28 posts tagged “observatory”

Tonight I'm supposed to have the Observatory open for a public "stargazing" event. Actually, we're scheduled to look at the Moon and the planet Jupiter. Both of those objects look great in the grand old telescope. Unfortunately it is cloudy and rainy and prospects appear poor that we'll be able to look at either the Moon or the planet. If we must cancel, we must but this will be three months in a row that we've canceled due to weather or sky conditions! It gets frustrating for all concerned after a while! I suppose, on the "up" side, it creates a pent-up desire and appreciation on the part of our visitors. Still, serial cancellations are not good for your reputation even if the reasons for canceling are not your fault! In a few hours we'll see how it really turns out.

This day we did our usual provisioning. On our way for groceries we spotted an Eastern Box Turtle trundling along on the concrete median separating four lanes of speedy traffic. Fortunately we were able to stop safely, pack the beautiful creature into the car, and whisk him off to a new and hopefully safer home in the nearby Metropark. (Sorry, no photo! I should have had my camera with me.) Long ago I would have wanted to keep him as a pet but not nowadays. I have to believe he has a much better chance at a long and happy life where we left him than where we found him! I smiled as I watched the turtle moving away through the leaf litter of the woods. After a quick shop at Heinen's we dropped our goods at home and took a trip out to the Fairlawn shopping district. We were to look for digital TV converter boxes for Her mother and a few food items at the Mustard Seed Market. Lunch at Panera Bread was excellent with entertainment provided by Mother Nature in the form of a downpour -- entertaining if you're enjoying warm soup at a dry table! We didn't buy a converter since we've not heard of any of the manufacturers! At least we now know what stores have what boxes and we have plenty of time to make a choice.

Japanese Beetle

While doing a few light chores I had occasion to go outdoors. It had been raining and the humidity was sky-high (see above... sky high!?) leaving flowers and leaves with beads of rain sparkling in the muted sunshine. There, amongst the other gems, was a Japanese beetle. I know, I know, they're considered a pest. Quite a few "bad" things, however, have a beauty about them and the Japanese beetle with its iridescent shell is one of them. Looking the beetle up on Wikipedia, I did learn one interesting fact about them... Japanese beetles have a curious, identifying defense: they lift their hind legs up in the air, even when simply approached. These hind legs are spiny, and the behavior is probably intended to ward off predators. By George if our little bug didn't raise its spiny legs in protest as I pushed the camera ever closer to its tiny body!

I spent Saturday night at the observatory first sweeping up --dead ants everywhere-- and then experimenting with the 9-inch telescope. Three local high school students saw that the front door was open and stopped by for a visit. I spoke with them a bit about the observatory and telescope, gave them a look at the Moon, and sent them on their way -- this was not a scheduled open night! The Moon was big and bright and, unfortunately, was washing out 'most everything else in the sky. My main target for the night was to have been the grand M4 globular star cluster in Scorpius. Couldn't see it... too close to the Moon. So I tried something I'd not experimented with before and hand-held my FinePix digital camera to the ca. 1900 telescope's fist-sized eyepiece and shot some photos. The big eyepiece presents bright, sharp low-magnification views and is my favorite for observing any phase of the Moon. It turns out to be perfect for the "afocal" photographic technique as well! A couple of the images were quite good and I am delighted with them. Converting the images to grayscale seemed to help so that's what I am displaying here. First is the whole, waxing gibbous phase disk... about three days from full. The second image is detail from the full disk shot.

Moon View

Moon View - Detail

Later I practiced use of the telescope's clock-driven right-ascension (R.A.) clock and indicator. With some effort I was able to find the beautiful galactic pair M81 & M82 in the northern sky; that was the first time I'd been able to find those galaxies with the big scope! The view wasn't so good as the slightly hazy sky was lit up, even that far north, by that old devil Moon, but the success boosted my confidence. I should now be able to more easily find charted objects... I still must master aiming in declination to really locate things! In all, a good night.

Bob

Saturday was a kind of personal "astronomy day" for me.

