News: Page 4

WT: Type Ia Supernova: October 17, 2010 - NOTE: This article has been moved to the info section: http://www.caglow.com/info/wtopic/typeia Any further updates will ONLY show there. A supernova occurs when a star collapses, then rebounds "exploding" with tremendous energy. There are numerous ways for this to happen. The most publicized type is a Type II supernova occurring with the demise of a massive star. Type Ib and Ic (collectively I... Read more...

WT: Introduction: October 17, 2010 - Astronomy is a very complex expansive topic with an impossibly large array of information. Just when you thought you knew everything, you find out that you know almost nothing. So, to help get the world a little more educated, we introduce the Weekly Topic. Every week or two, there will be a new article available on the site covering a topic most people have never heard of or do not fully under... Read more...

Opposition of Jupiter: September 05, 2010 - This month, Jupiter reaches opposition -- directly opposite the sun from Earth. That will make it appear the biggest it will be during this year. And that really does mean something considering how it ALWAYS looks big. In July, Earth passed through aphelion, its farthest point from the sun along its orbit. By chance, Jupiter is also passing through perihelion in just a few months (March, 2011),... Read more...

Update: Q2, 2010: August 13, 2010 - The second quarter of 2010 has been much quieter than the first in terms of "excitement." This is good as it meant that we had better uptime (around 90%) than the first quarter (about 50%) and things are continuing to get better. The site has moved again to its original server. This server is much faster (about 150%) than our old server which we were with for a period. Some sites of the Caglow ... Read more...

Registrations Open: August 13, 2010 - It's been a while since we accepted new registrations onto the site. Our CAPTCHAs just didn't seem to want to work. That also means that you could not contact us because the contact page relied on the CAPTCHA image as well. Well, after switching hosts again, we are happily running and everything seems to work again. If you wish to become a member of the Caglow project, please join us: http://ww... Read more...

Perseids Reminder: August 13, 2010 - Just a reminder to watch out for the Perseids meteor shower tonight! It peaks during today and tomorrow. We last covered it 2 weeks ago as it was just starting: http://www.caglow.com/news/10 Rates are estimated to be "normal" and peak at around 100 meteors per hour or around 1 or 2 every minute. Best time to view is early in the morning. There will be no moon this year to interfere. Have fun... Read more...

Solar Activity Resumes: August 11, 2010 - The road to solar maximum is still a bumpy one. After what appeared to be a dive back down to "sunspotlessness" back in March, activity seems to be on its way up again. On August 7 of last week, satellites detected an M1 flare, one the first M-class solar flare on the Earth-facing side of the sun of this solar cycle. Although a flare of class M is considered relatively moderate, the lack of sol... Read more...

Triple Conjunction at Sunset: August 01, 2010 - Over the coming week or two, Saturn, Mars and Venus will be coming together for a triple conjunction at sunset. For those with clear western horizons, Mercury may be visible below them as well. A waning crescent moon will join them in two weeks in time for the start of the Perseids Meteor Shower (http://www.caglow.com/news/10) on August 12-13. To see the conjunction, just look west after sunset... Read more...

Perseids, 2010: July 21, 2010 - It's that time of year again, the annual, world famous (and world-wide) summer shower of meteors. Or at least the strongest one. The Perseids have been known and observed for thousands of years. As with all meteor showers, their name comes from the shower's radiant or where all meteors appear to originate from; in this case, Perseus. They are visible every year from mid-July all the way to Septemb... Read more...

Aciqra License 10.7: July 09, 2010 - Ever since we abandoned the somewhat flawed Unrestricted Free license (which actually is not a free software license), the Caglow project has been running under the Aciqra License. It saw its first update back in March, 2010. Four months later, it saw its second update yesterday. The Aciqra License 10.7 makes clear many things that may have not been clear in the older, 10.3 and 9.11 versions. T... Read more...

HAFOSS (1): GCX: July 06, 2010 - One of the main reasons for the founding of the Caglow project was the lack of free and open source software for astronomy. For the most part, that is, in fact, true. However, the vast majority of these software are actually hidden and require significant searching to find. To help with that, we bring you HAFOSS, or Hidden Astronomical, Free and Open Source Software. This series will be updated wh... Read more...

Caglow II Schedule: June 28, 2010 - Caglow II is a long ways off still but that doesn't mean we can't start thinking about it now. So why would it be Caglow II when we never really had a Caglow I? Because all three of the projects are working towards version 2 and are all expected to end up at 2.1 sometime near the end of next year so therefore, we will have Caglow II near that time next year. The new versioning system was one of th... Read more...

Noctilucent Season, 2010: June 06, 2010 - Once again, those of us living in the higher latitudes prepare for those glowing, night-shining clouds. Noctilucent clouds are returning for the next few months. Last year saw one of the greatest displays of NLCs in some time with displays dropping down to Paris on July 14th. These displays tend to be most dramatic near solar minimum and current solar minimum is the deepest since 1913 meaning s... Read more...

Solar Activity Down: April 25, 2010 - Solar activity went up, and just when we thought it was on its way to solar maximum, it dropped all the way down again. There are no sunspots for the 10th day in a row. This time around, the sun is simply being highly unpredictable. There was a similar case last year in July when active region (otherwise known as sunspot) 1024 came around. and became the most active region on the sun since the ... Read more...

Update: Q1, 2010: April 03, 2010 - Beginning now, the Caglow project will be releasing regular updates on the overall project status four times every year. First and foremost is Caglow Central, this website. The first quarter has not been a good time for the site due to problems with our host and this server. Luckily though, our project websites were less affected due to being hosted on different servers from this site. Whether ... Read more...