2012 ANNULAR ECLIPSECosmic Obsession Observatory will host a live broadcast on May 19th AND 20th. To see the 2012 ANNULAR ECLIPSE Join us on

NSN (click)

Looking Out from the DomeThe Celestron 1100 HD is ready to sample the night sky.

Read what we did in the Blog

(NGC7009) The Saturn NebulaThe Saturn Nebula (also known as NGC 7009 or Caldwell 55) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Aquarius.

It was discovered by William Herschel on September 7, 1782, using a telescope of his own design.

M42 Orion NebulaFrom the LIVE show on 01/19/2011

Many of our friends and fellow stargazers were with us during the live show hosted on NSN (Night Skies Network), and a couple of them got to see something new.

Blue Snowball NebulaCoordinates: Sky map 23 25 54, +42° 32′ 6″. NGC 7662 aka the Blue Snowball Nebula, Snowball Nebula or Caldwell 22 is a planetary nebula.

Completing ConstructionSee what we did from the start of the Cosmic Obsession Observatory construction to the end of the hard work.

MarsMars is the place to be if you live on Mars or are an astronomer researching Mars from here on Earth.

Check out our new Mars tab for inside information on up-coming research.

No ExposureNebulosity can easily be seen inside the Great Orion Nebula with, and without, exposure.

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Featured Video

Building the Cosmic Obsession Observatory

This month we highlight the end of the Cosmic Obsession Observatory construction. This video was made from clips taken during construction. There is six months worth of footage connected together for you to watch. This video will include more clips as they begin to be stitched together to make up the whole picture of the experience. Feel free to contact Bob, Debbie, or Francis. Each of us have an email address here that starts with our name and ends with @cosmicobsession.com.

This "Featured Video" tab is dedicated to a new friend and vendor Celestron. We look forward to learning about telescopes so we can relate to you what we know. Your questions have been inquisitive and we do not want to miss our chance to help you. Please ask us about the "Featured View" item and we'll let you know what we're looking at and learning about now.

About us

Activities

We are involved in astronomy on multiple levels. First, we are always learning about astronomy. When we are not learning, we think about how to build a better observatory. If we're not learning or building, we are observing space and time through a telescope.

When we observe, we never observe alone. We share a live telescope feed on the Night Skies Network and share what we see in space with our friends.

When we are not learning about astronomy by researching astronomical objects, we are doing astronomical outreach to the community. It's a straight forward use of the facilities and tools at our disposal. Family comes first because we do everything together but we want to share it with you because we know the work is important to more than just us.

Send us your comments and tell us what you think!

Cosmic Obsession is a Texas based permanent observatory

Texas has a new permanent telescope observatory called "Cosmic Obsession".

We are a team of five amateur astronomers working together to bring the excitement of astronomy to the public. We report what we see when we look through our 25-inch Obsession Dobsonian telescope from Dave Kreige and/or from high atop the Cosmic Obsession telescope pier with the Celestron 11" Edge HD. Team effort is the name of the game. Wherever we go we go together and when we look into space, we discover a little more about the universe and something new about ourselves. This is the philosophy of Cosmic Obsession.

This is where you will hear about what we have seen and what we plan to see next. ~ Bob and Debbie Fitzhenry

Telescopes

CGEM 1100 HD from Celestron

Our Celestron 1100 HD with Edge Optics will sit on top a permanent, adjustable telescope pier under an 11-foot dome in the middle of the Cosmic Obsession Observatory Complex. It features a new aplanatic Schmidt telescope design which produces aberration-free images across a wide field of view.

Mirror tension locks hold the primary mirror in place and reduce image shift and Cooling vents allow hot air to be released from behind the primary mirror and imaging from the mirror is accomplished with one of two CCD cameras.

Mallincam Xtreme camera

We use two CCD camera to take images and broadcast live. The Mallincam Xtreme is an astronomical video camera that takes color CCD images. It has fourth geneation "Hyper Circuit" technology that allows a user to vary shutter exposures from 3-seconds to 100-minutes.

