Alex Martin Hiking Astronomer

06/24/2026

New van update! If you remember, about 3 weeks ago, my old van's transmission went out and all but killed the car, and with some other necessary repairs needing done, it wasn't worth rescuing any further.

So I've been searching for new vans (well, old new vans) and finally landed on one: 2000 Chevy Express 2500 Cargo with only 173,300 miles, 60k fewer than my previous van started with when I bought it.

I have work to do getting the basics together for livability, starting with removing the shelving (and selling it, woot!) but once that's done, I can roll ahead and transform this into my next chapter.

Stay tuned for the final look.

06/22/2026

The endless clear skies of Arizona give way to the 1st Quarter Moon on the 2026 Summer Solstice.

06/21/2026

Though it may not feel like it here in the northern hemisphere, Earth has almost reached its furthest point from the Sun! The June Solstice occurs two weeks prior to Aphelion, when Earth reaches 94.5 million miles out in its elliptical orbit from the surface of the Sun.

While you may think the days only get shorter from here, you'll notice the Sun continues setting later (but rising earlier), causing a slight "pause" in day length due to the fact that the Earth is still slowing down in its orbit, so even though the Sun is starting to move back south, that motion is offset for two weeks by Earth returning to face the Sun ever so slightly quicker than during the its approach to perihelion in January,but the Sun lingering ever so slightly longer in the sky before it rotates out of view.

After we pass aphelion on July 5th, that's when you'll really start to see the sunset and daylength times dropping quickly again, all the way to the December solstice, where it will once again seem to pause until perihelion in January.

06/19/2026

Always in love with the Moon above.

Anyone else have the instinct to look for the Moon as soon as you step outside wherever you are, whether your house, a restaurant, your work, or car?

06/18/2026

The Moon covered up Venus for an 1h 15m on June 17th, right in the middle of the day. Because I'm in Pennsylvania, I don't have my telescope, phone mount, or tripod with me, so this entire video is freehand, hence the shakiness through the binoculars.

And occultation is the technical name for when an object covers up another object behind it. Though it may sound similar to an eclipse or transit, occultations strictly refer to stars or planets being covered by closer objects, such as the Moon or asteroids.

While occultations are much easier to see during nighttime hours, the cosmos doesn't wait for our convenience. However, perhaps the most spectacular recent occultation was those of Saturn, two of which occurred in both September 2024 and November 2024.

While the September 2024 occultation was only visible in the Pacific the November 2024 event was visible on the US east coast. I personally went outside the central line in order to host sidewalk astronomy in a location where people would be able to see Saturn and the Moon graze each other, with Saturn visible the entire time, providing exciting dynamic views for more than 4 hours.

Video is sped up 1.2x in order to be short enough for IG reels and YT shorts.

06/16/2026

The Moon joins Mercury & Jupiter and plays hide-and-seek with Venus tonight and tomorrow!

Tuesday June 16th,look for the Moon hanging out between Mercury and Jupiter. Then, midday on Wednesday, lucky watchers will be able to see the Moon cover up Venus for an hour, and by nightfall, it will be high above it, a crescent smiling back down onto those bright dots.

Ill return to Arizona next week. Keep an eye out for more free telescoping when I get a new van and get back on the road for you.

06/14/2026

To the casual observer, the Hercules Star Cluster is only visible to the naked eye under near-perfect conditions. In a telescope, the cluster comes alive with hundreds visible, and an exposed picture reveals the globular cluster as a dense region of thousands of stars.

Sitting at a whopping 25,000 lightyears away, the Hercules Cluster contains more than 500,000 stars spanning a diameter of nearly 150 lightyears.

For comparison, the Orion Nebula visible during winter months is about 24 lightyears in diameter. Hercules is six times wider and contains nearly 200x more stars!

This is just a taste of what's visible in the night sky during summer months, best viewed without a Moon due to how faint this region is overall.

Want to see them for yourself? Hire me for a private stargazing tour! I'll be covering Flagstaff to Phoenix from June 25th - July 29th, then Missoula and Bozeman, Montana, from August 10th - September 1st. Check the Stargazing Tours page on my website, or DM me for more information!

06/12/2026

Just after finishing the 6th grade, I started hand writing my first sci-fi novel, publishing it in December 2007. A second novel followed in 2009, and a third in 2012.

But those first three were more of what I call my "video game" books; aliens, battles, strange worlds....and very little else that made them readable to the average person (though friends, school, and library put a lot of support toward me).

I changed gears in 2012 and wrote a short story that would eventually become the foundation of EMBASSY by the end of the year, and once I found that this was the story I wanted to tell, I haven't stopped ever since.

I've now published five books in the series, and am actively writing the sixth, plus a separate nonfiction book on the side, intermittently.

My books became the foundation of my career in education, and directly led to me creating Sidewalk Science Center in 2018, which evolved into me doing the Hiking Astronomer these days.

My books *are* my identity. I am a writer first, and will be a writer always. Everything else I do, things I believe in, positions I hold, who I am at my core—all of that is crafted into my books.

06/12/2026

The lead-up and conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. Focus on Venus to really see the motion.

Miscounted when I made the caption so I'm two days off, should be 24 days! All great works have a typo when it's too late 🤪

06/11/2026

My van transmission went caput

Welp, my van's transmission failed, the finale to a series of ongoing issues the past month. Though I may be down, I'm not out. Plus, June 12th is my 22nd writing anniversary!...

Welp, my van’s transmission failed, the finale to a series of ongoing issues the past month. Though I may be down, I’m not out. Plus, June 12th is my 22nd writing anniversary!