Astronomical Calendar 2017

Many have complained, a few angrily but others understandingly, about the cessation of the annual Astronomical Calendar.  I’ve pleaded that it couldn’t continue for ever.

But I see there is another way it can continue.  Look at the added link in the “menu” above.  As a trial, it will give you access to a first approximation to a calendar for 2017.

I’ll be able to add to it.  At leisure, instead of under stress.

By the way, you might enjoy re-reading yesterday’s piece, long as it is, about the Cutty Sark.  Even though I read through twenty times, making corrections, before hitting “Publish,” I keep reading through and making more refinements.  Usually these are shortenings, but sometimes additions, like the story of the sailboat passing the steamship in the night.

 

27 thoughts on “Astronomical Calendar 2017”

  1. HI Guy,
    Really sorry that you are not able to continue. I have been buying your calendar since I was in college in the 70’s. I have a whole stack of back issues in the corner. I have used them for years for myself, my kids, and to introduce others to astronomy. They have always been just the right balance of Technical and Practical. Thanks again for all the years you have put into this.

  2. I as a complete amateur I LOVE the astronomical calendar ,my 4 year old Grandaughter and I peruse it regularly! She has learned so much about the sky and so have I ! Thank you for making the astronomical calendar so simple , that she and I can meander through the publication, then go outside and enjoy the real perception of what’s going on above us! I’ve hoped it could continue in some form,or perhaps get a bit of resource links to continue to follow!
    Many Thanks!

  3. Guy, whatever you do is good with me. I have no anger. I appreciate all the work you’ve done. I like the occasional posts via e-mail. Thanks for all you’ve done and all you will do. Via con dias!

  4. Guy
    Thanks for your many years of devoted research and work in providing your very helpful Astronomical Calendars (AC).

    Your ‘AC 2017’ post will help immensely since I have relied on the information in your previous AC’s to develop our planetarium’s daily calendar of astronomical events that we publish on our website.

    What I would appreciate in your future postings would be (1) a list of the resources you rely on to publish your data and (2) how you use that data to calculate the resultant information.

    I have figured out where and how you calculate your data for most of your results but there are still some that yet elude me.

  5. Fabulous, Guy!! Home run! Now, you do realize that all of us will be checking that link daily to see another link entitled “Total eclipse, August 2017”, don’t you?
    I’ve been reading through my binder of Sky & Telescope issues from 1985, and found more than one reference by George Lovi and others that year praising your co-authored book “Mankind’s Comet” and your AC 1985, always calling out your unique diagrams for particular merit. In one of Lovi’s columns suggesting good reading material for people to get prepared for Halley’s Comet, he wrote something like, “Perhaps Mr. Ottewell can be persuaded to issue his 1986 calendar earlier than usual,” because he wanted your diagrams to get into the hands of users as soon as possible. Here we are 30 years later again pleading with you LOL!

  6. Not to diss or forego you, Guy,,,,but there’s alway this site to link up to for latest stuff.
    You know I always loved your calendars,,, have given away as Xmas presents. and am sorry to see you giving up on it,,, but I understand. I like the way you present your new version on line.Keep It up. LOVE it. thanks.

    1. oops this is the link I forgot to insert. and again Guy, sorry got diss you,, but this one almost eq1uates with yours.
      SpaceWeather.com

  7. Thank you! For the calendars and for all your highly appreciated efforts over the last decades aiding my understanding of this incredible cosmos.

  8. Guy
    I had mixed feelings on the announcement of the last Astronomical Calendar. I was sad, of course, because I have so many (30 issues) and have struggled to totally understand each one as it came out usually without success. The fault lying with the reader rather than the writer. Anyway, with no more ACs I will have one fewer annual failures. I accept your offer, however, and have signed up.

    I loved the Cutty Sark article and printed it for my wife who loved it as well.

    Knowing you through the Calendars and your blog is one of the high point of my old age.

    Thank you very much,

  9. I am very happy to hear this news, thank you so much for continuing the calendar in an online form. I still have the rest of this year to enjoy the last one and I will savor every moment!

