52 posts tagged “astronomy”
This is "astronomy month" for me. I didn't mean for it to turn out that way. Sometimes these things just happen. Today I completed setup of a display inside a glass case in the lobby of Westlake's library. The display features modern telescopes loaned to me by Astrozap --a local company-- and antique instruments from an astronomy club friend who is a collector and restorer. I created all of the signs and labels in the case and all of those books on the floor are mine! My only regret is that I couldn't get a banner or big sign to "title" the display. I think people will get the idea anyway. Oh yeah, "astronomy month"... so, there's the display case, then next week I do a public sidewalk astronomy event at that same library. On the 18th, I help commemorate the 70th anniversary of the college observatory, unveil a mural-sized astro-image granted to the observatory by NASA as part of the IYA finale, and offer early evening views of Jupiter -- there's prep involved in those things, as well. Next, on the 21st, I'll be doing a presentation on The Pleiades at a metropark nature center with a brief star party to follow. Finally, on the 28th, it's back to the observatory where we'll be featuring views of the Moon through the grand old telescope -- stunning viewing, actually! Whew. All that AND going to work every day. Yup, for me it's Astronomy Month!
The seeing and the starry sky were exquisite Saturday night for our September Open Night. The sky over the village was cloudless and sparkling with diamond stars. The Milky Way stretched broad and bright overhead, arcing half-way across the sky, dust lanes evident. It was the finest sky I've seen in quite some time. All told 49 visitors came, stretched out over the two hours of the event -- much better than 49 all showing up at once, which has often happened! The smaller crowds at any given time allowed for better interaction with visitors and gave them the sense that they could take their time looking through the telescope. Several College students were in attendance including a young man from Mexico City. Students rarely show up at these events so it was a pleasure to have them. Three students arrived at the scheduled 11:00 closing time and I spent a half-hour with them... they were excited and enthusiastic about the entire experience. Earlier in the evening a girl, maybe eight years old, was obviously enthralled with her views of Jupiter and the Galilean Moons; she even used a chart I provided at the eyepiece to put names to the star-like dots aside the huge planet. It is extremely gratifying when someone, most especially a child, really "gets" what they are seeing when looking through a great telescope. That young lady wasn't just looking at Jupiter, she was observing! Also featured was the Andromeda Galaxy which filled the field of view with its misty wonder - the light of a trillion stars 2.5 million light-years away! Jupiter was resplendent with not only the dark, broad equatorial cloud bands visible, but other "stripes" could be seen in the temperate zones. I must say, between the excellent seeing and improved tracking of the telescope, I enjoyed the best views I've ever had of those two objects, both at 122X. The telescope's right ascension clutch has been slipping badly. By hand-tightening the clutch I found that the telescope tracked as well as some modern electrically-driven scopes making higher-magnification public views practical and enjoyable. Observing Jupiter was, by the way, greatly aided through use of a neutral density filter -- it was difficult to observe without the filter as Jupiter was so very brilliant! It was an excellent night.
The "Towercam" at the top of the Mt. Wilson solar observatory tower captured this image tonight. The facility's Internet connection had been broken for several days having been burned out by an intentionally-set backfire. Tonight the Observatory remains under threat but the degree of danger is believed to be lower now than in recent days. Mt. Wilson is, among other things, the place where Edwin Hubble did much of his groundbreaking work. It is also a modern astronomical research center. The situation is being chronicled in a blog by Mt. Wilson personnel. Image: "Towercam," UCLA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; quality adjusted by JG.
The first week of September saw Earth's Moon and Jupiter in a slow nightly dance across the sky. At first Jupiter trailed the waxing Moon; the week ended with Jove leading. This picture was shot the night of September 1 from the Observatory's back yard. Light just above the trees is light pollution from a nearby small town.
Today is my day to go to work late. Last night was a lovely clear night. I had the time and energy. I had this morning to rest up. So I went to the Observatory last night and wound up staying til almost midnight! Typical of me, I didn't get to bed until close to 2 AM and then pretty much woke at 5:00. Nap? Nope! I went to Hinckley Lake --it was a beautiful morning-- ran an errand, and did my laundry. I'll probably crash later (at work, of course) but it was totally worth it. I saw the brilliant waxing gibbous Moon in great detail last night and Earthbound glories this morning. You have to enjoy times like these when you can for you never know whether they'll come again.
