Astronomy

• Total Solar Eclipse - 8 April 2024 - Images and Observations

See Minas Astronomy Group (MAG) Meeting Notes for various Astronomy Presentations

• The Brooklyn Street Observatory

  • Construction Photos
  • Angle Encoders installation on the 33 cm Dobsonian

• Telescope and Optics

  • Digital Setting Circles for Telescopes
  • Calculations of the magnitude limits

• Kepler (Two Body) Orbits

  • Circular, Elliptical, and Hyperbolic Orbits
  • Solving Kepler's Equation for an Elliptical Orbit
  • Mean, Eccentric and True Anamolies
  • Orbital Equations and Calculator
  • Solar System Orbits - Energy and Changing Orbits
    Travelling the Solar System by Changing Orbits
    .. A look into the orbital physics of moving from one orbit to another around the Earth and in the Solar System.- the energy wells and getting out of them

• Planetary Orbits involving Three Bodies

  • Spacecraft Transfer Orbit between Earth and Mars
  • Gravity Assist by Jupiter of a Spacecraft to past Saturn
    • Tisserand Criteria
  • Relative Apparent Motion of an Outer Planet

• Observational Astronomy

  • Moon Position, Phase and Time of Day
  • Sun Spots Observing and Coordinates [New: Updated and working]
  • Time on the Earth: Solar, Siderial and Equation of Time
    Dates: Gregorian and Julian
  • Planets Occulting Planets
    .. in the past and predictions for the future.. the difficulties and probabilities.

• Stars

  • Dynamics of the Formation of Stars
    Explaining the collapse and condensation of Gas Clouds
  • Stellar Luminosity Calculator

• Presentations to the Minas Astronomy Group (MAG) - see the Meeting Notes

  • Comets, M31 Collisions and Occultations
  • Hubble Space Telescope after 20 years
  • The Most Distant Galaxy
  • Supernova and their Remnamts
  • New Mexico Observatories
  • Asteroids, Comet Hartley and Gravitational Lensing
  • Galactic Cluster Collisions and Star Bubbles