Every two years and two months (roughly) Earth and Mars come close together in a planetary alignment called "opposition". This means Mars is on the exact opposite side of the sky compared to the Sun. This is also when Mars is closest to Earth in their respective orbits, and in turn when Mars appears its largest in the sky. Mind you, not "twice the size of the full moon to the naked eye" as the common Internet hoax emails proclaim. But the visible disk of Mars is noticeably larger during these close approaches.

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Well, here it is the day after Christmas, and I've had my scope out exactly zero times so far this fall/winter. It's a shame, really, because this time of year offers the longest, darkest nights of the year. In late January, we'll have our closest approach to Mars. Jupiter has been a bright evening target all fall. What is going on with me?

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It was another gorgeous weekend in cottage country, and I took the opportunity last night to haul my 10 inch SCT out of the shed. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've gone through a lot of telescopes over the years, ranging from small refractors to big dobs. One thing I remember from my dob years was thinking how annoying the shrill noise of those fancy GOTO telescopes were. The original LX-200 series from Meade especially had loud, crunchy motors that made their presence known the moment the owner started slewing to his next target. Fast forward a few years, and now I've got myself one of those high tech GOTO mounts - Meade's LXD-75 mount, and I've put the 10 inch OTA from an LX-6 onto it. This effectively gives me a Meade SC-10AT - a model which they've never build (but should!).

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A coworker of mine is investigating the purchase of a telescope for her hubby for Father's Day. They are both new to astronomy, but would like to develop their interest in it. It started with her asking me about a telescope she found on www.telescopes.com which was within the budget she had in mind. I pointed out that the website is in the US, and that she'd have to convert to Canadian dollars and the shipping would be fairly expensive. She agreed, however upon checking with local Canadian suppliers, I was shocked to see how much more expensive they were. For a telescope that they were selling for $189, the Canadian stores were asking $329 - for the exact same telescope!

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In a given work day, we each get 60 minutes of time for us. 30 is usually used at lunch with two additional 15 minutes breaks. Having a window seat at your office gives you an excellent use of any spare time during your break. For me, a little 60mm telescope perched on my window sill is all I need to entertain myself - assuming some celestial friends are in the neighbourhood!

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Over the years, a number of phenomenal technologies have worked their way into our garden variety telescopes. Integrated dual axis motors controlled with a hand paddle, on board computers allowing GOTO and PUSHTO technologies, built in GPS chips and level north sensors. Now, Meade has brought it all together and then some with the all-new ETX-LS6. This portable ACF (Advanced Coma Free) optics telescope includes several new technologies that allow complete star alignment without user intervention. A technology Meade calls LightSwitch combines data from an Integrated Sensor Module (ISM), GPS location and Level North Technology (LNT) to allow the telescope not only to figure out where it is on Earth, but to also actually see the alignment stars and tweak the telescope's setup automatically - without the user's input! The integrated ECLIPS CCD camera then allows the user to take pictures of bright sky objects like the Moon and the planets - all without a computer!

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The year 2009 is finally here! And its also the International Year of Astronomy - a very exciting time indeed. Astronomers around the globe are organized to participate in over a dozen "Global Projects" as part of IYA2009. I will be taking part in a few of the projects myself:

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Not that long ago, maybe 10 years or so, an essential tool in any amateur astronomer's inventory was a quality set of star charts. Star charts are the road map of the sky, and without them, it can be difficult for even an experienced astronomer to get around. Sure, we all have our favourite objects like M13 and Andromeda, but when it comes to hopping around the stars to find the galaxy NGC 4224 in Virgo - who's got that memorized?

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My first telescope was a tiny, spindly little 50mm (approx) newtonian refractor, with a small plastic yoke, mounted on thin 1x1 inch wooden legs. The whole thing trembled and shook even before I touched it! I got it for Christmas in 1977, and my parents had bought it from Sears.

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