I’ve been busy working on the blog site and have added a number of things that should be useful to visitors. Here’s the run down.

After having been removed several months ago due to issues it had with the WordPress site theme, the Events Calendar makes its return.  You can now check on specific dates for astronomical events, star parties and much more on the calendar or give a glance at the “upcoming events” in the right-hand column on the home page. The calendar still needs to have events added but April and May are done.

Next up is both a link in the main menu and social media icons to both the Scott’s Astronomy Page Facebook Group page and Twitter accounts. The Twitter account has been featured on the site now for some time but not the Facebook Group page. I recently made the Facebook page public in order to allow for visitors of the blog site to access, join and follow the site. I have to admit the Facebook Group site does get updated more frequently than the blog. So Join, Follow and Share!

Next up is the Astronomy News page.  I added this content a few months ago but didn’t really advertise the fact that I had done so. Through the miracle or RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) I’ve pulled in content (specifically astronomy and space related news and podcasts) into one page making it easy to access. I still plan more tweaks for the page as I’m not entirely in love with the look.

Then there is the new Astro Data Sets page which provides a great deal of information for folks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  On this page you’ll find a Moon phase chart which also includes morning and evening twilight, moon rise and set and sun rise and set times all in tabular form and predicted out for the next 10 days.

Also on the Astro Data Sets page is the Planetary Data table which shows each planet and gives its rise and set times, the time the planet crosses the meridian as well as the constellation the planet is in and a visibility prediction. And if that is not enough the same page has a 10 day International Space Station prediction grid and visible iridium flares table showing those flares that can be seen in the next seven days. Again, all of this is specific to the DFW area.

Last but not least there is now a Current Sky Map page which displays the sky for the DFW area as it exists the moment you load the page. The link for the sky map is in the menu under the Astro Data Sets listing. This can be a helpful guide for you to pull up and then head outside to pin point an object in the sky.

Not in the DFW area are you? No worries. There is also a link on this page for those not in the DFW area to go to and pull up a map for their neck of the woods. This map is provided by Astro Viewer.

I enjoyed adding all this new content and welcome your feedback. Thanks for checking out the blog! Shoot me a comment and let me know what you think.