Here are some odds and ends for you today on our final message of 2009…
We’ve finally posted the entire 20-part video series about choosing telescopes and observing equipment. We’ve had so many requests about telescope advice over the past couple of years, we thought this was the best way to get all the information in one place. These videos are produced by Anacortes Telescope; they are the best brief summaries we’ve seen about how to select a telescope and accessories.
When we first posted these videos, some readers complained we are selling telescope for Anacortes. I assure you we are not. We have no affiliation with Anacortes: you can walk into their showroom with a wheelbarrow full of cash and gold coins and buy out their entire stock, and we won’t get a dime. We post this information for your benefit, not ours.
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Thanks to all who wrote in to give us your thoughts on our idea of producing “premium information”, mostly interviews with professional astronomers about their latest research, presented in a way that’s understandable to lay persons (us included). The consensus seems to be for us to keep our information the way it is now: short and sweet. So we’re not going to pursue this idea in a big way over the coming year. Though we will post such interviews and insights in shorter formats when the opportunity presents itself.
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Don’t forget the “blue moon”, which is the second full moon of the calendar month. It happens Dec. 31 at 19:13 Universal Time. It probably won’t look blue. But it may light up your New Year’s Eve and show you the way home.
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Finally, you might like to check out this video from the American Museum of Natural History. It shows the scale and composition of the known universe, starting at Mount Everest and moving out to the edge of cosmic horizon. It’s a nice piece of video.
We wish you a happy and prosperous new year, and hope you’ll stay with us through 2010.