Daffy Duck

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Agreed, this seems like an awfully daffy title for an astronomy article. But there is method to the madness, and there is a story. During the late summer of 2019 there was a star party in southeast Arizona that featured a dark sky and five perfect back-to-back nights.… Continue reading.

President’s November Updates

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Hello, fellow DAS members. The President’s corner is back and there’s a lot to catch up on.

First, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the recent Member Survey. We on the executive board are excited to receive your input, and are weighing how to best answer your questions and address the issues that were raised.… Continue reading.

Astro Update – October

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After its first, unsuccessful attempt to store a drilled sample of Martian rock and soil, the Mars rover Perseverance made two successful samplings of a flat Martian rock nicknamed “Rochette.” Both are now sealed in titanium tubes for a future mission to collect and return to Earth. Continue reading.

Skyward – October

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One clear evening during the summer of 2019, I was using Pegasus, one of my childhood friend Carl’s telescopes, at our annual Adirondack Astronomy Retreat.  When my cellphone began to ring, I picked it up with some surprise.  At the other end of the line was Carolyn Shoemaker. Continue reading.

Astro Update – September

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Carolyn Shoemaker, discoverer of dozens of comets and hundreds of asteroids, has died at age 92. Many of her discoveries were shared with her husband Gene Shoemaker, who for many years headed a project to search for near-Earth objects using the small Palomar Schmidt camera. Continue reading.

Astro Update – August

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The Hubble Space Telescope shut down all observations on June 13 because of a failure in its payload computer, which controls all its onboard instruments. On the ground, operators switched the telescope to use the backup payload computer, but that didn’t fix the issue. Continue reading.
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