An original point of view
The inferior conjunction of Venus with the Sun happens almost every year. Almost, because in about the 8-year cycle of our neighbor planet she passes the Sun-Earth line 5 times (the synodic cycle counts 854 days exactly), making a peculiar pentagram, comprised of 5 petals. Every petal corresponds to the individual character of the inferior … Read more
This is the second part of the article, explaining the great Venus orbit cycle, which repeats on average every 3159-3160 years. Reminding the basic mechanism it’s exactly 395 8-year cycles, where the planet back pretty much to the same place at the same time in the Sky, except the situation, where this moment in its … Read more
The biggest celestial event in April 2020 was definitely the meeting between our closest planet Venus and one of the most renowned open star clusters – the Pleiades. The phenomenon was interesting due to its rarity. Throughout our life it will happen every 8 years, but what’s next? This article brings you not only the … Read more
My third remote observation of the solar eclipse was aimed at the fleeting lunar shadow when the Sun was already below the horizon. Previously I hadn’t had occasion to see a similar effect, as I watched the partial phases only. This observation was spectacular, because of the circumstances. I know only a few publications presenting … Read more
This week commenced with a rare celestial event, which is the transit of Mercury across the solar disk. Unlike the last event such as this, what occurred exactly 3,5 years ago, I had no chance to see it 100%. In the UK the event started just after noon and continued down to the sunset (Pic. … Read more
In this short post, I would like to share with you my ideas, on how can we use the Hydrogen-alpha filter for solar observations during exceptional situations. The situations, that I am going to take into account are mostly solar eclipses, but also internal planet transits. We have less than 2 months to Mercury transit … Read more
If you like watching the night sky, you must have been using at least one of the stargazing (night sky) apps or software. Mustn’t you? One of the most popular software, which is both easy to use and contains most of the relevant stuff for night observers is Stellarium. The current version of this program … Read more
A vast majority of people around the World don’t realize something like starlight. Nowadays, when skies are highly polluted with light, most people cannot even see the Milky Way in the sky. It’s known history, that during a huge power cut in Los Angeles in 1994 people were calling authorities, asking them what is this … Read more
At the finish of my considerations about the solar eclipse phenomena observations, done during the last total solar eclipse in the USA as well as another few partial solar eclipses, which I have been fortunate to witness in my life, I would like to summarize all things and put them in one piece. I was … Read more
A solar eclipse is the most spectacular natural phenomenon, as we can see on Earth. It induces at least a dozen or so other events, which occurrence can be observed during this time. In this article, I would like to list 10 of the most intriguing and uncommon phenomena, which an observer is able to … Read more
Except for many phenomena related to the total solar eclipse, that I observed away from the Sun there is one, which is worth attention. This is a prominences movement against the lunar disk, as we can observe during totality. As we know, everything moves in the sky. A fleeting solar eclipse is an effect of … Read more
Gazing at the Sun with the naked eye is dangerous. Much more dangerous is watching the Sun through instruments like binoculars or telescopes without a filter! It causes serious eye damage, which is a retina burn and blindness for the rest of your life. Basically, there are two types of solar filters: white light and … Read more
The area covered by umbra is the most spectacular of the whole solar eclipse phenomenon, therefore I would like to pay particular attention to this. Because I was watching the totality only once, I am going to use some supporting materials next to my own pictures. How the lunar shadow looks? We can consider it … Read more
Seeing a solar corona during a total solar eclipse can be an awesome experience. This view is jaw-dropping for everyone, even for solar eclipse chasers, who used to have seen it at least a few times before. There are a lot of pictures of the amazing solar corona on the web, which amount grows up … Read more
Recently I have shown the light level changes during the solar eclipse. The illumination level is strongly related to the sky brightness. Both of them change at the same time throughout the eclipse. In this article I would like to focus on these changes, having external data from Wolfgang Strickling. Because his observation venue was … Read more
The illuminance level and sky brightness are very important elements of solar eclipse phenomena because both are clearly noticeable by the observer along with his eye adaptation. When the eclipse phase is deep and turning into totality, the light level changes drastically, much quicker than on any other occasion. It makes the solar eclipse one … Read more
A solar eclipse is a magnificent natural phenomenon, during which the direct Sun is shadowed by the moon to darken the daytime sky (Vollmer, Shaw, 2018). In this article, I would like to draw your attention to another phenomenon, which I “discovered” accidentally during the Great American Eclipse – the visual range changes. 1. INTRODUCTION … Read more
The light scattering issue in the Earth’s atmosphere has been described recently for typical daylight, evening, and twilight conditions. In this article, I would like to explain a light scattering phenomenon under total solar eclipse conditions, which was observed accidentally during the 2017 Great American Eclipse. Initially, the aim of my observation was a record … Read more
When we ask ourselves why the sky is blue we can think about the most important type of light scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere. This is Rayleigh scattering. I was writing about this type of light scattering on some occasions, like watching the solar eclipse through the webcams or wondering about the Martian sky. Today … Read more
Since I bought the DSLR camera I dreamt about the total lunar eclipse observation. I wanted to repeat my observation scheme on different, much better equipment. Recently I observed the total lunar eclipse in 2015 with a compact camera only. Therefore the total lunar eclipse occurring on Friday evening 27th of July 2018 was a … Read more