The Universe is simply awesome

Thanks to PZ Myers.

Backyard (and desktop) astronomy [u]

Today, I witnessed what is considered to be the longest total solar eclipse of the century. Though we only experienced a partial solar eclipse over here in Davao, I was able to watch the eclipse reach its totality in India, China and Japan via an online live stream from New Delhi Television (NDTV).

Seeing the Sun's corona burst around the edges of the Moon's shadow is a sight to behold.

I didn't have any gear that could take a nice shot of the partial solar eclipse but I tried to make do by using my N82 and an old X-ray film of my wrist as a filter:

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July 22 solar eclipse

Tomorrow's total solar eclipse is considered to be the longest in the 21st century and won't be surpassed until June 13, 2132.

Totality will be experienced by countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China as the Moon's umbra (the darkest part of the Moon's shadow) traces its path across Southern and Eastern Asia and then curves towards the Pacific Ocean. There the maximum duration of totality will reach 6 minutes 39 seconds.

A partial solar eclipse will be seen in the Philippines as the Moon's penumbra blanket's most of Southeast Asia and north-eastern Oceania.

In Davao, the partial solar eclipse will begin around 9:00 AM, reach maximum 10:40 AM, and end around 11:00 AM. However, Davao will only witness the moon covering 28% of the sun.

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Taking a GLIMPSE at our Milky Way

Do you want to take a look at our own galaxy, the Milky Way?

Head on to and view the 390,000 x 6000 pixels or 180 x 2.75 feet mosaic of our Milky Way galaxy. The photos were taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope which was launched August 25, 2003.

GLIMPSE or Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire surveyed the inner Milky Way and the photo mosaic were taken from 111,000 different points on the sky. Photos were taken in infrared. A total of 444,000 images were created.

The GLIMPSE survey resulted in the cataloguing of 72 MILLION stars. It also resulted in seeing newly forming massive stars, finding new star clusters. It also allowed the studying in detail of several individual star forming regions, discovering a globular cluster and a whole lot more.

For those who like watching the heavenly bodies, I suggest you look at the full resolution mosaic image at . The GLIMPSE/MIPSGAL image viewer lets you zoom in close to things such as the remnant from a star that went supernova, the Black Widow nebula, and the birth of new stars.

Mac users might opt to choose Firefox over Safari when using the GLIMPSE/MIPSGAL viewer.

The image of the Milky Way and the multitude of stars contained therein is humbling. Makes you feel really small.