lumpy darkness

Observation notes (with equipment details), photos, sketches, reviews, software tips, random thoughts, by an amateur astronomer.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2019

welcome to the library

I remember having the Red Rose Tea booklet called The Space Age/L'âge Spatial when I was 7 or 8 years old, when we lived in Orangeville, Ontario, circa 1971. That might have been the first astronomy or science-themed book I received. Not including Verne's Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea. Since then, I've collected (accumulated?) many astronomical books and countless magazines as well as atlases and planispheres. And I regularly use a couple astronomy programs on my palmtop, tablet, smartphone, netbook, and desktop computers.

  • atlases and maps
  • books and booklets
  • periodicals
  • planispheres
  • calendars
  • other materials
  • software applications

There are many books I want to read. I borrow these titles from friends, peers, or the local library.

 

THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2019

atlases and maps

Sky & Telescope's Messier Card. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2003.

  • double-sided
  • laminated

Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas. Roger W. Sinnott. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2006.

  • stars: 30 800
  • down to magnitude: 7.6
  • deep sky objects: 1 500
  • coil binding
  • shows double stars with ball-and-stick

Star Atlas booklet. Drs. Jacqueline & Simon Mitton. Ontario: Prentice-Hill of Canada, 1979.

  • stars: 4 000
  • down to magnitude: 6.5

Sky Atlas 2000.0. Wil Tirion. Deluxe Version (bound, black on white, with some colouring for objects). Reprinted 1989. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.

  • stars: 43 000
  • down to magnitude: 8.0
  • deep sky objects: 2 500
  • shows double stars with ball-and-stick

Sky Atlas 2000.0. Wil Tirion. Desk Version (unbound, black on white). Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.

  • stars: 43 000
  • down to magnitude: 8.0
  • deep sky objects: 2 500
  • shows double stars with ball-and-stick

Sky Atlas 2000.0. Wil Tirion. Field Version (unbound, white on black). Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.

  • stars: 43 000
  • down to magnitude: 8.0
  • deep sky objects: 2 500
  • shows double stars with ball-and-stick

The Cambridge Double Star Atlas. James Mullaney & Wil Tirion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. (First edition.)

  • stars: 25 000
  • down to magnitude: 7.5 (to the primary stars)
  • deep sky objects: 900
  • includes optical pairs and physical systems
  • coil binding
  • shows double stars with ball-and-stick

New Atlas of the Moon book. Thierry Legault & Serge Brunier. Richmond Hill: Firefly Books, 2006.

Stap Maps booket. Victoria: The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, 1956.

  • star charts for each month, looking north, looking south
  • white on blue, stick figures for constellations
  • some additional deep sky such as "Andromeda Nebula" and Pleiades
  • 50° latitude
  • down to approx. magnitude 5

 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

books and booklets

All About Telescopes. Fifth Edition, 1981. Sam Brown. New Jersey: Edmund Scientific Co., 1967. Softcover.

Amateur Telescope Making. Books One, Two, & Three. Albert G. Ingalls, editor. New York: Scientific American, 1974.

An Anthology of Visual Double Stars. Bob Argyle, Mike Swan, Andrew James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Softcover.

Astronomical Sketching, A Step-By-Step Introduction. Richard Handy, David B. Moody, Jeremy Perez, Erika Rix, Sol Robbins. New York: Springer, 2007.

Astronomy | 365 Days. Jerry T. Bonnell & Robert J. Nemiroff. New York: Abrams, 2006.

Astronomy Data Book. Revised edition. J Hedley Robinson & James Muirden. Trowbridge & Esher: Redwood Burn Limited, 1979.

Astronomy: The Evolving Universe. Third edition. Michael Zeilik. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.

Astrophotography for the Amateur. Reprinted. Michael Covington. Cambridge, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide. Terence Dickinson & Alan Dyer. Ontario: Camden House Pub, 1991.

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Stephen W. Hawking. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.

Build Your Own Telescope. Richard Berry. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. *

Choosing and Using a Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope: A Guide to Commercial SCTs and Maksutovs. 4th printing 2004. Rod Mollise. London: Springer-Verlag, 2001.

The Comet Book: A Guide For The Return Of Halley's Comet. Robert D Chapman, John C Brandt. California: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc., 1984. *

A Complete Manual of Amateur Astronomy: Tools and Techniques for Astronomical Observations. P Clay Sherrod, Thomas L Koed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1981. Softcover.

