Articles by Mike R

Land

Acquiring Land For Astronomy: A Series

Curious in buying land for astronomical purpose, but not sure where to start? Have the funds to purchase land, but unsure about regulations for buying land? Wondering where to buy and what your considerations should…


Neptune

The Case For Neptune

With some recent news about Uranus and we made the case for exploring Uranus, it’s about time we talked about the other planet in the outer Solar System, Neptune! Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft…


Apollo 13 50 years Later

On April 11th 1970, NASA launched Apollo 13 launched on its ill-fated flight to the moon. The crew complement was James A. Lovell Jr., John L. Swigert Jr., and Fred W. Haise Jr. They had…


Citizen Science

Citizen Science

Citizen Science is considered as a fantastic and new way for the public to assist scientists with their work. This scientific research conducted partially or fully by. amateur and non-professional scientists allows public participation in…


Wildfires

WildFires: The Risk Posed To Astronomy

With the devastating Australian wildfire season of 2020 and the California wildfires over the past few years, we understand that the issue of wildfires are not contained to the Pacific Northwest. We just would just…



Uranus Discovery Of Uranus

The Case For Exploring Uranus

As has been seen recently, with the recently reviewed data of Voyager 2, it was recently discovered that Uranus is actually losing its atmosphere! The full article can be found on the Phys.org website, but…


Orbits

Types Of Common Satellite Orbits

Today, we will be talking about the different satellite orbits that are commonly used. These are the most often used, but not a full list of all the possible orbits. Geostationary transfer orbit This is…


Leap Day

Leap Years: What Are They

Leap years are a calendar year that contains an additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or seasonal year. As a result of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun taking approximately 365.242189 days, there needs…


Weather Satellites

Celebrating 60 Years Of Weather Satellites

2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the first weather satellite, Tiros 1 by NASA. Launched on April 1, 1960 at 11:40:09 UTC, Tiros-1 was the first successful low-Earth orbital weather satellite. It was a major test for…