Maine Astronomy Retreat

05/19/2024

My photo adventure started on Friday, May 10th with a text from my good friend. "Aurora tonight?" asked Babak. Well heck yeah!! The adventure ended around 3:30 AM the next day when I returned home after traveling hundreds of miles and taking more than 1600 photographs of the strongest Aurora to hit this part of New England in more than 20 years.
I've posted some of my photos here and on IG, and I'm still finding time to work on a beautiful timelapse shot around Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine. One of the photos I shared was Babak taking photos of the Aurora from the rocky shore at Sohier Park, and in the caption I speculated, halfway hoping it was true, that my friend was also taking photos of me.
And today it arrived!! So cool to have this! Thank you A. Tafreshi for getting me out that night and catching this wonderful memory!

05/14/2024

Where did you watch the amazing Aurora Borealis that blanketed New England and surprised people as far south as Florida last week? I was at Sohier Park in York, Maine, a perfect place to view and photograph the Aurora with the Nubble Lighthouse as a backdrop. I had two Canon ICL cameras busy making timelapses. With those on full automation, I turned my iPhone camera South, away from the historic beacon. On the screen I saw this perfectly violet Milky Way, painted by solar activity from our star 93 million miles away. And if you look closely you may recognize my colleague Babak A. Tafreshi setting upon his own shot, perhaps of me. ;-)

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Shot on iPhone 15 ProMax
ISO1600, 24mm, f/1.78, 10s

03/14/2024

The Moon and Jupiter passed through Chelmsford Center tonight. Which way do you think they went?

This is called a Conjunction. In astronomy, a conjunction is an apparent meeting or passing of two celestial bodies. Tonight, from our viewpoint here on Earth, our own Moon passed close to planet Jupiter. In reality they are nowhere close, as the Moon is 368,459 kilometers from us, while Jupiter is 835,127,175 kilometers, or more than 2200 times the distance.

I hope you got a chance to see this phenomena this evening, because tomorrow night Jupiter dances much lower in the sky, but the beautiful cluster of stars known as the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades will be just above the moon in the West and if it's clear, it's a beautiful sight in binoculars or a small telescope. Hoping the weather is clear for you tomorrow!

11/08/2022

Woo hoo! Dates for next summer announced and registration is open! Join us August 14-20 for our 9th year! Registration at http://astronomyretreat.con

MEDOMAK SIGNATURE RETREATS ARE OPEN FOR REGISTRATION!

www.medomakretreatcenter.com

Join us for one of our 4 Signature Retreats in 2023! Early Bird Rates expire November 30th!
Medomak Fiberarts Retreat
Conductors Retreat At Medomak
Maine Astronomy Retreat

08/28/2022

I just love the skies at the Maine Astronomy Retreat!

08/28/2022

We just finished up a wonderful week at the annual Maine Astronomy Retreat & Symposium. It was most exciting to be there when two grown brothers from Brooklyn, NY got their first look at the Milky Way, and many other astro-newbies were able to bask in its starlight or look at Saturn and Jupiter through a telescope for the first time.
As always, we had an excellent series of talks by Skyand Telescope’s J. Kelly Beatty and this year’s special guest Rick Fienberg from the American Astronomical Society. We learned how to plan our nightime sessions with , make science contributions through the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), and saw presentations on important historical astronomy sites in Italy and Great Britain.
Many of our guests return each year and old friends reconnected and many new friends were made.
Consider joining us next summer for our 9th annual MARS. We’ll post dates and rates soon at

MAINE ASTRONOMY RETREAT JOIN US UNDER THE STARS AUGUST 22nd- 28th, 2022 See our COVID-19 Statement. SCROLL FOR MORE Maine Astronomy Retreat A Vacation for You and Your Telescope No need to bring a tent, or sleep in a sleeping bag, or eat so-so food. Medomak has comfortable, private cabin facilities....

07/30/2021

So happy that’s e are resuming the Maine Astronomy Retreat and Symposium this year. There are still a few slots left for this week-long, all-inclusive “vacation for you and your telescope”. HTTPS://astronomyretreat.com