Cosmos. Carl Sagan. New York: Random House, 1980.

double stars for small telescopes: More Than 2,100 Stellar Gems for Backyard Observers. Sissy Haas. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2006.

An Easy Pocket Star Guide for Beginners. H.R. Kingston, compiler. London: University of Western Ontario, 1947.

Encyclopedia of Space. Linda K. Glover. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2004.

The End of Night. Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light. Paul Bogard. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2013.

Entering Space, An Astronaut's Odyssey. Joseph P. Allen, Russell Martin. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang. 1985.

Full Moon. Michael Light. New York: Knopf, 2002.

Galaxies. Timothy Ferris. New York: Steward, Tabori, & Chang Publishers, 1982. (Soft cover.)

Gravity, Black Holes and the Universe. Iain Nicolson. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1981. *

How to Make a Telescope. Jean Texereau. Translated and adapted by Allen Strickler. New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1963. Soft cover.

How to Make a Telescope. Second English Edition. Jean Texereau. Translated and adapted by Allen Strickler. Virginia: Willmann-Bell, Inc., 1984. Hardcover.

Hubble Imaging Space and Time. David Devorkin & Robert W. Smith. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2008.

Life and Death of Stars, The. Donald A Cooke. Random House, 1985.

Looking Up, A History of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. R Peter Broughton. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1994. Out of print; available in PDF.

Moonshadow: The Story of the Total Eclipse. Terry Manners. London: Chameleon, 1999. Donated to the RASC Toronto Centre Troyer library.

The New Atlas of the Universe. Patrick Moore. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1988.

The New Universe Here Now and Beyond. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2010.

Observing and Measuring Visual Double Stars. Second edition. R.W. Argyle. New York: Springer, 2012.

Observing Visual Double Stars. Second printing. Paul Couteau. Translated by Alan Batten. Boston: MIT, 1982. Soft cover edition. Originally published in France in 1978.

Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth. Jay Apt, Michael Helfert, Justin Wilkinson. National Geographic Society, 1996.

Our Universe, National Geographic Picture Atlas of. Roy A. Gallant. Washington: National Geographic Society, 1980. Included a kit with a toy telescope, star finder, and a record of sounds!

The Planets. Dava Sobel. USA: Viking, 2007.

Practical Skywatching, The Nature Companions. David Levy & John O'Byrne, consultants.

Photoshop Astronomy. Second Edition. With DVD. R. Scott Ireland. Richmond, Virginia: Willmann-Bell, 2011.

Salyut Orbital Stations. Moscow: Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 1975.

Seeing and Believing: The Story of the Telescope, or How We Found Our Place in the Universe. Richard Panek. London: Fourth Estate, 1998.

Skyguide: A Field Guide to the Heavens. Revised edition. Mark R. Chartrand. New York: Golden Press, 1990.

The Sky is Your Laboratory: Advanced Astronomy Projects for Amateurs. Robert K. Buchheim. Berlin: Springer, 2008.

Skyways Astronomy Handbook for Teachers. Mary Lou Whitehorne. Toronto: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 2003. Contributed to the addendum.

The Smallest Lights in the Universe: a memoir. Sara Seager. Pengium, Random House, Doubleday Canada, 2020.

The Space Age. Henry C. King, curator. Ontario: Brooke Bond Canada Limited, 1969. Missing cards 2, 5, 10, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 29, 42, 44, and 45. Cards 1 and 27 are in rough shape...

Space: The Once and Future Frontier. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2008.

Splendors of the Universe: A Practical Guide to Photographing the Night Sky. Terence Dickinson & Jack Newton. Ontario: Firefly Books Ltd., 1997.

the Starlore handbook: An Essential Guide to the Night Sky. Geoffrey Cornelius. Ontario: press élan, 1997.

Turn Left at Orion: a hundred night sky objects to see in a small telescope—and how to find them. Third edition. Guy Consolmagno & Dan M. Davis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

The Urban Astronomer's Guide. Rod Mollise. London: Springer-Verlag, 2006.

We Reach the Moon. Third printing. John Noble Wilford. New York: Bantam Books, 1969.

You Are Here. Chris Hadfield. Toronto: Random House Canada, 2014.

 

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2022

periodicals

Omni. Magazine. New York. Multiple issues from 80s.

