Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing

Autumn arrived mid-week here in the Heart of America, but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at the weather forecast:  Mid 90s and moderately high humidity.  Also with the change of the seasons, I retired my FitBit Charge (or rather it retired itself by falling apart) and upgraded to a Samsung Gear Fit2.  The new fitness tracker is spurring me on to be more active, although my sleep pattern hasn’t improved much. I can safely blame work (10 pm to 4 am conference call on a Saturday night/Sunday morning) and astronomy, which requires, well, dark skies, for my reduced snooze time.

Speaking of astronomy, I’ve upgraded, finally after two years of paralysis analysis, from the Meade ETX 90, gifted to me by my father in October 2010 (also, unsurprisingly the birth of this blog site), to an Orion SkyQuest XX14G.  Continue reading “Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing”

Star Light, Star Bright, May I Count You All Tonight?

I missed the opportunity to count stars over the weekend.  Clouds obscured the heavens Friday and Saturday night, but I had absolutely no excuse not to step outside Sunday evening and participate in the Great World Wide Star Count.  Thank goodness that Sky & Telescope‘s Facebook feed reminded me with their article ‘A Star Count for Everyone‘ this morning.

I checked my local five day forecast and I should be able to find Cygnus and count stars tonight and Wednesday.  Tuesday, Thursday and especially Friday are iffy.  This year, I’m going to try to do it from a couple of different locations, not just my backyard (like I did last year).

Here’s all you need to know to participate:

All you’ll need are a clear evening sky sometime between October 5th and 19th, your own two eyes, and a set of simple star charts. First, download the handy five-page activity guide (available in 16 languages) and print the star charts. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll be looking high up for the constellation Cygnus, and its Northern Cross asterism. If you’re south of the equator, the target area surrounds the Teapot in Sagittarius. Each of the seven maps shows stars down to a different magnitude limit, plus one for a cloudy sky.

Then, after stepping out under the early-evening sky and letting your eyes adjust to the darkness, match one of the charts to what you see overhead. Step back inside and report what you’ve found online. You’re done! (Unlike many contests, you can enter more than once! You might be surprised by how much the sky’s darkness can vary from night to night.)

A Star Count for Everyone, Sky & Telescope, Oct. 5, 2012

Fishing for Neptune: Testing the Waters

I couldn’t wait for midnight Friday night.  The forecast for the weekend seemed unbelievable, especially after the scorching heat of the last month.  Clear skies and mid to lower 80s for the high temperatures over the next several days.  I came home from work to a grilled steak and baked potato dinner, prepared by Terry.  Mmm-mmm good.

After dinner, Terry and I began reviewing the DVR play list and guide, deciding to delete many old recordings to free up some disc space.  Our daughter called and chatted with us for about forty-five minutes.  The conversation ended abruptly when her phone battery died.

For dessert, Terry blended a frozen raspberry lemonade.  I read for a few minutes, while slowly sipping the drink (trying to avoid a brain freeze).  I asked him to wake me up around midnight so I could scout the skies in search of the Andromeda galaxy and the planet Neptune. Apollo followed me upstairs to the bedroom to join me in my nap.

Terry woke me up just shortly after midnight.  I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and found my flip flops.  I followed Terry back downstairs to the band room and walked out the patio door to the back yard.  The skies were clear, if not what you’d call dark (why do my neighbors leave their porch lights on all night long?).  I went back inside for one of my star charts and a pair of binoculars.  I didn’t trust myself to lug the telescope outside in the dark, not being completely awake yet.  A survey with the binoculars should be sufficient for my first attempt.

I walked out into my backyard, towards my one remaining pine tree and turned back around to face the east.  What a difference a couple of hours makes!  I could clearly see the Great Square of Pegasus hovering directly over my roof.  In fact, my chimney seemed to be pointing a finger at the famous flying horse.  I remembered what I’d read in the EarthSky post about finding the Andromeda galaxy and put what I’d learned to good use.  With just a pair of mediocre binoculars, I easily found the smudge that is M31.  Now I regretted not moving the XT8 outside before I took my nap.

I turned ninety degrees to the right and began scanning the southern skies.  I can’t see most of the southern horizon, which is blocked by my neighbors tall trees and houses (and all the exterior lighting attached to them).  I lose a good twenty if not thirty degrees of sky in all but one direction, to the southwest I can see a bit of horizon, but only through the even worse light pollution generated by the parking lot of a doctor’s office and the streetlights along Main Street (also known as K-7/US-73).

