Archive for July 15, 2008
Twinkle, Twinkle…
by John Weckerle
On a clear night, especially one when there are not too many lights shining and the four guys in Moriarty with the annoying flashlights are on vacation, New Mexico’s real central valley and the East West Mountains have a wonderful, naked-eye view of the cosmos. We here at New Mexico Central love it, and it’s always a treat to pass on an opportunity for another way to enjoy it.
Today, we’re providing a link to Heavens Above’s excellent resource, which helps us try and identify the constellations above us. The search begins with their Select Town(s) page. Enter the name of the nearest town (just the town, don’t include the state), and pick the correct town from the list. Under Astronomy, select “Whole Sky Chart.” The resulting page shows the default star chart, and users can input date/time to get the right configuration for whatever time they wish. Options include “Black on white” or “Coloured” for the star chart; if you print it to take outside at night, “Black on white” is your logical choice. “Size,” in pixels, specifies the size of the square image output by the system. We ramped it up to 4000, with virtually no delay – although the image does look a bit choppy at that size. »» Twinkle, Twinkle…