(Roughly) Daily

Fall is prime time for the Aurora Borealis.  But unless one lives in the higher latitudes of the Northern hemisphere– and bundles up snugly– there’s been no way to see them…  until now.  A new venture between the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Calgary, and Yellowknife’s Astronomy North educational center, AuroraMAX, takes the frostbite out of the Northern Lights, and lands it right on ones monitor.

(TotH to National Geographic)

As we put on the popcorn, we might recall that it was on this date in 1912 that Lewis Boss, an indefatigable observer of the night sky, shifted up and off this mortal coil.  Boss, who directed the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady and observed the heavens visible in the north from there, traveled to Argentina to scan the southern skies.  The products of his vigilance were two extraordinary books:  Preliminary General Catalogue of 6188 Stars for the Epoch 1900 (1910) and General Catalogue of 33,342 Stars for the Epoch 1950 (completed after his death by his son, Benjamin, and and published in 1937).

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