I needed to find the constellations Aquarius and Capricornus.  The ecliptic passes through both of these constellations.  Neptune swam the night skies somewhere between the two constellations on the invisible ecliptic course all the planets chart.  The trouble in finding Neptune in this area of the sky comes from a lack of bright stars to anchor from for star hopping.  I spent the next hour comparing the star atlas from my pocket guide to the stars I saw through the binoculars and eventually convinced myself I had found the southeastern tip of Capricornus.  Just above those stars, I believe I found the two brightest stars in Aquarius, Sadalmelik and Sadalsuud, but those two stars were too high above the ecliptic and too far away in the field of view of the binoculars to find Neptune.  I needed to do more research and next time use a telescope to help cut through the fog of light pollution.

After an hour, I returned inside and went back to bed, resolved to research better star charts in the morning.

I went back to Astronomy.com and re-read the article on Neptune, but I just couldn’t relate their star chart (shown above) to what I’d observed last night through the binoculars. I would need more magnification and a more steady mount to zoom in and match up the stars shown above to the field of view of the XT8.

I tried Sky and Telescope’s web page and found a better set of charts in a PDF format in their article about Uranus and Neptune visibility during 2012.  I downloaded the document and will print it today to keep with the rest of my star charts.

Saturdays are always packed full of activities, so I’m hoping I’ll still have the energy tonight to make a second attempt at finding Neptune.  My scouting trip showed me what I needed to overcome before I proceed with netting Neptune.

Heat Bubble Bursts Just in Time for Summer Stargazing

Powell ObservatorySaturday evening I headed south to Louisburg to volunteer for my second scheduled night of the 2012 Powell Observatory public season.  My dad decided to tag along, to enjoy the show and help keep me awake for the long drive home.  We left Lansing about twenty minutes after five and my car’s external thermometer reported 106 to 107 degrees, which has been our afternoon average for about a week now, give or take two or three degrees either way.  We stopped in Bonner Springs to grab a quick, cool sandwich from Subway and returned to the highway just shortly after six o’clock.  I needed to be at Powell Observatory by seven o’clock to help prepare the facility for the weekly public program and observing night.

As we approached Louisburg from the north, I noticed a definite increase in the wind, so much so that my car was jostled several times.  At the same time, I noticed a significant drop in the external temperature.  By the time I exited US-69, the thermometer read 92 degrees, and was still falling.  Except for early mornings the past couple of weeks, I had not seen or felt such low temperatures while the sun still shone.  I pulled into the west observing field parking area and realized I was again the first person to arrive.  Since the temperature had dropped, I turned off the car and opened all the windows.  The breeze felt incredibly refreshing.

My team leader arrived within a few minutes and I received my Powell Observatory ‘Staff’ T-shirt, which I changed into as soon as the building was unlocked.  I helped setup the class room for the program, ‘Sounds of Space.’  Another ASKC member arrived and setup his ten-inch Dobsonian for solar observing and I caught a glimpse of some great sunspots before our public guests began arriving.  The clouds provided some dramatic solar observing situations.

Pre sunset from Powell Observatory
Click image for more sunset photos from Powell Observatory

I repeated my role as gatekeeper and accepted donations from the public and queried them for their ZIP codes to record for future grant petitions.  The first group of twenty-five guests began the ‘Sounds of Space’ program at 8:30 p.m., but I soon had at least that many waiting for the second showing. At one point as I sat waiting for more guests to arrive, what I thought was a stray dog wandered into the observing field, soon followed by three horses, two with riders and a third colt between them.  They trotted across the field to the west, with the dog trailing after, riding off into the sunset … literally.

Constellation Scorpius
Constellation Scorpius

As the sky continued to darken, despite a few wispy clouds, we opened the dome so those waiting for the next program could observe Saturn and a globular cluster found in the constellation Scorpius.  I didn’t get a chance to look at the cluster through the 30-inch scope, but I believe they looked at M4, which is near the bright star Antares.

We ended up having nearly ninety public guests Saturday evening and ran a third showing of our program.  After the last two guests had left the dome a bit after eleven o’clock, I quickly snuck a peak at the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra, one of the Messier Objects I’ve been trying go get a glimpse of for quite some time.  Lyra is also home to the very bright star Vega, one of the three stars that form the Summer Triangle.

As the final guests drove away, my team members and I began cleaning the building and storing chairs, tables and other items for the next Saturday.  I signed myself out of the Observatory at 11:35 and gathered up my dad for the long drive home.  He related information he’d gleaned from another team members about various types of Dobsonian telescopes and helped keep me alert as we sped north towards Leavenworth County.

