Saw some old friends last night.  Was a decent night viewing the Moon, Mars and Saturn.
Until the fireworks got too loud, then called it a night.

Hmm don't know how black holes in center of galaxies work but this one looks like it decided to leave home or was booted.

http://www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=1085

Jupiter has always had two major stripes or bands, they could be seen with very modest scopes.  Remember seeing them as a kid in my father's very small scope.  Very recently and mysteriously one band has vanished.  Read more about it at:

science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/20may_loststripe/ 

Interesting article about computer modeling to explain how the various galaxy shapes (spirals, ellipticals...) evolve.

Galaxies

As history has shown the universe gets bigger with the more we know. First flat earth, earth centered, celestial sphere, solar system, milkyway, galaxies, galaxy clusters, then super clusters. Now something big beyond the visible universe, our universe could be just like a bubble/molecule in a huge multi-verse ( Read more... )

Technology today is amazing.  This is not the astronomy I did with my father when I was growing up.  With a tiny 4.5 inch mirror and a little bit of silicon and a laptop it's amazing how you can gather up enough photons from galaxies tens of millions of light years away. 
We had a nice imaging session April 20 with a couple of members of my ( Read more... )