David H. Levy
Torah study, a meeting among friends and members, takes place on most Saturday mornings. It is the only time that I try to awake before noon. It is a program of Beth Shalom Temple Center, our synagogue. During each two-hour session we continue our discussion of the Torah, which is composed of the first five books of the Bible.… Continue reading.
David H. Levy
Palomar Mountain Observatory.
Last month I drove all the way from my Vail, Arizona home to Palomar Mountain Observatory. As most of this column’s readers know, I have visited this place many dozens of times from my first encounter in March of 1974, and regularly from the late summer of 1989 to the late spring of 1996.… Continue reading.
By David H. Levy
For the last few nights I have been looking in one particular direction of the sky: the northeast. Over a period of four nights, I have noticed a faint glow in that direction. It wasn’t bright, certainly nothing about which to write home, but it was the aurora borealis. … Continue reading.
by David H. Levy
A Total Eclipse of the Sun, part Two.
This is a story, not a report on observations.
On April 8, a total eclipse of the Sun tracked across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Most of the United Staes enjoyed clear weather, and most of Canada did too.… Continue reading.
David H. Levy
As I am writing this April 2024 edition of Skyward, in less than a month there will be a total eclipse of the Sun. The Moon’s great shadow will trace a path across North America, including the United States, and Eastern Canada.… Continue reading.
by David H. Levy
In the autumn of 1976, my first, “practice wife” and I visited Safed in northern Israel. In addition to being shown a 400-year-old Torah, we were introduced to the idea that Jewish mysticism, known as “Kabbalah”, got its start and flourished there.… Continue reading.
David H. Levy
This month I have a story to tell. A few nights ago two close friends from Plattsburgh, Ed Guenther and Wendy Gordon, enjoyed a very pleasant wintertime visit with me. During that time another close friend, David Rossetter, drove us to the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex in southeastern Arizona.… Continue reading.
By David H. Levy
This month let us explore one of the seminal galaxies in the nigh sky, NGC 253, Caroline Herschel’s galaxy. It shines deep in the southern portion of the sky, south of the bright star Beta Ceti and southeast of the even brighter star Fomalhaut.… Continue reading.
By David H. Levy
As a youngster growing up in Montreal, Canada in the early 1950s, I was impressed by the seeming simplicity of Montreal’s weather. It appeared to me as though there were just two kinds of weather, in wintertime a grey sky, and in summertime a blue sky.… Continue reading.
By David Levy
Pons-Brooks: A comet for the centuries.
When David Rossetter and I began our observing session at the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association’s Chiricuaha Astronomy Complex on the evening of August 5, 2023, we did not expect that we would be treated to an evening of cosmic history.… Continue reading.