Space and astronomy news
Host: Scott Lewis
Astronomers: Gary Gonella, Roy Salisbury, Nicole Gugliucci
We hold the Virtual Star Party every Sunday night as a live Google+ Hangout on Air. We begin the show when it gets dark on the West Coast. If you want to get a notification, make sure you circle the Virtual Star Party on Google+. You can watch on our YouTube channel or here on Universe Today.
Sunday’s Virtual Star Party felt like a reunion, with Mike Phillips, Gary Gonella, and Roy Salisbury supplying images and Scott Lewis co-hosting. We were joined by newcomer James McGee streaming a beautiful view of the Moon – when it wasn’t blocked by his apartment tower.
The Moon was just past full, so it commanded attention, but we still got a beautiful view of some fainter nebulae, galaxies and star clusters.
Astronomers: Mike Phillips, Gary Gonella, Roy Salisbury, James McGee
Hosts: Fraser Cain, Scott Lewis
Objects: The Moon, Pac Man Nebula, Eagle Nebula, Swan Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, M15 globular cluster, Dumbbell Nebula, Veil Nebula and more.
We hold the Virtual Star Party every Sunday night when it gets dark on the West Coast of North America. You can watch it live on Universe Today, on Google+, or from the Universe Today YouTube Channel.
We’ve got a pretty bright Moon, but that just means we’ve got another target for the Virtual Star Party.
Tonight we had beautiful views of the Moon from David Dickinson and Cory Schmitz, and then some deep sky objects from Gary Gonella and Cory. We saw Andromeda Galaxy, Bubble Nebula, Swan Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, Dumbbell Nebula. And some viewers shared their photographs, including some amazing images of the International Space Station.
Host: Fraser Cain
Astronomers: Cory Schmitz, Gary Gonella, David Dickinson
We hold the Virtual Star Party every Sunday night as a live Google+ Hangout on Air. We begin the show when it gets dark on the West Coast. If you want to get a notification, make sure you circle the Virtual Star Party on Google+. You can watch on our YouTube channel or here on Universe Today.
Another wonderful Virtual Star Party, this time with 6 astronomers broadcasting their view of the night sky live. We had amazing views of Saturn, the Ring Nebula, M27, and M17 the Swan Nebula (also known as the Lobster or Horseshoe Nebula). We also caught great views of NGC-896, NGC-869, and the M56 Cluster. Then we got some beautiful views of the Veil Nebula and discussed the benefits of image-stabilized binoculars.
This was also the first time were joined by Scott Ferguson, who delighted us with his dark sky views from the west coast of Florida. His views of the Pelican Nebula (NGC-6996) were gorgeous and unique.
Continue reading “Virtual Star Party – October 6, 2013”
This week the Virtual Star Party crossed off one of the items on my bucket list: star trails. During the star party, Cory Schmitz kept the shutter going on his Canon 5D and took a series of images of the stars turning around the celestial North Pole. Once the timelapse was complete, we had a beautiful set of star trails, showing how much the Earth rotates during an hour.
The Upside Down Astronomer Paul Stewart jumped in with an amazing view of the Sun from New Zealand. We could see prominences and granules on the surface of the Sun, especially when he zoomed in.
And while all this was going on, we also got a chance to see beautiful clusters, nebulae and galaxies.
Astronomers: Cory Schmitz, Gary Gonella, Roy Salisbury, Paul Stewart, Stuart Forman, and Michael Phillips
Hosts: Fraser Cain, Scott Lewis
We hold the Virtual Star Party every Sunday night as a live Google+ Hangout on Air. You can find out more information from the Virtual Star Party. We start when it gets dark on the West Coast of North America.
Finally, we had clear skies for a terrific Virtual Star Party. Match this with the amazing new high-definition resolution of Google+ Hangouts on Air, and you’ve got a match made in heaven. Astronomers joined us from the West Coast, the East Coast and even Europe.
But the technology gods wouldn’t let these gifts go unpunished. Almost every one of the astronomers wrestled with some kind of technical gremlin.
But if you want to see the Moon and Jupiter in high definition, this was the star party to watch.
Host: Fraser Cain
Astronomers: Gary Gonella, Mike Phillips, Roy Salisbury, Chris Kennedy, John Kramer, Andrew Dumbleton
We have a Virtual Star Party every Sunday night on Google+ when it gets dark on the West Coast. Currently, that’s about 8 pm Pacific / 11 pm Eastern. We’ll broadcast a live view of the night sky from multiple telescopes across the world.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notified when there are new parties going live.
The Virtual Star Party will begin at 8:30pm Pacific.
On this warm August evening, three astronomers shared their live view of the night sky for a Virtual Star Party. The Moon was nearly full, but instead of hating it, Mark Behrendt decided to bring it into our view for the evening. We also had fantastic views of several of the famous summer nebulae: the Lagoon, the Swan, Veil, Ring, and Dumbbell Nebula.
Fraser also demonstrated his terrible skills as a space agency director, launching a few virtual rockets in the Kerbal Space Program while we waited for telescopes to update.
Host: Fraser Cain
Commentator: David Dickinson
Astronomers: Gary Gonella, Stuart Forman, Mark Behrendt
We run the Virtual Star Party as a live Google+ Hangout on Air every Sunday night when it gets dark on the West Coast. In the summer, that means 9:00 pm Pacific / 12:00 am Eastern. You can view the show live from the Universe Today YouTube page, or right here on Universe Today; we’ll embed the video on the site right before we begin.
We’re always looking for more astronomers, so if this sounds like something you’d like to participate it, just drop me an email at [email protected].
If you need a break from the Perseid Meteor Shower, come join us for a Virtual Star Party. This is where we connect up a bunch of telescopes into a Google+ Hangout on Air and broadcast the skies live.
Host: Fraser Cain
Astronomers: Scott Lewis, Thad Szabo, Gary Gonella and Bill McLaughlin.
We run the Virtual Star Party every Sunday night when it gets dark on the West Coast. In the summer time, that’s 9:00 pm Pacific/12:00 am Eastern. In the Winter time, we start at 5/8 (which is much better for the East Coasters).
We’re always looking for more astronomers to join us, especially from South America, where we can get a view of the southern skies. If you’d like to participate, drop me an email at [email protected].
It’s Sunday night, and that means it’s time for another Virtual Star Party. This week we had an action-packed episode, with a full house of astronomers. Thanks to relatively clear skies across North America, we had 7 telescopes broadcasting the night sky.
We were also joined by Kevin Nelson, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Quantum Scientific Imaging. This is the company that makes high-end CCD cameras that many of our astronomers use. Kevin stuck around for the entire show, showed off a few cameras and answered questions from both inside and outside the Hangout.
We were also joined by a new astronomer, Darryl Van Graal, who was taking wide-field shots of the Ontario skies, hoping for a meteor or an aurora. No luck. 🙁
Hosts: Fraser Cain and Scott Lewis
Special Guest: Kevin Nelson
Astronomers: Gary Gonella, Stuart Forman, Roy Salisbury, Bill McLaughlin, Mike Phillips, Darryl Van Graal, and Chris Elliot.
There were just too many images seen to even provide a partial list. We saw the Ring Nebula, Dumbbell Nebula, Cocoon, Lagoon, Triffid, Eagle, star clusters, galaxies… and so much more.
We gather together every Sunday night on Google+ when it get dark on the West Coast to hold the Virtual Star Party. If you’d like a notification for when it’s happening, make sure you subscribe to the Universe Today channel on YouTube.