Next week, we present a program on ‘Our Amazing Moon’ and the following week we’ll pose the question ‘Is There Life Out There?’  We look forward to showing you the astronomical sights (and sounds).

Until then, Keep Looking Up!

Meteor Sprinkles Likely

My husband is a night owl.  Ironic, since I’m the one with the astronomy bug, but can’t seem to keep my eyes open after nine o’clock.  Saturday evening, Terry went over to a friend’s house to watch the latest UFC pay-per-view fight.  I looked forward to an evening of quiet, watching a movie, reading a book and making sure Apollo got extra dog treats.  Before Terry left, though, I asked him to wake me up after midnight, preferably between two and four in the morning, so I could take advantage of the dark of the moon and a meteor shower. He remembered and got me out of bed at 3:30 a.m.

Vega in the Constellation Lyra
Vega in the Constellation Lyra

I shook myself awake and staggered outside in my flip-flops.  I drug the folding chair to a better location on the patio, and leaned back, stretching out my legs in front of me so my head rested comfortably on the chair back, allowing me to see nearly all the sky overhead.  My eyes immediately spotted Vega, the brights star in the constellation Lyra.  As I mentioned in Friday’s blog post Meteors After Midnight, this weekend’s meteor shower appears to originate from the constellation Lyra, hence the name “Lyrid Meteor Shower.”

Constellation Scorpius
Constellation Scorpius

Within ten minutes, I spotted a meteor.  I decided I needed a sweater or a blanket, so I went back inside to find something to keep my upper body warm and protected from the wind.  I settled back into the chair and gazed around the night sky, trying to connect the dots and recognize and memorize some constellations.  I easily spotted Scorpius (aka Scorpio) almost due south of me.  I could not see my own birth month constellation, Libra, directly west (right) of Scorpio because the stars that form the scales are too faint to be seen from my backyard.  Another interesting bit of trivia about my husband: He’s a Scorpio, whom Libras are never supposed to marry.  According to Chinese astrology, Terry and I went supposed to marry either.  In eight days, we celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary.  Go figure.  But back to Scorpius.  The bright star, Antares, flashed red or green, probably due to the atmosphere and it’s proximity to the southern horizon.

At four o’clock, I went back inside to steep a mug of tea.  I boiled some water in the microwave and selected Irish Blend loose leaf tea (my favorite).  Another five minutes later, I had a piping hot perfect blend of tea and sugar to take outside with me.  While I waited for my tea to steep, I tried to memorize the constellations displayed on the ‘Guide to the Stars’ wheel I purchased recently for Terry.  I set it to the appropriate time of night and month/day so I could identify the stars and constellations I saw above the roof of my house.  No matter how hard I tried, though, I could not find the constellations Ophiuchus or Hercules, which should have been easily spotted between Lyra and Scorpius.  I guess I just couldn’t see enough of the stars to connect the dots and learn those two new constellations.

At one point, a large bird flew directly overhead, barely skimming over the roof of my house.  Once the bird cleared my roof and flew over the court, the lights from the houses ringing our cul-de-sac lit the undersides of its wings.  I think it might have been an owl, but I can’t be entirely sure.  My eyes were focused farther away, watching for falling meteors, than a few feet above my head.

I saw two more meteors before I decided to call it quits and go back to bed.  I gave up at 4:30 a.m.  I had hoped for a few more than just three total for the night.  The ‘forecast’ for the meteor shower claimed upwards of twenty per hour, but I saw only a sprinkling.  Adding the ones I saw last night to the two I saw Friday night at the star party, I observed a total of five meteors this weekend.  Clouds have moved in from the north today (Sunday), so I doubt I’ll get a chance to try again tonight.  Besides, it’s a work night which means I need to be asleep by nine o’clock.

Review: All Seated on the Ground

All Seated on the GroundAll Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read the electronic version via the Asimov’s website: http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0805/allse…

Probably rates a 3.5, but like Connie Willis, I love Christmas and singing in very large choirs. Combining the two, especially with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, is priceless.

And as Aunt Judith and the Altairi reminds us: ‘A prompt handwritten note expressing gratitude is the only proper form of thanks.’ I’ll be posting those notes to friends and family today.

Highly recommended, especially during this joyous season, bearing tidings of comfort and joy to all.

