AstroCamp Counselor Lee Keith conveys how immense celestial objects bring big joy. He writes... The day was hot with the threat of showers and thunderstorms all day, but as the sun set, the clouds broke up and finally disappeared! This had not been forecast until the evening. So, of course, I set out the scope to cool and set up as usual. Jupiter is now past its prime and is only 40 arcseconds (1 arcsec = 1/3600 of a degree) in diameter (down from max of 45 arcsec back in Ma

AstroCamp has Lee Keith as our own Astrophotography guru, as he teaches our campers how to take photographs of sky objects. He always brings his equipment to camp, and can hook a telescope up to a monitor so that more than one person at a time can see what he is doing! He explains how to process the pictures to get the best view of planets (and other objects). This great shot of Jupiter was 1 of 3 he had taken, and colorful features are seen, including the Great Red Spot, hal

The International Space Station (ISS) appeared to buzz by the planet Jupiter and its moons, which was witnessed at 2017 AstroCamp. AstroCamp staffer Lee Keith writes: For those of you who don't know, I am volunteering for the week at YMCA Camp Eberhart near Three Rivers MI. We do some unusual things, including watching the ISS fly past Jupiter last night. We had seen predictions of it flying between 3 of Jupiter's moons but it flew a little wide. I just caught it on the edge