natural environment. As an amateur astronomer, I am keenly aware of the impact that...
by Jim Stratigos | Jan 5, 2022 | Balsam skies
Be sure to check out some new updates to images tab which now includes views from my new all sky camera. You can see the current image and a time lapse of all images taken the night before. We are also waiting on a new weather station so the data is not being updated...
by Jim Stratigos | Jan 2, 2022 | Balsam skies
Dogstar weather will be down for the next couple of weeks as I wait on a new weather station to be delivered. Hopefully this one will be more accurate on rainfall rates and more reliable overall – stay tuned. I also am replacing the old consumer webcams with...
