A Selection of Double Stars in Cancer
For our spring double star selection, we’ll say goodbye to Gemini and shift eastward to the faint constellation Cancer. Notable for its bright Messier cluster M44 (the Praesepe), Cancer is also home to a splendid array of double and multiple stars. How many can you notch? (Data from the Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS)
A Night With the Messiers
A close pairing of M35 and Mars highlights a Messier Marathon effort on March 10, 2008.
April Lyrids Meteor Shower
A bright gibbous Moon, only two days past full, will drown out all but the brightest of the April Lyrid meteors pm April 22-23.
Tracking Wildlife from Space
March Meeting with Ken Launie
The speaker at our March 2008 meeting was Ken Launie, member of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston and long time friend of Skyscrapers. Ken is a well known collector and expert on antique telescopes and also a collector of rare astronomy books and ephemera. Ken gave a presentation about collecting astronomical ephemera, including a large sampling of his observatory postcard collection. Members also displayed some of their collections of astronomically themed items.