The Perseids Meteor Watch I worked last night was very mixed in results. The Park District set us up in a fine little park with no ground-level lights, a nice paved parking lot, and clear grassy areas. There was a wide view of the sky and a good southern horizon. A Sheriff's deputy was on hand as was the District's naturalist -- really good support. Then there are the "buts"...
Admittedly we put the event together in hurried fashion. Word didn't get out to the public as broadly or with enough lead time so only a couple of families showed up.
Then there was the sky. We were not far away from the city of Ravenna but I'd hoped we would be just far enough away to escape the "light bubble." Not much luck there. As the Sun sank below the western horizon a funny thing happened ... twilight moved to the south. Yeah, huge levels of light pollution rose up in the southern sky right through the heart of Sagittarius. So while the clear skies allowed us to see the Milky Way with dust lane directly overhead, its heart was obliterated by the "Ravenna Nebula." Too bad.
Attendees and volunteers did, however, enjoy a few very good Perseid meteors. I myself saw only about five; being busy with telescopes and chatting with visitors has its costs. The telescope worked fairly well but was impeded for want of a really good polar alignment: it had problems centering on objects it was told to "GoTo" but tracked well once there. The dew point was high and everything quickly became quite damp, even wet. The AstroZap dew shield saved the telescopic view, however, so we saw decent views of Jupiter, the Andromeda Galaxy, and M15 (a globular star cluster in the constellation Pegasus). My night ended with a beautiful meteor speeding overhead, a faint trail lasting for a couple of seconds after its passage. Thank you!
I tore down after the official 11:30 close and headed home. As usual I opened equipment cases and removed the telescope so that it could dry in the dining area of our house. Storing wet equipment isn't a good thing to do. Gad that's a big telescope!
The morning dawned hazy and cool. The chipmunk-planted sunflowers glowed in the early-morning sunshine. And I'm glad I took the day off; perhaps I can nap later.
I was greeted with a splendid view as I made my way downstairs this morning ... the Moon settling into the clouds and trees to our west. Later, Luna sank into thin clouds and I tried a photo of that, convinced it would be mysterious. It wasn't as appealing as this image. I continue to be impressed by the automatic capabilities of the little Canon PowerShot A650 IS. I know I'm repeating myself but it's pretty amazing to me how good a job that camera can do with difficult subjects and conditions. The base exposure was perfect capturing evidence of the Moon's shadowy "seas" on the bright disk. I made some adjustments in GIMP. It is predicted to be a mostly cloudy, stormy, hot, humid weekend so this will probably be the extent of my astronomy. Holding out hope for clear skies for the mid-week Perseids meteor shower -- more on that later!
Tonight is shaping up to be a beautiful night. As the sun lowers into the western sky it casts long shadows and warm light. My thoughts turn to the long trip home from work --my late night-- and the need for rest. If I were to drive toward home but continue on, I'd reach the Observatory by about 10:30. I would probably stay there for more than an hour, getting home at, say, 1:00 Thursday morning ... a "work" day. I'll have to settle for a disappointing peek at the night from my none-too-dark stoop, then crawl into bed. Sadly, I should not answer though the sky is calling.
Despite clear skies our events nearly did not happen. Pulling the ropes to open the observatory's dome shutter I head a loud squawk echo through the chamber -- the shutter had jammed for some reason and would not open fully and would not close. Repeated efforts finally resulted in the shutter opening all the way and we were free to see the sky.
