Why would I want to write something insulting about Jupiter? After all, Jupiter is the first thing I looked at through a telescope. Only last month I wrote how, when I began searching for comets, I was looking for an activity that did not involve me dealing with other people.… Continue reading.
A few minutes before midnight on 17 December 1965, I began a program of hunting for comets and exploding stars, or novae. I recall writing at the time that when I began, the interest would primarily be in comets. It still is, even though I independently discovered Nova Cygni 1975 (V1500 Cygni), and a second nova Cygni (V1668 Cygni) in 1978.… Continue reading.
Can you be friends with a comet? Yes! Of course. I like to imagine that I can. Of the 241 comet friends I have observed since I first spotted Comet Ikeya-Seki in October of 1965, Comet 3I/ATLAS has got to be one of my favorites. … Continue reading.
David H. Levy
Torah study, a meeting among friends and members, takes place on most Saturday mornings. It is the only time that I try to awake before noon. It is a program of Beth Shalom Temple Center, our synagogue. During each two-hour session we continue our discussion of the Torah, which is composed of the first five books of the Bible.… Continue reading.
David H. Levy
Palomar Mountain Observatory.
Last month I drove all the way from my Vail, Arizona home to Palomar Mountain Observatory. As most of this column’s readers know, I have visited this place many dozens of times from my first encounter in March of 1974, and regularly from the late summer of 1989 to the late spring of 1996.… Continue reading.
By David H. Levy
For the last few nights I have been looking in one particular direction of the sky: the northeast. Over a period of four nights, I have noticed a faint glow in that direction. It wasn’t bright, certainly nothing about which to write home, but it was the aurora borealis. … Continue reading.
by David H. Levy
A Total Eclipse of the Sun, part Two.
This is a story, not a report on observations.
On April 8, a total eclipse of the Sun tracked across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Most of the United Staes enjoyed clear weather, and most of Canada did too.… Continue reading.
David H. Levy
As I am writing this April 2024 edition of Skyward, in less than a month there will be a total eclipse of the Sun. The Moon’s great shadow will trace a path across North America, including the United States, and Eastern Canada.… Continue reading.
by David H. Levy
In the autumn of 1976, my first, “practice wife” and I visited Safed in northern Israel. In addition to being shown a 400-year-old Torah, we were introduced to the idea that Jewish mysticism, known as “Kabbalah”, got its start and flourished there.… Continue reading.
David H. Levy
This month I have a story to tell. A few nights ago two close friends from Plattsburgh, Ed Guenther and Wendy Gordon, enjoyed a very pleasant wintertime visit with me. During that time another close friend, David Rossetter, drove us to the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex in southeastern Arizona.… Continue reading.