25-inch f/4 Classic Dob from Dave Kreig of Obsession Telescopes

A 25" mirror can collect remnants of light billions of years old. Our classic Obsession telescope from Dave Kreig was delivered in October of 2010 and is the planetary research tool for the Cosmic Obsession team. The 25" - 635 mm f/3.5 with an OMI, 2-inch thick mirror, is capable of capturing high resolution images of planets using a Mallincam Signature #6 CCD camera. It is easy to set up and can track planets and moons of all sizes and distances.

Mallincam Signature #6

APC Feature Allows Full Picture Enhancement of Vertical and Horizontal Pixels, Freeze Image Feature, Gamma Selection Feature, High Light Feature (Electronic Coronagraph and Electronic Stellar Coronagraph) for Unsurpassed Lunar Impact Research, Lunar Studies, Solar Observing (with proper solar filter), Planetary Images and a Whole lot more!! New Custom Designed High Precision 1.25" adapter, Class 1 CCD Sensor, Grade 1 Components Throughout, Unique Custom Manufactured High Gain Circuitry Not Found on other Video CCD Cameras.

Blog

Remember to look out at the sunset on Sunday, May 20th

See Video in the US to get your chance to see a partial or total Annular Eclipse. We will be out with our own telescopes and broadcasting live on Night Skies Network from before the sun sets and into the night looking through the lenses of the NEW Takahashi refractor scope mounted on the permanent pier mount of Cosmic Obsession.

"Our Sun is where all the action is ocurring over the next few weeks."
Bob & Debbie

Feel free to interact with us on the Night Skies Network via chat this coming Saturday night to let us know what you want to see next!

NEW Takahashi TOA-130 NFB at Cosmic Obsession Observatory

TOA-130NFB by Takahashi We will use this to view the Annular eclipse and the transit of Venus on June 5th. Takahashi makes refractor telescopes which are different by construction to the Celestron aplanatic Schmidt-Cassegrain and the reflector mirror of our Dave Kreige, Obsession 25"dobsonian.

We will be out with our own telescopes and broadcasting live on Night Skies Network from before the sun sets and into the night looking through the lenses of the NEW Takahashi refractor scope mounted on the permanent pier mount of Cosmic Obsession.

"Check in regularly to see what is going on. Share your sky with us."
Cosmic Obsession Observatory

Feel free to interact with us on the Night Skies Network via chat this coming Saturday night to let us know what you want to see next!

April 28, 2012 is International Astronomy Day

Join us tomorrow night on Night Skies Network to see live feeds from inside the observatory and through the telescopes we have broadcasting streams of data back to us of images from outside ouratmosphere.

Check in anytime Saturday April 28, 2012 to NSN to see if we're doing a live broadcast.

"Check in regularly to see what is going on. Share your sky with us."
Cosmic Obsession Observatory

Feel free to interact with us on the Night Skies Network via chat to let us know what you want to see next!

The Cosmic Obsession Observatory Blog Archives

Visit the Blog Archives to access all the posts we have created on a daily basis since the inception of the Cosmic Obsession Observatory Complex. You can find insightful information on our research, the observatory, and the people who bring it all to life. Bob, Debbie, Francis, Robin, and Sean.

Links

Cosmic Obsession Observatory is proud to produce LIVE telescope broadcasts on the Night Skies Network. You can watch an archived show here. We want to thank the people who make the Night Skies Network a great place to broadcast our view into space. Being able to share what we are researching, and where we are researching, while we are researching has been one of the unexpected pleasures of creating this astronomy information. It is easy to use the Night Skies Network as a place to see what lies outside our atmosphere. Simply visit the Night Skies Network home page and sign up for a free membership. Then all you have to do is log in and your get instant access to a long list of LIVE telescope feeds. When you go there you will see that many of the links are in white. That means the feed is offline. When a link becomes red, the telescope is broadcasting live.

Please note that the Night Skies Network is an astronomy website that interacts with astronomy clubs from around the globe. Please be kind to the other viewers as there may be a significant number of viewers at one time under a single username. The site is a teaching site that takes astronomy to the people through the use of CCD cameras from Mallincam and they adhere to a code of behavior during their broadcasting sessions. If you love astronomy like they love astronomy, then you can understand why they like their stars unadulturated.