Observer's Handbook. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Older editions lost or missing. Current editions: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

night sky: backyard astronomy for everyone. Magazine. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corp., Sep/Oct 2005.

Sky & Telescope. Magazine. Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corp. (1941-2005); New Track Media (2005-2014); F+W Media (2014-2019); Washington, DC: American Astronomical Society (2019-), Jan 1980; Mar 1982; Dec 1999; Apr 2001; May 2007; Jul 2007; Jan 2010; Sep 2012; Aug 2017 (with my double star photo); Jan 2019; Jan 2020; Jan 2021.

Astronomy. Magazine. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., Aug 1981.

Astronomy. Magazine. Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Corp., Aug 1981; Sep 1999; Dec 1999; Jan 2010; Jul 2011.

Discover. Magazine. New York: Nuena Vista Magazines, May 2002, cover Article: Is There Life on Europa?; Jun 2001, cover Article: Supernova in a Can.

SkyNews. Magazine. Ontario: SkyNews Inc., founded by Canadian Science and Technology Museum.

  • 2000: Jul/Aug, Nov/Dec
  • 2007: missing Jan/Feb
  • 2008: missing Jul/Aug
  • 2009-2011: all
  • 2012: missing Mar/Apr
  • 2013-2014: all
  • 2015: Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, Jul/Aug, Nov/Dec

SkyNews. Magazine. Ontario: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. https://skynews.ca/

  • 2016: missing Mar/Apr
  • 2017: missing Jan/Feb
  • 2018-2021: all
  • 2022: Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr

Sky at Night. Magazine. Bristol: Bristol Magazines Ltd., Jan 2008.

National Geographic. Magazine. Jul 2004, sun bursts; Dec 2009, Are We Alone?

Journal. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Various issues kept since 2007 to present. RASC members have access to the entire catalogue. Update! Now available to the general public.

Canadian Geographic. Magazine. Oct 2014, Canada in Space. 2013, Solar Storm.

FUTURE. Magazine. New York: FUTURE Magazine Inc. Issue #1, Apr 1978, through #8, Feb 1979. Sister publication to Starlog.

FUTURE LIFE. Magazine. New York: FUTURE LIFE Magazine Inc. Issue #9, Mar 1979, through #31, Dec 1981, except for issues #11 and #24.

 

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2007

planispheres

Stars in Your Sky. George Lovi, Suzanna P. Kane, David M. Seager, Robert C. Firestone, & Richard S. Wain. National Geographic Society, 1980.

Glow-in-the-Dark Star Finder with Zodiac Dial. USA: 1995.

The New-Way Star Map. London: University of Western Ontario, 1947.

RASC IYA Star Finder by Ron Macnaughton, English and French, print your own, based on the NRC planisphere, 2009.

 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

calendars

RASC. Several years incl. 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022. Images by society members.

Celestial Atlas of Harmony appointment calendar. Andreas Cellarius. British Library. 2005.

Skywatchers 09. Stan Shadick. Saskatchewan. 2009.

Epcot SkyCalendar. The Abrams Planetarium, Stephan Van Dam. 1993. Large format.

SkyNews Astronomy Calendar 2012. Featuring Canadian astrophotographers, of course. Presented by Sigma.

 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2019

other materials

Telescope Making. Magazines, 1 through 33. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., 1981.

How to Build Your Own Observatory. Reprints from Telescope Making magazines. Richard Berry, Robert E. Cox, & Katherine M. King. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., 1981.

How to Build a Dobsonian Telescope. Reprints from Telescope Making magazines. Wisconsin: AstroMedia Corp., 1981.

Stargazing Journal. Clarkson Potter/Random House Inc.

Map of the Moon and Map of the Planets. Rand McNally, 1958.

Telescopes You Can Build. Reprinted, 1980. New Jersey: Edmund Scientific Co., 1963. Softcover.

Earth's Moon poster. 1969. National Geographic.

50 Greatest Moments of the Space Age. The Air & Space Smithsonian magazine. 2019.

 

SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022

software applications

I have used various mobile apps and full software applications over the years. Some of these are quite old now, obsolete themselves, or would only work on obsolete devices.

Procyon X Pro. Version 1.13. Psion/EPOC operating systems. Pedro M.G. van Can & John S. Sussenbach. Bunde: Vampire Vengeance, 1994. Updated 2007 to correct Saturnian moon calculations.

