Iridium 52 is the bright
streak intersecting this shot. Comet Holmes 7P is above the satellite
at the top of the page. The photograph was
captured on December 12th, 2007, from Clarkdale, Arizona, by JD Maddy and published in the UK's Sky at Night
Magazine.
Iridium Gallery click here:
Iridium
Flares
Equipment used: Pentax IST digital camera, 50mm lens at f/2.0
for a 30-second exposure
---
Message in a
Bottle

A
message broadcast from Earth to the globular cluster M13
during the dedication of the Arecibo Observatory in 1974.
Check out our Members Telescopes here:
Club Member
Telescopes
For those who are somewhat nostalgic, check out
our past star party page.
Past Star Parties
Our new Solar and Lunar picture page is under
progress.
See the
new page here.
Elsewhere
on Our Website:
Observing Tools - Star Charts,
Clear Sky Clocks and Topographic maps.
Astronomy Newsfeeds
- From NASA, Astrowire, Space.com
Articles
- by our very own members.
Astrophotography - see the Astrophoto Galleries.
Focus Sections on Observing
Mars, Saturn,
Asteroids, Comets and
Satellites

The community of Cottonwood has achieved International Dark Sky status by being
the 23rd Dark Sky Community in the World. Since 2017, the community has been
working towards achieving the status by implementing rules to help keep the
night skies dark and protecting this diminishing resource. Cottonwood joins
Flagstaff (#1), Sedona (#8), Big Park/VOC (#14), Kaibab Paiute Indian Community
(#21), Camp Verde (#20) and Fountain Hills (#17) as IDA
Communities. Arizona has more IDA Communities and IDA Dark Sky Parks than any
other state or country in the World. These efforts will help keep the nearly 100
commercial telescopes and over 200 private observatories in Arizona seeing the
starry skies and universe above.
Click
here for more info.

The Blue Horse Head Nebula in Scorpius is captured by member
Mike Cadwell. IC 4592 as it is also known is 420 light years from Earth. To see
more of Mike's photos, click here.

Karen Maddy instructs the Sedona Parks & Recreation Summer Camp
kids how to safely observe the Sun. Click the picture for
more AVV Public Outreach.

A recently discovered comet, Lovejoy 2014 Q2 has been moving
across the sky over the past couple of months. For more comet pictures click
here.
Picture Credit: Robert Mueller

Comet LINEAR 252P was showing nicely as it passed by the Earth with this
April 10th, 2016 picture. The comet was in the 13th zodiacal constellation of
Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer.
Picture credit : J D Maddy

Global SUNday participation

On the afternoon of October 23rd, 2015 for most of
the United States, there was a partial solar eclipse. For the U.S., the Sun
was covered up to 80 % by the Moon. Depending on your location, the
Sun was at least 30% covered. The below picture shows the large Sun spot as the
Moon slices across the Sun. The Sun spot was easily seen with only eclipse
glasses. Click
here
to see a You Tube video of an eclipse.
