Almost 50 years ago the famous Apollo 8 mission to the Moon was well underway. It was Christmas Eve 1968 and the spacecraft had just entered lunar orbit that same day. That evening, astronauts Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.” They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis. You can relive that historic moment by clicking the video below. Merry Christmas!
There’s nothing like getting a new telescope! The anticipation of the delivery and then once it does arrive the pure excitement of unboxing your new instrument. Yes, it’s like Christmas and your birthday all wrapped into one. After the boxes have been cast aside and a rough assembly takes place we turn our attention to the instruction manual for all the “hmm, I wonder where this fits?” or maybe “I know this is the thing that goes on here but why is it not staying on?” We’ve all been there at some point. Time to consult the manual. My Dad always used to say “If all else fails, read the directions!”
I myself enjoy instruction manuals for all things electronic and of course that means telescopes to. You know you’re a nerd when you actually look forward to kicking back with a nice cup coffee and reading through the entire instruction manual page by page whether it be a hard copy or online in PDF form.
A total lunar eclipse will be visible (weather permitting) from the North Texas area early on the morning of Wednesday, January 31, 2018. Here are the eclipse event times (CST) specific to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
4:51 a.m. Penumbral Eclipse begins
5:48 a.m. Partial eclipse begins with Umbra making contact
6:51 a.m. Total eclipse begins
7:20 a.m. Maximal Eclipse for DFW area
7:24 a.m. The Moon sets for DFW area
7:26 a.m. Full Moon occurs for DFW (occurs below horizon for DFW)
Current amateur astronomy information such as points of interest and events in the night sky, star party dates, educational information, telescopes buying tips and much more.