The night saw 26 visitors between 9:00 and 11:00 and they were treated to superb views of the Earth's Moon. As usual the old nine-inch scope excelled at lunar landscapes but the Moon was very high in the sky --not far from the zenith-- and the telescope was not tracking well. We settled for moderate magnification (133X) and enjoyed nearly three-dimensional viewing of Mare Imbrium's crater-marked lava expanses. Wrinkled crater walls, mountain ranges, and long, low, lines of hills looking like frozen ripples in hardened plaster were seen vividly. Views of Saturn were also quite good: the rings tipped towards us at only about three degrees (minimum tilt was reached in January but we missed that). Moments of very good seeing revealed a slight shadow across the planetary disk cast by the rings and a hint of gap between the planet's limb and the inner rings. A special treat was the sight of four of Saturn's moons and, over the course of the evening, noting their changing positions relative to each other and to their planet. Galileo, 400 years ago, never saw the Moon or Saturn a fraction so well as we did. He was, however, very meticulous and a skilled observer of what he could see. The Moon, while beautiful to look at, also lit our less-than-perfectly transparent skies causing quite a bit of glow so we confined ourselves to viewing only it and Saturn. The last visitors departed at about 11:10 PM.
All was routine as I began closing up until I attempted to close the dome. Squawk, boom! The shutter stalled and jammed again on its tracks. This time, however, it was stuck. After many attempts with the ropes I climbed into the opening. I found one of the lower wheels on the shutter had derailed so I lifted the shutter back on to the track. Not enough! The main problem was with the track at the top of the dome! There's no way to reach that point without scaffolds or ladders. It was going on midnight and I didn't know what to do but to keep trying. If anyone was watching from outside it must have been quite a sight... the silhouette of a man in the aperture, bright lights on inside an observatory dome, pushing and pulling and shaking the shutter, until finally it settled into its closed position. Tired, sore, and worried, I shut off the lights, locked up, and headed home at about 12:20 EDT. What a night!
Sunday She and I rose late (I got into bed at around 2:00 AM) and we slowly got around. The day had dawned clear and sunny, if a little chilly, and we had to get out. Since we were both tired, we took a drive to the lakefront town of Vermilion. There, we enjoyed a stroll down to the beach where we watched tug boats working out on Erie. Walked around the downtown area and sampled chocolates made in a small shop there. Wildflowers grew in someone's front yard and at the base of a treelawn tree. A lovely place to visit. Then we headed home. A leisurely day.
As the sun turned to clouds this afternoon my thoughts began to return to the Observatory and the situation there. What are we to do? If we cannot open and close the shutter on the century-old dome, we cannot use the Observatory. Somehow it must be repaired.
It is an unexpected clear night, and it is cold: 17 degrees (F). Between the temperature, recent snows, and being tired it did not make a lot of sense to either set up a telescope (in my situation*) or drive to the observatory to look for the green comet Lulin (C/2007 N3). I did want to see it, however, and it should be easy to spot since bright Saturn and Lulin would be very near each other in the sky.
Even with a relatively clear sky the light pollution of our suburban area is bad. Only the brightest stars and planets were visible this night: Venus was brilliant in the twilight and for a couple of hours after sunset, as it has been all winter. Now Saturn rises at a decent hour and tonight it was well above the southeastern horizon in the great constellation Leo and, due to its golden color, was easily found. Leo was difficult to make out so I'm glad I didn't depend upon it!
Standing in my winter coat and pajama bottoms --yes, it's 17 degrees-- I aimed my 10 x 50 binoculars at Saturn. The brilliant dot floated in the visual field. I couldn't make out the planetary disk but nearby, and to Saturn's south, was a faint, diffuse, oblong cloud -- Comet Lulin. Invisible here to the unaided eye, it's being estimated at between magnitude 5 and 6. No nucleus was visible and no color noticeable. That should not be surprising given less than ideal base sky conditions, light pollution, and the small-aperture binoculars. I took one last look at the semi-starry sky and gingerly walked the icy path back to the house.
Still, I saw the comet on the night when it is passing closest to Earth. And I got out under a "clear" sky with an optical instrument for the first time in months! It has been a long, cold, snowy, and cloudy winter and I'm hoping conditions improve soon. Our first public night for the year is set for March 7 when we'll be looking at Saturn -- the rings will be edge-on this year. And maybe I'll get a better look at that little green fuzz-ball Lulin. You never know!
* I've only purchased equatorial, tripod-mounted refractors til now. For occasions like this, however, a nice Dobsonian-mounted reflector would be great as a grab-and-go telescope. Hmmm.... is there room left in my basement?
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