  • purchased shareware
  • stars: 1 600+
    • stars down to magnitude: 6
  • deep sky objects: 8 000
    • down to magnitude: 12

RedShift. Version 2. Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Nick Maris. Maris Multimedia, 1995.

  • stars: 250 000
    • down to magnitude: 12
  • deep sky objects: 40 000
    • down to magnitude: 20

Cartes du Ciel. Versions 2.76 and 4.2. Windows. Patrick Chevelley. Astro-PC, 2004, 2019.

  • freeware (really!)
  • basic package includes
    • bright stars catalog, 9096 stars to mag 6.5
    • 10 000 nebula from SAC 7.2
    • planet, comet, asteroid info
  • Hipparcos catalog includes 118 000 stars to mag 8.5
  • Sky2000v4 catalog with 300 000 stars to mag 9
  • added Tycho catalogues (with 2.5 million stars) on Jan 2008 to go to mag 12!
  • supports the Washington Double Star database
  • good printing controls
  • orbit plotting capabilities
  • new: planning features with observing lists

Stellarium. Windows versions 0.9.x, 0.10.x, 0.11.x, 0.12.x, 0.13.x, 0.14.x, 0.15.x, 0.18.x, 0.19.x, 0.20.2, 0.20.4, 0.21.3. Linux version 0.10.5. Fabien Chéreau. SourceForge.net, 2007-2021.

  • realistic atmosphere, sunrise, sunset
  • realistic Milky Way
  • over 600 000 stars (default catalog)
  • over 210 000 000 stars (extra catalogues)
  • freeware (GNU GPL)
  • Mac and Linux versions too
  • easy to use

Stellarium Mobile Plus version 1.7.1-1.7.6. Android version. Fabien Chéreau. Noctua Software, 2021.

  • similar features to desktop product albeit scaled down
  • realistic views
  • can use accelerator sensors in mobile device for aiming at sky
  • uses GPS sensor in mobile device for location detection
  • iOS version too
  • free stripped-down version for Android only

Sky Screen Saver. Windows version 3.1b. John Walker. Fourmilab, 2006.

  • over 9000 stars to 7th magnitude
  • Moon in correct phase
  • Sun, Moon, and planets in correct positions
  • constellations
  • over 500 deep sky objects
  • shifts position of map to avoid burn-in
  • freeware

KStars. Version 1.2.5 (using KDE 3.5.8 running on ubuntu linux 7.1); Version 2.0.0 (using KDE 4.6.2 under ubuntu 11.04 natty). KStars Team. KStars KDE Education Project, 2007.

  • over 125 000 stars to mag 9.0
  • realistic sky with adjustable stellar colour and saturation
  • good zooming and searching controls, easy to use
  • built-in planning and logging features
  • freeware (GNU GPL)

TheSky6 Professional Edition. Windows only. Licensed by the RASC Toronto Centre. Software Bisque, 2008.

  • large star catalogs, extensible, 1.2 million to 1 billion
  • double star catalogs
  • realistic sky
  • realistic landscape ground or horizon
  • easily configurable FOV indicators
  • TPoint

Virtual Moon Atlas. Version 3.5c. Legrand and Chevalley. 2006.

  • extremely realistic atlas of Moon
  • shows terminator
  • Windows, Mac, Linux versions available
  • freeware

SkyTools. Version 3.2k. Windows only. Greg Crinklaw. SkyHound, 2011-2018.

  • planning tool to build target lists
  • Professional Edition, which includes real-time mount and imaging features
  • 522 million stars to mag 20
  • over 37 000 double stars and multi-star systems
  • over 1 million galaxies

SkyTools. Version 4.x. Windows only. Greg Crinklaw. Skyhound, 2020.

Where is M13? Version 2.3. Think Astronomy, 2008.

  • 3-D visualisation of galaxy
  • various deep sky objects
  • various catalogs supported
  • freeware

Astrolabe Clock. Version 1.11. TwoNineEight Software, 2015.

  • iOS, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
  • Sun position, civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight
  • Moon position, phase
  • planet positions, magnitude (including Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto)
  • star positions, magnitude

Distant Suns (Lite). Distant Suns, 2011.

  • iOS product including the iPod Touch
  • constellations, stars, planets, DSOs, etc.
  • meteor shower radiants
  • originally written for the Amiga in 1985!