First I met my predecessor in the position of Observatory curator. Bob was coming to town for a visit with family and wanted to meet me at the college Observatory. He's 77 now but active in his retirement as a tour guide at a professional observatory facility in Arizona -- "for the perks!" The job gives him access to the facilities himself.  He filled me in on some of the recent history and background of the Ohio facility and the workings of our century-old telescope. Though he rarely visits the area, he has taken an interest in the progress we're making with the Observatory and cares about its future, especially, of the vintage instrument. I'm sure we'll be in communication with each other for some time to come.

Sky conditions for Saturday night were forecast to be excellent (for Northeastern Ohio). I learned that some friends from the astronomy club were going to the club's observing site. I decided to take advantage of the situation and use my own telescope for the first time in more than a year! Well, even our usually accurate sky forecast can be wrong and this one was! An unexpected thin layer of cloud moved in so that, by twilight, it covered the darkening sky with a thin "haze." Drat! Everyone was disappointed as it was our best chance for stargazing for the entire holiday weekend. As it turns out the experience served us well as a shakedown. Lynn was learning how to operate the Sphinx computerized telescope mount (much cursing), Steve was apparently having focus problems (maybe atmosphere related but he wasn't sure), but I had a pretty good night.

I remembered how to put everything together --which was a bit surprising-- and, even more surprising, my own computerized telescope system performed flawlessly. It had been very tempermental most times in the past. My telescope's alignment was a bit off (my fault) so the system wasn't perfect in finding things, but I did manage to find and enjoy views of Saturn (beautiful), Mars (tiny and disappointing), galaxies M81 & M82 (unimpressive this night due to atmosphere), and a surprising view of M104 --the Sombrero-- which I had never seen before. The Sombrero, to my eye, looked like a long string of stars, like a stretched star cluster, instead of a fuzzy cloud -- the way most galaxies look when viewed through a small telescope. Optically my big refractor did at least as well as neighboring Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes (SCT) delivering excellent quality images of, especially, Saturn under the less than ideal conditions. I was very happy with the beast! I also spied my first Iridium flare which is an extended "flash" of light reflected off one of the many Iritium communications satellites that circle Earth. I had forgotten the custom dew shield for the telescope and, by about midnight, the objective was getting fogged up -- the telescope tube was already just about dripping!

I came home happy but late after a rewarding day with friends and the night sky.

Cincinnati Observatory

The day of presentations seemed to go on forever at the Antique Telescope Society's workshop. There was really good content but way too many hours of it. So I got up and walked out of the classroom --the former meridian transit room of the observatory-- or shifted in my seat. Often. At times rain poured down in sheets as we heard discussions of the viability and survivability of "Vintage Observatories" in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong... the presentations were both interesting and informative. My bottom still got sore from all the sitting, though. Fortunately the sky began to clear off in the late morning hours and many of us enjoyed strolling around the grounds of the Cincinnati Observatory Center. I shot many photos both indoors and outdoors showing various views of the main observatory building and the smaller Mitchel Building on Mt. Lookout.  After dinner I listened impatiently to presenters but was really anticipating sunset and a chance to look through the grand 16-inch Alvan Clark & Sons telescope, showpiece of the Center.

The Big Telescope

From inside the classroom I heard a rumble. Someone said that was the sound of the dome being rotated. So I ran up the stairs and into the dome room and got to see the huge dome rotate above me. The presenting astronomer for the evening offered me the honor of opening the shutter for the night's observing. He said to be careful to stand directly under the rope-operated pulley so as not to derail the rope and cause it to fall off. I got the shutter opened but managed to drop the rope! {Sigh.} Fortunately it was easy to fix: rotate the dome so that the aperture was over the observer's chair, climb up, loop the rope over the pulley -- fixed!

The astronomer also let me turn the crank to wind the drive weights into position. Or was that something like Tom Sawyer "letting" his friends paint the fence? No matter, I grabbed hold with both hands and turned the crank lifting 300 pounds of cold iron. Conversing with the observatory staff and just hanging around in the dome was a fine time for me, far from the yammering crowd below!

