The Lyrids

Updated:  I made it in to the Astronomy Picture of the Day Lyrid album.  There are some nice other pictures on there and someone even did the work to verify this as a true Lyrid and even submit additional pictures of this very meteor!

Astronomy Picture of the Day - Lyrids

I set up the cameras for the minor Lyrid Meteor Shower on Saturday night.  It was pretty slow, as expected, but I did capture one very nice fireball over the foothills behind my house.

  I also made a short video of the time-lapse pictures I took in order to capture this fireball...

The Solar Disk

  Got my solar filter and finally took my first pictures of the sun.  It's a somewhat scary process looking at the Sun through a telescope; double, triple, and quadruple-checking that the solar filter is indeed securely attached.  But, it really is incredible looking (safely) through a telescope and finally comprehending just how enormous and nuclear-fusion-y our Sun really is.  You can make out one little sun spot near the lower right edge.

Saturn Awesomeness

  I did not make this, but thought it was absolutely amazing when I ran across it yesterday on Vimeo.  Sander van den Berg did a fantastic job editing together hundreds of images from the Cassini and Voyager missions.  The Cassini spacecraft is currently in orbit around Saturn snapping stunning photos of the rings and its extensive system of moons.  Saturn is also at opposition on April 15 and it is a wonderful time to find a friend with a telescope and gaze in wonder at the most beautiful planet in our solar system.

A Boulder Side of Venus - Conjunctions 2012

  Music is "Sine 3" by the Excavacations.  Check out their new album over at Weird Forest.
http://www.weirdforest.com/store/bandPages/exca.html#object