Astronomy

Are you looking for the perfect declaration of love? A way to show devotion to your firstborn child or your favorite NASCAR driver? Sometimes it's hard to find the perfect gift that screams...

While the chance to view a complete solar eclipse in your region of the world is an exceedingly rare event, you are very likely to have an opportunity to see a partial eclipse many times in your...

The constellation of Cancer the Crab is one star grouping with much mythology associated with it. This is quite a distinction for a dim constellation which only those who study the stars can...

I am a school teacher, and here I will tell you my real story about the 15mW green laser pointer. In my class, I usually use PowerPoint. In modern teaching field, this is a quite useful and...

Finding a gift for your outer space fanatic can be challenging, and even though the Internet has a plethora of space-themed knick-knacks for sale, the Kennedy Space Center is a reliable source of...

Viewing a launch at the Kennedy Space Center can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for children and adults alike. Florida residents may see many launches in their lives, but for residents of...

Although it is an area of the sky devoid of bright stars, the ancient Greeks looked at the constellation Cancer and saw a giant crab. The crab is part of the myth of the great hero Hercules, one...

The particular qualities of light given off by the Sun have shaped the way we see. Our eyes have evolved to take advantage of this form of energy. The sun's output, filtered by the Earth's...

The constellation of Cancer (the crab) received its name during ancient times from the Greeks and Romans, who assigned Latin names to the star groupings in the night sky. The word "cancer" means...

If you're interested in building a telescope at home, you might be surprised to learn that you can make one using cheap, basic materials that you may already have sitting around your house. For...

Although Newton did not invent the reflecting telescope, he was the first to build a mirror-based telescope free from major design flaws. Newton's telescope, using a concave mirror to collect...

Astrophotography is a form of photography that focuses on capturing images of celestial objects. While astrophotography was initially done with film cameras, many photographers rely on digital...

The gas giant Saturn is known for the rings that surround the planet. The rings, a majority of which is composed of billions of particles of frozen water, have prompted countless theories since...

The sea level in Earth's oceans rises and falls twice per day. These times of high and low water are referred to as high tides and low tides and are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon...

Communication with the dead is a very special practice; some do it just for the thrill, fun and others to know the world of the afterlife. This remains a taboo subject as some believe and others...

A telescope forms a magnified image of distant objects such as planets and stars by using lenses or mirrors, and in some cases both. It will allow you to see things in greater detail or see things...

Saturn, the planet sixth in order from the Sun, is a giant planet famous for the spectacular series of rings that orbit around it. Saturn possesses an atmosphere that nothing on Earth could...

Glancing at the constellation of Cancer the Crab, you might see it as an upside-down letter "Y." Ancient civilizations that named the star group saw it as such creatures as a crab or a tortoise.

Whether you're gazing at the moon, Saturn, the Orion Nebula or a distant object, the magnification of the telescope plays an important role in your experience. Calculating magnification is...

Cancer the Crab to the naked-eye observer is a hodgepodge of faint stars in which most people have a hard time discerning the shape of a heavenly crab. To those with telescopes and a background in...

The constellation of the Crab, named Cancer, is one of the Zodiac constellations, meaning that is has great significance to astrologers. Astronomers armed with powerful telescopes know that this...

Cancer the Crab is an inconspicuous constellation that has nothing closely resembling a bright star. The brightest of this dim collection is a star named Al Tarf, an Arab word meaning "the end."...

Cancer the Crab is one of many constellations that require considerable imagination to see what it supposedly represented to the ancients who named it. Situated between Leo and Gemini, two more...

Cancer is a constellation that represents a crab, a dim collection of stars that the Greeks associated with the Hercules myth. Despite having very few bright stars, Cancer is of interest to...

The moon's presence during daylight astounds children and puzzles adults. The moon's phases and reflective properties are key to understanding this natural wonder.

Cancer the Crab is a faint constellation between the much more distinct Leo the Lion and Gemini the Twins. As with almost all of the other groupings of stars in the heavens, various cultures have...

Life on earth is dependent on visible light radiation. Without it, food chains would fall apart and surface temperatures would plummet; although visible light is integral to our survival and is...

This article describes how to set up and use a Meade LX200 Classic.

A reflector telescope has two mirrors. The primary mirror has a parabolic shape enabling it to gather and focus light. The secondary mirror is flat and reflects the light to a focal plane at the...

The common clock that we know today wasn't accurate until the early 20th century. In the past, clocks were constantly being corrected by sundials, a simple device for telling time used by many...

The Bushnell 565 telescope is a refracting telescope that uses convex lenses to collect light and magnify the image. Its name comes from the telescope's ability to magnify an image 565 times its...

While you can measure directly the size and mass of a planet, you must determine density through calculations. The density of any object is the ratio of its mass to its volume. For planets, this...

Of all the planets and satellites in our solar system, only Earth has an atmosphere that can sustain life. No atmosphere is close to Earth's in composition, and only Venus has an atmosphere even...

The nighttime sky has long fascinated man, leading to scientific discoveries of the eight planets (remember that Pluto was discovered to be a moon) that constitute Earth's solar system. While...

A pulsar is a spinning neutron star that emits radiation beams that we can see only when it is pointing toward Earth, similar to a lighthouse casting its beams of light over the water for ship...

The Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun to make up the Solar System. The nebular theory states that the solar system began as a huge cloud of dust and gas, which then condensed to...

Teachers frequently assign their students projects that deal with the planets in the solar system throughout grade school and even into high school. One such project is to have the student write a...

If you want to get a homemade telescope ready for use, a Dobsonian mount is the simplest way. A Dobsonian mount consists of a flat platform that holds a rotating box. Semi-circular shapes are cut...

First detected by instruments aboard spacecraft in the 1950s and 1960s, the solar wind is made up of charged particles streaming away from the Sun. The solar wind originates in the Sun's corona,...

Astronomers use parabolic mirrors for light collection in reflecting telescopes. Many manufacturers and scientists also prefer concave mirrors that are parabolic, rather than spherical in shape....

NASA recently "bombed" the moon. You may have heard this. They sent two bits of a spacecraft raining down upon the defenseless moon (seriously, what did the moon ever do to us?) to see...

Build your own telescope, and gaze into the stars. Although today's reflector telescopes have become inexpensive, nothing speaks about your passion for the great beyond like having others...

Planetary alignment can mean different things to different people. Some may view it as a row or close grouping of planets in the night sky, a purely visual phenomenon. A more precise definition...

Earth's atmosphere interferes with the operation of telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope is positioned above the atmosphere and therefore can make observations that are impossible from the ground.

Ellipticity is a mathematical term enumerating how flat a sphere or an ellipsoid is. It is used in astronomy to describe the shape of planets or celestial objects.

The Tasco Luminova Telescope is fairly easy to use. It's lightweight and transportable as well. It's considered a reflector telescope with some advanced features. Reflectors deliver excellent...

Most comets travel in extremely elliptical orbits through our solar system. As a result, they only rarely pass close enough to the Earth for easy observation. Astronomers therefore need a way to...

The azimuth of an object is its direction in the sky, measured in degrees. It corresponds to the cardinal direction on land, namely north (0 or 360 degrees), east (90 degrees), south (180 degrees)...

If you want your reflecting telescope to work at its optimum level, you need to determine the focal length of the telescope's concave mirror. A concave mirror's reflecting surface curves inward...

The path of the earth around the sun is an elliptical shaped orbit. But it should be noted that the exact path of the planet changes slightly over time. These changes in orbit can affect certain...