NSN is an astronomy site that offers you a connection to live telescope feeds from amateur and professional astronomers. The astronomers bring their pictures to the public through the use of CCD camera technology and the network's broadcasting tools. This website allows you access broadcasts from space every night after you register for free with the website. The Night Skies Network is a group of broadcasters and viewers who observe space together and chat about what they see using the live feed viewer and chat room that is inside each broadcasters' room. There is a group of astronomers within the network that provide new broadcasts on a daily basis. Cosmic Obsession has been broadcasting on the Night Skies network since December of 2010. Look for updates about our next broadcast in the Blog section of our website. Our broadcast schedule is determined by weather and can be staggered and irregular at times. Click on the blue link to go register now with the Night Skies Network.

Join us on our Facebook page so you can see what you might be missing here. There is so much astronomy going on that it is impossible to contain within the pages of just one internet location. All of us here at Cosmic Obsession use Facebook as a way to stay connected to our friends. Please like the Cosmic Obsession facebook page> and then you can connect with the amateur astronomers too!

Amateur Astronomer Francis Walsh uses facebook to keep his friends informed on the next cosmic event and where it may come from. He uses a large network of amateur astronomers to stay ahead of the disinformation and false reporting that can become prevalent during important celestial events. Now you can get a quick review and interpretation from active amateur astronomers like Mr. Walsh who are willing to speak about whatever you think is important in space. Astronomy is the name of the game when everything is fine and dandy but it quickly becomes science when there's something at stake.

Mars

The Planet Mars

Welcome to the planet Mars. This planet is fourth from the Sun and has been the focus of many astronomical missions and experiments since man first began looking for our planetary neighbors. Inside these links you will find in-depth information on Mars. There will be geologic, geographic, and scientific analysis of past and current Mars space missions as well as a look at what makes Mars so interesting to space agencies from around the globe of Earth. This first tab will inform you on the planet itself. Other tabs will take you through the research that has been done to date, and what is on the horizon for our neighboring planet.

Mars Time-line

Mars Environment

Missions to Mars

The Mars Science mission launched by NASA over the long holiday weekend has raised the hopes of new discoveries eminating from the Martian Surface in late 2012. The previous missions have had there failures and their successes. The team at Cosmic Obsession plans on revisiting the old missions to Mars and being ready for any new discoveries to come from the latest launch. Besides doing planetary research, the team of amateur astronomers here at Cosmic Obsession will be following and observing NEO objects.Here is a link to the table with all the listed NEO (Near Earth Objects) Close Approach Tables Cosmic Obsession Observatory

The Mars Science Mission successfully launched on November 26th. We will be following the mission and learning about previous missions in the future.

Life on Mars

The Mars Science Mission successfully launched on November 26th. We will be following the mission to discover what life may be present on Mars.

Controversy on Mars

There are thousands of images to scan over. Millions of data points to view. There have been many photographs that have raised eyebrows and some have even launched careers. The controversy will be discussed here soon.

Venus

The Planet Venus

Welcome to the planet Venus. This planet will be discussed in detail in 2012.

Venus Time-line

Venus Environment

Missions to Venus

The team at Cosmic Obsession plans on revisiting the old missions to Venus and being ready for any new discoveries to come from the transit of Venus on Jun 5th and 6th. Besides doing planetary research, the team of amateur astronomers here at Cosmic Obsession will be following and observing NEO objects.Here is a link to the table with all the listed NEO (Near Earth Objects) Close Approach Tables Cosmic Obsession Observatory

Life on Venus

You will learn what type of life can live on Venus and if there was life on Venus before Earth.

Controversy on Venus

There are thousands of images to scan over. Millions of data points to view. There have been many photographs that have raised eyebrows and some have even launched careers. The controversy will be discussed here soon.

Photos and Videos

Contact us

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To send us a message, please complete the form on the right or contact us via details listed above. We'll get back to you asap.

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