Pewaukee Astronomy Club

News and Information About the Pewaukee Astronomy Club and the Harken Observatory

Archive for March, 2010

Eclipses! Saturday Presentation

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

This Saturday, March 13 at 7 PM Greg Buchwald will give a talk entitled “A Dozen Years of Chasing the Shadow: Observing Solar Eclipses”  As always, the event is free and open to the public — please join us! 

Greg has travelled the world to observe 8 Solar Eclipses.  He will share photographs and videos of his experiences from places like the Galapagos Islands, China, Turkey, Zambia and more!  Additionally, Greg also volunteers at the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, home of the world’s largest refractor telescope.  He was part of the team that found pre-discovery images of Pluto taken at Yerkes.  These were very helpful in calculating precise orbital elements for the Dwarf Planet.

Here are some of his images: Continue Reading…

Things Passing In Front Of Other Things. . . Part I

Friday, March 5th, 2010

We often speak of the stars as being fixed in the heavens or refer to their motion only in vast time scales compared to our lifetimes.  But the things that truly pique our interest in astronomy involve movement.  The planets, for example, are special because they move relative to the fixed stars.  Even the word “planet” comes from the Greek word for “wanderer”.  Because things in the sky actually do move, they occasionally pass in front of other things. . . and those events can be both visually striking and provide insight into our place in the Universe.  In this article, I will focus on things that pass in front of our star, the Sun. Continue Reading…

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