A Night in the Milky Way, August 26-27, 2010

I have so much to post about last night, and all of a sudden my computer doesn't want to cooperate with me, so I will post the two that I have sort of ready.




I hadn’t had a really nice night for astronomy since the weekend of the Perseids, and hadn’t had a night alone with the cosmos for at least a month. Last night I woke up just before sunset, and went out to see if the sky was clear. I stayed out until just before sunrise.

The sky was clear as the orange glow to the west gradually faded to ever darker shades of blue. Venus wasn’t very high, it’s fat crescent sinking fast. Mars and then Saturn revealed themselves to my observant eyes, teasingly reminding me of their nights of glory, with longer, deeper darkness, and bitterly cold winds to bear. Those two frozen worlds shunned the summer night, and disappeared from sight.

Chilly for August, the mosquitoes stayed away. Not a single buzz in my ear under my hoodie. A few crickets chirping, airplanes descending, and coyotes baying at trains off in the distance were the only sounds I heard.

The Moon was up with the night, then Jupiter and Uranus too. But their westward journey would be many hours, while others would not, so I searched the Scorpion, the Archer, and mighty Hercules for spherical stellar globs, ancient miniature galaxies, yet part of our own. By the hundreds of thousands, starlight filled my eye, well received on it’s journey afar. Among these timeless stars, a Ring was expanding, cast off from an exhausted, far away star.

Four dots with a giant, dancing away, and a storm raging larger than Earth. On our beaten up rock, watch the sunlight retreat as she moves to the east, waning nearly a fortnight. Nearby is Herschel’s grayish-blue disk, two hours sunlight distant.

Dazzling stars, finding their place in the Milky Way. Clustered together, by the dozens and scores, some will last much longer than others.

And here comes the Big Dog, to herald the Sun, my quiet night of observing is done.



It was an awesome night, starting with the planets and the Moon, moving on to a string of Messier globulars, keeping track of the sunset on the Sea of Crises and the Galilean Moons around Jupiter, ending with quite a few open clusters, and of course one last look at the Moon and Jupiter.

For a nearly full Moon, I had quite an observing list, in order observed:

Venus
Mars
Saturn
Moon
Jupiter
M28
M22
M80- Very bright.
M 4
M13- Better than M22.
M57
Albireo
Coathanger
M71
M11
Uranus
M92- First time observed! Bright core.
M 9- First time observed. Kind of washed out by LP.
M 6
M54- Really small, really faint.
M31
Pleiades
Hyades Cluster
M29
Double Cluster
M39
M35
M37
M36
M38
M42
M34- First time observed. Nice!
Sirius

Jupiter & the Galilean Moons, August 26-27, 2010

When I first started observing telescopically two summers ago, Jupiter was my favorite target. On more than 40 clear nights I tracked the progress of the Galilean Moons by sketching them as many times as I could each night. Eventually I was able to tell them apart by comparing my sketches to their known orbital periods, and could roughly predict where each Moon would be each night.


Since discovering digital technology, I have sadly given up sketching Jupiter (the only thing I ever sketched at the eyepiece). For old time's sake, I sketched out the positions of the Moons last night when I first observed Jupiter, but subsequently switched the digitally capturing them. It may be my loss as an observer, but it also fun to look back through the pictures and video, find the best stuff, and put them all together. This was most of my night observing the Jovian system:

Astronomy Night at U.S. Steel Yard

Since at least the time I started writing my blog, I’ve assumed that any place with people around and a decent view of the sky is a good location for astronomy. Monday night I proved my hypothesis, setting up telescopes inside the U.S. Steel Yard minor league ballpark, home of the Gary Southshore Railcats. The downtown location alone might turn off most astronomers, not to mention the pollution from U.S Steel Gary Works, which is located within sight of the stands. Throw in the bright lights that a professional baseball game requires, and few astronomers would have the guts to try any serious astronomy.

