Articles by admin

Why do we study comets? They are small objects that allow us to study the outer solar system and deep space without actually having to go there, because they conveniently bring in material to us as they pass the sun. We can see comets with telescopes, binoculars, and sometimes even [Read More…]

Don’t forget about the upcoming meteor shower! The moon’s minimal (yay!) and you don’t even need a telescope – just go outside and look up! Try to find a space away from city lights, and enjoy it with a friend. Here are some resources: EarthSky Space.com Wiki

This is a quick presentation from our March 26th meeting from a CCAS Member that is actively involved in keeping track of variable stars, and he gave our club a really neat presentation about the current status of what used to be a really bright star in the constellation Orion. [Read More…]

We are going to be streaming the regular CCAS meeting straight from us to you, so you can participate online from home. The SLO United Methodist Church will be closed, so we will NOT be having a meeting that night, however we intend to still have a speaker presentation for [Read More…]

Venus is going to be at greatest elongation and will be shining brightly in the sky. Here’s information on how and where to look!

Every year around the new-moon weekend in March, amateur astronomers challenge themselves with this fun )and now a lot easier to do!) Messier Marathon that you can do nearly completely with just a set of binoculars, dark skies, and a good stargazing app with some practice ahead of time. 

There’s a lot of great places to get real in-depth news about current research and breakthroughs. Here’s one that you might have missed – Phys.org  They have an entire section dedicated just to Astronomy and Space news that is actually quite popular.

We had a full house (over 50 people in attendance) for our February guest speaker, Dr. Pamela Gay from CosmoQuestion and her 500+ episodes of AstronomyCast.  During her presentation. Pamela had several suggestions about how to help our astronomers with doing their science, and I wanted to compile her information [Read More…]

Betelgeuse is classified as a Semi-Regular variable with a period of about 423 days and brightness range from visual mag 0 to mag 1.6. Like all Semi-Regulars the period and both maximum and minimum brightness levels are subject to fluctuations cycle to cycle. This cycle the star dimmed more than [Read More…]