As luck would have it --this always seems to happen-- clouds began to roll in at about the time it got dark enough to spot Saturn. We all got at least one glimpse of the ringed world before solid overcast moved in and shut us down. I was allowed, and requested, to run the R.A. slow-motion control to center up Saturn before clouds could obscure it. That would allow some lead time should another opening appear in the cloud deck (and one or two did) whilst the telescope was tracking. The telescope is the largest refractor I've ever used and it moved smoothly and easily with the turn of a knob. I got one good, brief look at Saturn but that second or two hinted at how good the telescope is: I glimpsed at least three of Saturn's moons, some banding in the planetary body, and my first look at the Cassini Division -- the dark separation in the ring system.  And that was on a night of poor seeing!

The conference ends tomorrow (Sunday) with a half-day of sessions, door prizes, and a fond farewell to the Observatory Center. I may post one more photo here, but I'll have much to think about and photos to share and enjoy for quite some time to come. It's been a good visit.

Things have been fairly routine around here. Well, routine can mean different things to different people. Mostly it was the weekend when things were happening....

Tasha developed disturbing symptoms that appeared to be cystitis. Frequent urination, straining at the litter box, inappropriate urination, and restlessness/meowing all presented themselves. The symptoms had come and gone about a week earlier, but reoccurred with a vengeance late last week. So I took off early Friday and delivered one unhappy kitty to the vet; her symptoms had calmed so it was the trip to the vet that displeased her. Tests showed no crystals in her urine but there were signs of a bladder infection so poor Tasha got a penicillin injection and is receiving a week-long course of twice-a-day oral antibiotics to try and knock out whatever bug was causing her discomfort. She's tolerating the dosing well in part because I've (finally) become somewhat adept at the eyedropper. Kitty seems to be back to normal. We'll hear from Dr. B concerning lab results today or tomorrow.

Saturday my car went to the "car vet" --dealer service-- for regular maintenance. They checked our record and found it's time for the timing belt to be replaced! Oh, joy: another big, unexpected expense! It's better than having the darned thing break which, we were told, does enough damage to the engine to cost on the order of $3,500 to fix. Still we didn't see this one coming.

Saturday night I had the observatory open from 9 to 11:00 PM at the behest of the student environmental group. This open night was to be a part of their Earth Day activities. A bat had moved back into the dome and/or shutter as had a bird or two. I chased the bat out of the dome and, before leaving, turned up the obnoxious "sonic repellent" that had been successful in keeping "Baxter" away. Unfortunately --or not, given sky conditions-- this was also the college Springfest and the poor old observatory was up against a pop music concert, an orientation day, and several other activities. With many alternatives and little promotion we had only two visitors --a student couple-- all night. Gave them a look at Saturn with moons Titan, Rhea, and Dione visible and told them about the observatory, telescope, etc. Sky conditions were clear but seeing was generally not very good with high-altitude water vapor preventing the sky from being very black. I couldn't find dim objects, not even M44 (The Beehive star cluster) but Saturn looked surprisingly good; the shadow of the ring system could be seen on the planetary body. Maybe a hint, now and again, at cloud banding on the planet. I took a look at Mars but between seeing preventing high-power views and with Mars receding and becoming quite small, it was less interesting than usual. That was about it for observing! I was happy to head home.

Sunday activity was chosen by She Who Must be Obeyed so we took our first bicycle ride of the season... the flat and easy rail-to-trail facility that runs through Oberlin. The weather was clear and cool with temperatures of about 65 degrees and light wind. The riding was easy and pleasant though we both wound up with sore-ish muscles from that short and easy 27-mile jaunt! Felt pitiable but it's been many months since we've been on two wheels. Lunch at Oberlin's Quizno's was very good and did not make us feel more guilt. One weird experience: when we parked our bikes at Quizno's my wireless bicycle computer, instead of registering zero miles-per-hour was reading upwards of 65 miles-per-hour whilst standing still! Apparently some radio source inside the building was causing the bizarre behavior. We didn't think about photographing the display until later and, when we returned to the sandwich shop to reproduce the experience, nothing happened! Cool photo gets away.

In all this weekend of cats, bats, and bikes was a good one.

