I ran across an amazing Intractable that I am going to try to build. Have you ever had one of those nights when you wanted to do some astrophotography but, oh, woe, it was just too much trouble to drag all that equipment out? Well, how about a miniature astrophotography observatory you can hold in your hands. User MatHh, on Instrucables, has developed just that. It's driven by a Raspberry Pi and uses a Raspberry Pi Hi Quality camera. Here's the link:

https://www.instructables.com/Pi-lomar-3D-Printed-Working-Miniature-Observatory-/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

It's not an inexpensive project to undertake. I estimate about $400.00 plus you need a good sized 3D printer. I think my Ender 6 is just big enough to handle all the pieces. This ought to be a fun project. It will probably take quite some time as most of the work will be weekend work but I'm going to start on it in the next couple of weeks. I'll post updates on the progress here.

Happy sky hunting, everyone.

Happy New Year everyone. 2020 was a particularly tough one for everyone. I hope you all got through it safely.

I found this article from early in the year at Astronomy.com website describing a simulation on what Betelgeuse may look like when it does blow. But, don't get too excited yet. It still has up to 100,000 years of life left. I may try to hang around for it though.

When Betelgeuse Goes Supernova, What Will It Look Like From Earth

Image courtesy of Astronomy.com and European Southern Observatory/L.Calcada

So, have you been sitting around each night Orion is in your night sky watching to see if Betelgeuse is going to supernova? Yeah, I'd like to see that also. But, it is a complex thing to try and predict. Apparently, how big the red giant is has a lot to do with when the show will begin. As it turns out, we are not even sure how far away it is, making it virtually impossible to accurately tell it's size. Here's a story at Sky and Telescope with some details:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/how-big-is-betelgeuse-really/