"Stargazing In Upstate New York" – Links To The First Two Columns At newyorkupstate.com And syracuse.com

Free press all around,

In the interest of aggregation, quick post linking the first two in a new series of astronomy articles on newyorkupstate.com and syracuse.com. There's an old adage in academia – "You don't really know something until you can teach it." To that end, these articles and their associated research prep are great fun and yet another excellent excuse to go out at night and compare the planetarium apps to the real thing (for which both Starry Night Pro and Stellarium are excellent organizational proxies. I'm currently leaning on Stellarium for the imagery because others who might get bit by the astronomy bug can download it for free and follow along. That said, Starry Night Pro is still my workhorse for fine detail as Stellarium continues to develop).

2016july1_scorpius

When the article series was first proposed, the goal for the Syracuse Media Group folks was to provide people in upstate some basic information for what was up and about in the night sky – when you step outside, what's there to find? My hope is to provide the non-observer and novice observer just enough information to whet the appetite, hopefully coaxing readers to take some quality looks and, if all goes well, to seek out their local astronomy club for some serious observing – and learning.

Night sky-gazing in Upstate NY: What to look for in July

– newyorkupstate.com article @ newyorkupstate.com…_look_for_in_july.html

– syracuse.com article @ syracuse.com…_look_for_in_july.html

Introducing the article organization, with first looks, spotting the International Space Station (ISS), moon phases, visible planets, and a constellation-a-month identifier to close it all.

Stargazing in Upstate NY in August: See the Milky Way, Perseid meteor shower

– newyorkupstate.com article @ newyorkupstate.com…_meteor_shower.html

– syracuse.com article @ syracuse.com…_meteor_shower.html

The series started just in time to highlight the Perseid Meteor Shower (and get its first linking to thanks to Glenn Coin's article as we approached the Perseid peak), then August was chock full of interesting planetary events. The August article was also a first exposure to the issues of episodic astronomy – how to be as minimally referential as possible in any single article to previous articles (which is not easy given how much the search for constellations historically has involved the finding of a bright one to orient observers to a dimmer one).

July hit 78 shares on newyorkupstate.com, August hit 4400 – at that rate, the whole world will see the October article.

"Stu's Last Lesson" – Sky & Telescope's Focal Point For December, 2014

As posted on the CNY Observers website (direct link).

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

2014oct23_stuDr. Stuart Forster (a.k.a. STU – full caps) was one of the THE fixtures in the CNY amateur astronomy scene and his name still comes up regularly, often as part of some pearl of wisdom being imparted to new observers and seasoned members alike (I'll leave you to read the top of the Stuventory page for more info about STU and to check out links to some of his images on the Syracuse Astronomical Society website). The trials and tribulations of Ryan Goodson and myself to handle the massive equipment collection we've come to refer to as the "Stuventory" is olde hat to local observers who've kept track of the process from a far. The sorting, documenting, and distribution of the Stuventory has taught us both about how very unique the hobby of amateur astronomy can be when you step beyond the 1×7 mm binoculars in your head and effort the collection of more and more photons.

To that end, and to prod others to recognize the complexities of sorting through the mound of gear inhabiting their basements, garages, and domes by those who follow when the unexpected happens, I am honored to have an article on the topic, "Stu's Last Lesson," included as the December 2014 Focal Point in Sky & Telescope magazine.

 

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The article can be distilled to a single, all-encompassing message – Imagine you not being around to help your family unload your astro gear, then take steps to simplify their lives. Think about all the boxes, hex wrenches, leftover focusers and brackets from your modifications to other scopes, eyepieces (eyepieces!), cables, controllers, everything, and organize it all, either in a notebook or with a bunch of pics and notes on your smartphone.

If you read the article and have other ideas on how to help organize your equipment, by all means let others know (post a comment here, write a letter to the editor with your ideas, start a cloudynights.com thread, etc.). In the meantime, I hope the article gives you the impetus to block out a Saturday afternoon listening to astronomy.fm as you commit your astronomical obsession to pen and paper (or keyboard and monitor). Better still, I'm pleased that readers of Sky & Telescope (of which he had the full collection back to 1964) will learn a little bit about one of CNY's great amateur astronomers.