SkySafari, versions 5-6. Simulation Curriculum, 2015-2021.

  • Plus edition for Android
  • uses GPS and accelerometers
  • realistic atmosphere, sunrise, sunset
  • realistic Milky Way
  • over 2.5 million stars, to mag 12!
  • over 30 000 deep sky objects!
  • double stars
  • very detailed information on objects
  • artificial satellite display
  • observing lists & Tonight's Best
  • telescope control

Solaris widget, version 1.1, on Google Play, 2016.

  • for Android by Tomasso
  • sun spot count
  • aurora indicator
  • UPDATE: as of mid- to late- 2019, no longer functioning

ISS Detector, version 2.0x, on Google Play, 2016.

  • for Android by RunaR
  • flyover predictions for the International Space Station
  • alerts, notifications, widgets
  • integrates local weather
  • pro edition includes various additional features such as HAM radio satellites and planets plus red light mode

Réduc, version 5, HFOSAF, 2016.

  • double star measurement and reduction
  • for Windows and Linux (under Wine)
  • by Losse
  • free, on demand

Clear Sky Droid (CSDroid), on Google Play, 2016

  • Android
  • draws data and images from cleardarksky.com
  • uses detected or designated locations
  • by Blattman
  • free, donate-ware

Polar Finder, version 1.34, on Google Play, 2016

  • Android
  • by TechHead
  • various reticules for popular telescope mounts
  • naked eye or telescopic view
  • night vision mode
  • very inexpensive

Occult Watcher, version 4.6, from .net site, 2017

  • asteroid occultations for region
  • preferred custom locations
  • add-in for lunar occultations
  • by Hristo Pavlov
  • free

Mars Atlas, version 2.6.0, from iTunes, 2017.

  • iOS and Mac platform only
  • features identified
  • Earth-facing plus free-orbit modes
  • telescopic views
  • by Julian James

Phases of the Moon, version 4.6.30, from M2Catalyst, 2018.

  • Android
  • main app plus dynamic home screen widget
  • rise and set times
  • illumination, distance, age, etc.
  • monthly calendar
  • download available from the Google Play store

Astrospheric, web link, 2018.

  • weather predictions with seeing and transparency
  • incorporates forest fire smoke
  • long-range, out to 7 days
  • unique graphical display
  • supports favourite locations
  • iOS, Android, web
  • requires email and code to keep location profiles
  • free

AstroClock, version 0.0.91, on Google Play, 2018.

  • rise, transit, and set times for planets, Moon, Sun
  • shows Moon phase
  • notes twilight times, the Golden Hour, the Blue Hour
  • shows sidereal time
  • Android
  • supports notifications includes widget
  • by Erractic Labs
  • free

MySiderealTime, version 1.0, by WatWare, 2018.

  • Android
  • detects GPS signalling for accurate times
  • simple
  • red display on by default
  • free

Communicator, version 0.87-0.98, by Nova Astronomics, 2019-2020.

  • Windows, Macintosh, Android
  • for direct communication with BGO, ARO, and MRO robotic telescope systems
  • Android product supports voice interactions
  • produced by Dave Lane
  • free
  • see the Facebook group for more info

Twilight, by Urbandroid, 2019.

  • Android app
  • turns screen content red, reducing blue light
  • handy for astronomers
  • free version (there's a Pro one)
  • scheduling controls
  • supports profiles

FITS Liberator, version 3.0. From ESA Hubble web site, 2021.

  • stretch and scale astronomical images
  • convert from FITS to TIFF file format
  • 32-bit
  • Windows, Macintosh
  • free

FITS Liberator, version 4.0. From NOIRLab, 2021-2022.

  • stretch and scale astronomical images
  • convert from FITS to TIFF file format
  • 64-bit
  • Windows, Macintosh, Linux
  • dark mode, at last!
  • free

COELIX Apex, version 2.124. From Jean Vallières at NGC 7000, 2022.

  • prints detailed maps
  • generates accurate astronomical ephemeris
  • generates a graphic almanac
  • elongation charts for Jupiter's moons
  • plus much more
  • telescope-mount control
  • Windows
  • 32- or 64-bit
  • English or French
  • free LITE version is scaled-down and good for evaluating

I regularly review software for my RASC Journal Binary Universe column. The apps reviewed are listed on my articles page. I do not strictly use all these apps.

 

 

 

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