Last July I presented Railcats General Manager Roger Wexelberg an idea to use astronomy to entertain and educate fans during a ballgame, and he agreed to try it. Monday, August 16 presented a favorable lunar phase and position, and the weather was good for viewing. Hillary and I got to the Steel Yard early, before gates were open to the public to meet with Roger, and have the telescopes set up before fans arrived. Our location, literally out in right field, wasn’t the best for foot traffic around the ballpark, but we posted signs along the concourse pointing the way.






We were way out in right field, but...



...had a great view of the Moon.











A South Shore train heading to South Bend behind the ballpark.




It was Elvis Night. Stadium entertainer Jason Yurechko as Elvis.


Things were slow early on, during daylight, but after an announcement that we were hosting a lunar viewing, and the Moon became more visible in the twilight, several dozen fans found their way out to the right field concourse to see the Moon up close. A few were even lucky enough to see Venus and Saturn. We lost Saturn though, because I didn’t have the go-to tracking until after we got really busy, and was manually slewing every so often. I had Saturn in the Dob, and didn’t want to lose it in the eyepiece, so I asked Hillary to move the telescope over to the Moon without specifying which telescope. Score an error on me for that one.

I had wanted to strictly focus on the Moon, and had a program ready to explain the lunar cycle, along with an observing challenge to identify lunar landmarks, but that was scrapped at the last minute because we lacked a table to set up, and just carrying the telescopes, step stool, and handouts into the ballpark was a workout. I didn’t want to overdo it by hauling out a plethora of excessive resources.




Our first guests!






Things picked up when it started getting dark, and the Moon became more noticeable.



Venus between the stadium lights.


Of course we kept an eye on the action of the game, but since we were there for an astronomical observation I used the slow early innings to explore the regions around Mare Nectaris and Mare Serenitatis. I never get bored of the features surrounding those lunar seas.

The 5th through 8th innings seemed to be our busiest times. It didn’t hurt us that there is a playground behind the center field batter’s eye backdrop, and many parents taking their kids to play stopped to see what was going on. It wasn’t until about the 8th inning that the Moon approached the light bank along the right field foul line, and the glare down the optical tubes started to wash out the view. My 4.5” go-to made it’s first public appearance in a month, and I was happy with it’s performance. In the afternoon I re-aligned the secondary mirror, and gave it a quick collimation. It wouldn’t take high magnification, but it did well with a 25mm eyepiece, 39x magnification. When the Moon drifted near the light banks, the go-to actually gave better views than the Dob, since it’s positioning wasn’t allowing as much stray light down the OTA, and while I had it tracking, it kept the Moon in sight for long stretches. I was one happy astronomer having both telescopes working well.






I had the Chicago Astronomer warning sign taped to my telescope.












My sister and brother-in-law came out for the game, and stopped to hang out for awhile, and I appreciated that they came out to support me. I had hoped for a little higher attendance, both for the ballgame and at my telescopes, but any time I can get out and get people to look up at the sky is a successful event. I thank the Railcats for going along with my crazy idea, and for letting me combine two of my favorite ways to enjoy a summer night, watching a baseball game and watching the sky.








Left to right: My brother-in-law Cecil, my sister's friend Pam, my sister Dawn, and Hillary. I was glad to see them come out for some baseball and astronomy.

Dual Shadow Transits on Jupiter

Friday morning, August 13, 2010, the shadows of Ganymede and Io were falling on the disk of Jupiter during the morning twilight. From the calculations of Curt Renz, I knew that Io's shadow would appear at 5:09 AM Chicago time. I wanted to view this, and if I could, to get images. I have had a cheap Meade Lunar & Planetary CCD imaging system for awhile now, but have not used it much. I brought it for the Perseid peak to try to capture the dual shadow transits on Jupiter Friday morning. The results are not great, but over the course of nearly four hours I recorded the motions of the Galilean Satellites.

http://www.curtrenz.com/1024i.html