View all my reviews

What a Difference a Week Makes …

This will be a conglomeration of star gazing journal and family events and I only have fifteen minutes to spit it out! So here goes:

First, the star gazing report:  My dad and I traveled to Winfield to visit my aunt and uncle for the weekend.  Since the weather was forecast to remain calm, clear and the moon was just barely a sliver, I took the telescope and accessories with us.  We spent the day visiting, enjoying experimental cooking from my aunt and uncle (which was delicious, don’t get me wrong) and doing fall tree trimming and another household repair a la my dad.  I have photos of a couple of the close calls my dad avoided, but that will have to wait for another post.

Later in the evening, after another wonderful new recipe for dinner, as the sun set and the moon quickly followed, we setup the telescope just in time to catch a glimpse of the craters of the moon along the terminus.  Everyone got a chance to view before the moon slipped towards the horizon and behind the tree line.

Now, we waited for Jupiter (which was visible already) and the first few stars (Altair, Deneb and Vega).  We relocated the telescope to the backyard (for a better angle on Jupiter) and my aunt invited a couple of neighbors to view Jupiter’s spectacular display.  We discovered, over the course of the evening, the Jupiter’s moon move quite fast, so much that when the evening began, we only saw three moons, and as it progressed we saw the fourth appear and a couple others move out and up in their orbits.

My personal goal for the evening was  a second attempt to find Comet Hartley 2.  So I was just killing time until the skies darkened enough to make the attempt.  In the meantime, I showed my aunt and uncle the double star in the Big Dipper (Mizar/Alcor)  and of course we began to see the great sweep of stars for the Milky Way.

We took a break (about an hour or so) to sit inside and rest our backs (tree trimming was only a regular activity for my father) and returned to hunt for the comet.  My dad and I tried for another hour, but haze, trees and light pollution were not helping us.  We finally gave up around 11:00 p.m. and headed off to bed.

I woke at my normal 5:00 a.m. timeframe and migrated up to the dark living room.  My uncle soon arrived and we both exited outside to determine the location of Cassiopeia.  That region of space was still not dark ‘enough’ I believe and clouds were rolling in fast from the west.  I did point out Orion and Sirius almost directly due south at that time of morning.

After another wonderful meal (this time breakfast of course), we visited and discussed books, movies, politics, religion … all the usual topics I’ve come to know and love with my close family.  Lunch was a local Chinese buffet followed by a mini-tour of Southwestern’s campus, where it’s celebrating it’s 125th year and Ron’s art (as an alum from 1968) is featured in Baden Hall.   Recently remodelled, it had formerly housed some of Arthur Covey’s artwork and still sports a block dedicating the fireplace from Arthur to his art professor Dunlevy.

Rain rolled into Winfield and followed Dad and I north along the turnpike, peaking in Emporia where we stopped for supper and Braum’s ice cream, but tapered off as we continued northeast along I-35 to K-7 in Olathe and finally reaching Lansing/Leavenworth by 8:00 p.m. — only one hour late mostly due to too much talking (missing exits) and stopping for gas and food.

A wonderful weekend getaway in Winfield I hope to repeat in the future.

Ciao,

Jon

My Star Gazing Journal

Transferred from MySpace Blog (originally posted October 3, 2010):

Yes, I’m back.  Converting my hibernating blog from occasional theological musings to my star gazing renaissance journal.

Decades ago, I lived miles from anywhere, out in the country, far from city lights.  The nights were filled with hooting owls, howling coyotes, chirping crickets, and thousands of stars.  Half the year the nights are longer than the days so I spent many hours looking up.  In high school, I even had my own telescope.

Then, I went away to college.  I took my telescope with me, but Wichita exploded with light and Lake Afton could have been twelve parsecs away for all the good it did me, since I had no vehicle.  Eventually, I got married, had kids, moved out to a small town, but northeast of Wichita, so light pollution still crowded out the stars.  And toddlers zapped me of all my energy.

Almost fifteen years ago, I relocated back to my home county (Leavenworth) but chose to live in Lansing rather than the country, deciding a good school was the best option for my children’s educational needs.  Now, both of them are in Texas, attending college, and I’m an empty nester.

This past weekend, I said farewell to the first half of my life (I’m basing this on both grandmothers living to age 90 and 88) and embarked on the downhill slide to eternity.

Jupiter this October 2010 is so bright it shines nearly as bright as the moon some nights.  With binoculars I could see three or four of the moons as well as Jupiter.  With such a beautiful object hanging over me each evening, I started looking at telescopes on Craig’s List.  I made the mistake of e-mailing my dad one of the entries (which I specifically told him NOT to buy) but come my birthday, this past Saturday, what did he show up with but a very nice telescope, tripod, several eyepiece lenses, a digital camera and sundry other accessories.  I was flabbergasted, speechless, overjoyed, overwhelmed, excited … you name it, that’s what I was feeling.