  10. Thank you for filling a painful gap in our lives. We will take whatever you can give, with gratitude.

  11. Wow! the response to this is astronomical..I hate to see it go, but I get you. I think your substitute by the link is a good start to fill in the gaps. I get the year events, month by month, but I miss the pix and charts you have/had monthly. We’d have a bit of a ceremony turning the page on the hard copy.. Let’s see how you can possibly keep us up to date with monthly or more events as I’m sure you will….. I think I get with your new tactic… and I think I still have some wooden crates of Cutty Sark booze as my Dad had a package store for a long, long time. I’m glad you brought what Cutty Sark really meant. A bit embarrassed a pirate like me wouldn’t have known that, lol

  12. Thank You Guy !!!… I Could Not Imagine Going Into A Total Solar Eclipse Year Within North America Without You and Your Calender !!! …I Signed Up Immediately …. Too Many Good Emails From You Could Never Be A Bad Thing !!!…
    Kindest Regards Always…

  13. Thanks very much for this, Guy. No more corrigenda!

    I will most miss the unique graphics of the Astronomical Calendar, especially the zodiac strip chart and the plan of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. If there were a way to print them out at home, even though on smaller sized paper, I would be very happy. And if not I will make do, and be grateful for the years you published the calendar.

    Like Lorraine and Paul, I think you should create a way for people to contribute financially to your continued work. Even if it wouldn’t be much money for you, it would make us feel better.

  14. Wow! What wonderful news! I was so sad to see the Astronomical Calendar come to an end, even though I completely understood. I was resigned to toughing it all out for myself, even though I wouldn’t even know to look for all the events you include! To have the crucial information return is completely ecstatic. People were angry? Good grief!

    Thank you so much! And if you want a contribution for the time and effort you are still putting in on our behalf, just say the word. :)

  15. I find it nearly incomprehensible, Guy, that anyone could be angry rather than grateful for many years of wonderful ACs. But thanks for this intermediate form, which will be very welcome for many of us.

  16. Dear man,

    I feel for you in the points of your “confession” and see these as typifying one of the crises of these times – the additional work and strain (stress) invoked by so-called “labor-saving” devices – both mechanical and computational – continuing to crescendo.
    Of course it is an impossible task to meet a publisher’s deadline on subjects straying from the most rigidly predictable of ephemera. Just think if the weather forecast needed to be published in advance (though, with irony, I write this from just down the road from Yankee Publishing, where they publish an apocryphal climate forecast well in advance – based on lunar mechanics and sun-weather trends – and do so for decades now).
    I think your solution of a “Live” Calendar, to supplement a stream-of-consciousness blog of musings, is a gracious and generous one. But it does not supply you with a remunerative mode of expression of other’s appreciation very well. Perhaps a subscription (compulsory or free-will) is in order? It would also be interesting to see if the late publish-on-demand form of hardcopy (even ex post facto!) would be appealing to anyone. I, for one – and I doubt I’m alone – , still have an affinity for paper in hand; one that is strong enough to lay out and self-print material from some of my email correspondences and web browsings. Electronic storage formats are still too fleeting – and my shelf of, for instance, Astronomical Calendars is only 12″. Other electronic-internet-lasting-value gems that I’ve printed merely fill a 2-drawer file cabinet – and a good deal of that content is still useful to me – though much has disappeared from the web already, or would otherwise be on 1″ 6250 bpi computer tape!
    Thank you, Thank you.

    P.S.
    Yes, I do still order the Naval/Royal Observatory Astronomical Phenomena in hard copy, for money, every year – even though it’s contents are now free in PDF – which I also download. I simply like to be able to mark it up with my pencil and to have it on my shelf for ready reference, say, 5 or 20 years later…

    Paul

    1. This touches on many of my own thoughts.
      An obstacle to print-on-demand for my Astronomical Calendar, or Astronomical Companion, is that the POD system I’ve learned to use, Createspace, doesn’t allow for the large paper size. Maybe it will later.
      There were some errors in my Astronomical Calendar 2017 page. I’ve now corrected them. Bad: I was being hastier than I thought. Good: this system allows correction.

  17. Ah, very nice that you can provide an online version of the Calendar. While I certainly loved reading all the back stories and details of some of the predictions, having a calendar will be just great. Thanks so much for doing this!!

  18. The Calendar was always a great work, one that was always looked forward to! But, I realize it was a bear to produce.

  19. I have depended on the Astronomical Calendar for my photography work and I hope to get the ‘heads-up’ on next year’s events besides the total solar eclipse. Thanks for making the attempt to continue.

    Are there ways for us to print a full 2017 Calendar at our leisure on our equipment and schedule?

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