The Kalamazoo Valley Museum planetarium will be changing shows this weekend, starting tonight (Friday) with the Led Zeppelin show starting at 8:00 PM. Tomorrow (Saturday) the Mystery of the Missing Moon will run at 1:00 PM, Orion Nights will run … Continue reading →

On the night of August 14th a nova or “new star” appeared at the edge of the constellation Delphinus. The star brightened enough to be visible to unaided eyes for a few days, but has since faded so that now … Continue reading →

One of the highlights of the summer sky is a cloud of gas called the Lagoon Nebula. It is barely visible to the unaided eye, but easily seen with a pair of binoculars. The pink color is due to the … Continue reading →

M92 is an example of a globular star cluster. This cluster is a collection of tens of thousands of stars clumped together forming a globe of pinpoints of light. There are dozens of these clusters that can be viewed in … Continue reading →

Alberio, a blue and yellow star.  The double star Alberio marks the head of Cygnus, the Swan. It is high in the sky after midnight. You will need a telescope to see the two stars side by side, they are … Continue reading →

M57, the Ring Nebula, is a shell of gas surrounding a white dwarf star. The hot white dwarf star radiates ultraviolet light which excites the gases in the shell, causing them to glow in visible light. This image is very … Continue reading →

Finally got a galaxy other than M31 and the Milky Way! To get the object centered, I used the telescope setting circles. I set them on Arcturus, the brightest star in that area. Then I moved the telescope to the catalog … Continue reading →

200mm f/10, 10mm eyepiece projection single image, 3 sec exposure @ ISO 800. There’s a hint of the Cassini gap in the rings at the sides. Getting a precise focus, a steady moment, and a good exposure only took about 50 … Continue reading →