The other evening we were, as I recall, shutting off our big projection TV when we heard a loud "PHOFFF" sound from inside its cabinet. The first thing I thought was that the projection lamp had blown. I fetched my screwdriver and opened the access door for the lamp and, sure enough, the thing had blown. Fragments of glass and filiment littered the inside of the cone-shaped lamp body. It took a little research but I found a source online, ordered the replacement, and within about 48 hours received the new unit. It was expensive --lamp plus express shipping was just under $200-- but less expensive than many alternatives like a repair shop or replacing the TV. It was a delicate operation but not too difficult to uninstall the old 100-watt lamp and replace it. Now the TV's back in shape and, most importantly, She Who Must be Obeyed can watch Smallville on the big screen. Funny thinking about the changes in television sets from the old "picture tubes" and vacuum tubes to, now, projection lamps, and plasma or LCD panels, and printed circuits.

I have the day off today --but must work Saturday and Sunday-- so spent the day with a routine visit to the dentist, walk around the shopping mall, shipping about 800 copies of my printed work, and resting a bit. It's a chilly, drizzly, foggy day and a good one for staying indoors, listening to music, reading, napping. And for once I got to do some of each of those things. Ahhh!

Next week I've another Friday off and ought to head out to the Observatory to tidy up. I also need to get a clear night there and a practice session on my own -- there's a public open night scheduled for April 19 and I want to be prepared. When the weather warms a bit I also want to work on completing the restoration of the old bronze plaque that adorned the entrance to the 1939 Observatory. Refinishing involves applying lacquer and the fumes are just too wicked to have in the house or to bear in a closed space; I'll do the work at the Observatory by day and let it dry there at night. I'm looking forward to some time off and comfortable weather, some time spent in the quiet environs of that old "space place."

Redemption

As I noted in an earlier entry, this was an exhausting week. Fortunately there were no incidents at work that demanded my attention either Friday or today. I got a decent night's sleep --a fairly solid six hours-- leaving me wanting for a bit more but feeling like I'm recovering. Today She Who Must Be Obeyed took her car in for service and we took off for a McDonald's breakfast followed by Saturday shopping at Target, Kohl's, lunch at Bruegger's Bagels and provisioning at Mustard Seed Market. The atmosphere was foggy all morning and the sky gray all day but there was no rain or snow falling. It was great to be out and about without the weight of any crisis or deadline. Just palling around with "She" for the day. The car needed little service and the mechanic was very pleasant to deal with -- a positive experience. There was supposed to be an Observatory open night tonight but the solid overcast and expected snow caused me to cancel the event. {Ma Nature stepped in to slow me down a bit more.} So tonight we try out a veggie version of a Rachael Ray recipe, enjoy (I hope) a little local wine --"Redemption" from the Wolf Creek winery (beautiful location, okay wine), and kick back for a restful evening. Ahhhh.... time off!

Wine note: Yes, it's a "red table wine," and those tend to be mellow and sweet. Redemption has those characteristics plus a strong cherry flavor and ruby red color. Not a fine wine but it should go well with our "meat" loaf dinner! And isn't that what a "table wine" is about?

I spent Saturday night at the observatory... it was our local observance of the Saturn Observation Campaign's Saturn Observation Night. The ringed planet was very near opposition and, after a partly-cloudy day, we were treated to a chilly but clear night. Saturn shown like a yellow diamond in the east and was, as always, a crowd-pleaser in the eyepiece. Seeing was fairly good (not excellent) and we could spot four moons, see the space between the inside of the rings and the limbs of the planet, and got regular glimpses of banding in the planetary atmosphere. In all 33 people of a wide range of ages visited the observatory and looked through the telescope. Most didn't stick around; after seeing Saturn they took off for home -- probably because it was a cold 28 degrees in the dome. Many also were treated to views of the Orion Nebula and eight late-comers climbed high on a ladder to see the rising, waning gibbous Moon.

Sweetie and I woke Sunday to a strange smell in the air. I thought it was Her hand, smelly from working with garlic the night before. No, it wasn't that! We searched the house for the source of the acrid, garlic-vinegar stench but to no avail: not the trash bag, not the garbage disposer, not the cat box, not anything we could find. It occurred to me that it might be the solenoid actuator on the heat pump's humidifier overheating and failing. I shut off the humidifier and we opened the house briefly to air the place out. There's still a hint of the odor here but it's tolerable now. This may be a mystery stink for a while... at least until we have the heat pump looked at for routine service.

My Mom has spinal surgery tomorrow. I'll be headed over there to greet her in recovery. It's not a particularly high-risk procedure but that sort of thing is always a worry!