Greetings comet-gazers, I finally took a look at Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) this morning from my site in Giles County. Wasn't visible without optical aid, but was pretty easy in binoculars. My log i

Greetings BBAA'ers, Hope you all had a nice holiday! Here's what I did for part of mine on Thanksgiving Day: I was the first to witness sunrise on land in the United States!! (Well, maybe tied with a

Greetings BBAA'ers, Should any of you find yourself in the Roanoke area, I have accepted an invitation from the Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society (RVAS) to be the guest speaker at their September me

Greetings from the BBAA Northwest, As many of you know, I accepted an offer to work at Yellowstone National Park for the summer. I'm having the time of my life out here, and it's not even been two wee

Arrived at Yellowstone earlier this week. Last night, the power went out in the dormitories nearby and the skies were clear...so what better to do than pull out the telescope and show my fellow employ

Hello fellow BBAA members, As some of you already heard this weekend at the East Coast Star Party, on Friday I received a job offer from Yellowstone National Park!!! I'll be spending 2.5 months of my

So for those of you that defied the Groundhog this year talking about the "early spring weather", I think it's pretty clear we got our 12 more weeks of winter, rather than just the expected six! And t

Hi all, I thought I'd pass word on this exciting event along, just in the off-chance that any of you might be able to come out to the Blacksburg area this Thursday: The Astronomy Club of Virginia Tech

I saw Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 again this morning (April 5). The skies were clear, so I as able to get a more refined magnitude estimate—I put it at 4.3-4.4 magnitude. The Moon is getting higher eac

If an eclipse happens and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? May the clear skies be with you, -Nick Anderson MessierThanAComet.com President Astronomy Club of Virginia Tech

Greetings stargazers, In case you all hadn't heard, we currently have a bright Milky Way nova in Sagittarius! I finally took a stab at it myself this morning (Thursday), a rewarding break from a long

Hi all, I saw an article mentioning this unique space camp last year. Coordinated by NASA folks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (in Huntsville, Alabama), the program will again be offered this sum

Happy vernal equinox to all of you in the northern hemisphere! Today the Sun is at 0° right ascension (the celestial meridian) and 0° declination (the celestial equator). May the clear skies be with y

Thanks for the input guys. Attached is the observing plan that I've put together so far, focused on highlights in Vela, Carina, Centaurus, and Crux. The objects are ordered by right ascension, but I'm

I'm planning on taking a drive down to Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys next week. Ought to be an interesting area of the U.S. to explore, and I'll have the XT8 along for the journey. Fro

I have some new website content for you all! Titled "Running late in a relativistic spaceship", this was a fun idea I contemplated in Fall 2013, which ultimately ended up being a BBAA newsletter artic

Some of you might recall last spring's major supposed cosmological finding: the alleged detection of gravitational waves from the early Universe by BICEP2—an instrument located near the South Pole Tel

Hi all, Hope you all have been enjoying the apparition of Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), and maybe some of you were able to defy the cloud gods for a view of the triple Jovian satellite shadow transit! So

Just in case any of you were thinking of lunar scavenger hunting... http://factually.gizmodo.com/theres-poop-on-the-moon-1679070982 May the clear skies be with you, -Nick Anderson MessierThanAComet.co

Got another nice look at the comet at Skywatch on Saturday. A real easy find in binoculars! George Reynolds and I were both able to spot the tail in just his 80 mm (?) refractor. I estimated the comet