Getting my brain to switch gears and re-learn all the astronomical jargon after more than 30 years proved daunting at first, but I quickly picked it back up.  I went in search of other amateur astronomers (hoping for some in the Leavenworth area) and stumbled upon the web site for the local Kansas City club.  And, I discovered that most Saturday nights were open to the public for programs and viewing at Powell Observatory (near Lindsburg, about 20 minutes south of Overland Park on US 69).  I asked my dad if he had any plans for that evening, he said no, so I dragged my husband and my dad down to the observatory for a program on telescopes and the opportunity to look at Jupiter and its moons through a 30 inch telescope.  Very impressive and fun.

I took my birthday gift (and all the accessories) with me.  It was a good thing, too, because Terry couldn’t wait in line as long as was needed and wouldn’t have been able to climb the steep steps to the large telescopes eyepiece (his back, ribs and ankle have been problematic lately).  Dad and I quickly setup my telescope and found Jupiter (easy to do since it’s the brightest object in the sky this week since there is no moon right now).  That allowed Terry to view Jupiter almost as well as through the large telescope.

The night sky over Powell Observatory is vibrant with the Milky Way and all the stars you could hope to view.  Excellent location away from the Kansas City lights and nothing to the south to disrupt the view.

After returning home from Powell, I spent a couple of hours learning how to align my telescope.  I quickly learned my backyard is not conducive to any extensive star gazing.  Overlooking that fact that I’m only a few blocks south of the Lansing Correctional Facility (and it’s very bright very orange lights), my house dominates the east side of the propery (the south end is a tall two stories with a peaked roof.  The west side of my backyard has two pine trees, one of which is extremely tall (close to twice as tall as my house) and a maple tree (that’s about 2/3 as tall as the pine tree right next to it).  My neighbor immediately two my north is at a higher elevation than me (probably at least ten feet higher) and has a very large round tree in the middle of their back yard, which blocks the ability to site on Polaris from the north half of my backyard.  Every star the telescope wanted to use to align the Alt/Az motors on was blocked by trees.

So, at midnight, I gave up and came back in and went to bed.  I spent Sunday learning more about the Autostar hand device, the digital camera and dialing in my viewfinder.  I took a couple of photos but the batteries died in the digital camera after only three snapshots.  Adding the weight of the camera to the end of the telescope also jacked with my viewfinder alignment, so I decided to worry about digital photography at a later time.

After church, I drove out on west 4-H Road to the ‘new’ Lansing community park (named after our current seemingly permanently elected mayor who shall remain nameless in my blog).  I was pleased to note that the park had no street lights and no mature trees around the central ‘high spot that included a circular sidewalk area that looked reasonably level.  I determined to return at sunset and try again to properly align the telescope.

I got packed up and arrived at the park at 6:45 p.m., about fifteen minutes before the sun set.  I patiently waited for the sky to darken.  Jupiter, of course, showed up within fifteen minutes of sunset.  The first actual star I saw was Altair, soon followed by Vega and Deneb.  Three stars in three different constellations almost directly overhead that form a triangle easily seen by the naked eye.

Once I started to see the Milky Way (which is always a good thing for good star gazing), I again attempted to align the telescopes motors through various stars in the Autostar device.  I was unsuccessful using stars.  After an hour or more, I finally gave up and manually located (without using the motors) Jupiter and then used a feature of the Autostar device to synchronize on that known object (Jupiter) and allow the motors to track Jupiter for continuous viewing.

I let the telescope track (or attempt to track) Jupiter for a few minutes and began to notice Jupiter drifting off to my left.  So I began to wonder if the telescope’s gears or motors may not be functioning at 100%.  Since I had successfully aligned on Jupiter, I attempted to find a couple of other objects that were easily identified, and then return to Jupiter to check (and double-check) the alignment.  Each time I attempted to return to Jupiter, the left-right alignment was off by quite a bit.

Since the temperature this evening was dropping fast (down into the mid 40s) I decided to call it a night and carefully packed up the equipment and returned home to write this journal.

My action items for this week are to attempt to train or re-train the telescope’s drives (per the instruction manual) to see if that improves the slewing, tracking and alignment issues.  If not, then I will call Meade, the manufacturer, for advice or suggestions on servicing and/or repairing the drives.

I was just a bit disappointed in not being able to view or find the comet, but I have time (it will reach optimum brightness on October 20th).  But viewing Jupiter in all its glory was well worth the time spent getting centered.

Keep looking up!

Jon