Martz-Kohl Observatory
non-profit organization devoted to the amateur astronomer
Recent Images
Facebook feed
Martz-Kohl Observatory is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our only funding is through donations and memberships. Please help us continue to share our love for the stars ✨ 🔭
This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.Great image from the Orion spacecraft at its furthest point from Earth. You can see the composition and relative brightness of the Moon and Earth. The Moon being closer to the spacecraft while the Earth is further away. The Moon has an albedo of 0.07 while the Earth has an an average albedo of 0.31. Albedo is measured on a scale of zero (darkest: 0.0) to one (brightest: 1.0). A full Earth as seen from the Moon is about 43 times brighter than the full Moon is as seen from Earth. The Moon is dark because it contains very little ice, snow, water, clouds, and atmosphere. The moon consists mostly of rock dust and dark rocks that are similar in composition to rocks on earth.
Image by European Space Agency (ESA)
Now is a great time to become a member of the Martz-Kohl Observatory or give a membership as a gift! Our mission is to inform, educate and inspire the general public and support teaching and learning in the sciences of astronomy and physics. Members have access to our state of the art facilities and telescopes. Increase your knowledge of astronomy and skill of observing through the collective knowledge and comradery of the membership. Attend free-to-members lectures and presentations related to astronomy and Space. Access our online lecture series video library. If interested, you can get involved with our educational outreach programs. Members also get reduced subscription rates to astronomy magazines. Join now: martzobservatory.org/about/membership-application-2022/
A very small asteroid, less than a meter in size, impacted somewhere around Brantford, Ontario, Canada - north of Lake Erie, west of Buffalo, NY and southwest of Toronto. Many people reported seeing (and hearing!) the fireball's passing. You can see the fireball in the upper left corner of our AllSky camera image from 03:26 AM EST taken this early morning.
From a ring camera in Mayville Ny last night.
Douglas Zahn, is this what you saw?
I live in Erie. In 2007 I was witness to the glowing orbs that descended from the clouds to the lake. Strange things happen over the Great Lakes. Orbwatch.com
Dawn Dinsbier Hoeh
A successful launch! Now for some terminology. Artemis is the name of NASA's program to return astronauts to the lunar surface. Artemis I is comprised of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The SLS rocket produces a maximum 8.8 million pounds of thrust, more power than any rocket, ever. Orion is a reusable crewed spacecraft. The crew on this mission is comprised of instrumented dummies. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin and the European Service Module manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space. NASA Image: A view from the Orion spacecraft and ESA's service module.
There is a short documentary on the Artemis project on the History Channel. Has anyone seen it?
Tom Traub stayed up late last night, or got up very early, for this morning's total lunar eclipse. Images, taken through one of the Martz-Kohl Observatory telescopes, show the moon before the eclipse and at totality. The Beaver Blood Moon lunar eclipse started about 3am and was total at about 5:20am. In addition to the Beaver Moon, other names for November's full moon include the Frost or Frosty Moon and the Snow Moon. This was the second total lunar eclipse this year and the last until 2025.
Excellent photos.... I drive right past the observatory all the time and have never been inside.
Amazing, thanks for sharing with us.
I woke up early to see this as well, great photos!
These are great!
Anna Benge
Thanks Tom.
Martz-Kohl Observatory member, Dave Wilkins, took this image of the observatory and night sky on Friday, October 28, 2022. The Pleiades, known as the seven sisters, are in the center of the image. The bright star just above the dome is Aldebaran. To the left of Aldebaran and a little above the garage door is the planet, Mars. The bright star on the left, about half way up the image, is Capella. Dave recently gave a talk, "A Practical Introduction to Astrophotography" as part of the observatory's lecture series. You can find a video of Dave's presentation on our website, along with over 30 other lectures on a variety of astronomy and science topics, at martzobservatory.org/observatory-lecture-series/
Great picture. Dave is an awesome guy.
Thank You For finally sharing on FaceBook.
Cassidy Akin
Rhayne Smith
For your Halloween pleasure, IC 2118, usually referred to as The Witch Head Nebula. This image is courtesy of NASA. The nebula usually shows as blue as it is a reflective nebula near blue star Rigel in the constellation Orion. Also, the dust particles that make up this "cloud" reflect blue light more strongly than red or green. This image may have been taken through a green filter but I could not find the specifics. In any case, green makes for a most impressive scary witch! This nebula is about 900 light-years away and is not visible to the naked eye.
Load more