Astronomy class semi-success

The weather forecast was all over the place for tonight's Hiram College astronomy class visit to the Observatory. Would it be cloudy, rainy, partly-cloudy, clear, clear but poor seeing? We saw all of those forecasts. It looked like it might clear up for the 9:30 start so we called it a "go" and opened up. About 18 students with their professor attended. Started off with the usual historical and interpretive talk about the Observatory and telescope while we waited for the sky to darken. We had partly-cloudy skies and sultry 80-degree air for the start, first viewing the red super-giant star Antares. Sometimes it winked out of sight as a cloud passed, then it would reappear. When everyone had seen the colorful blip, I moved the telescope to the neighboring star cluster M4. Seeing was not good but I could make out a faint cloud of stars and a few students also said they saw it. Many could not observe it. So the Clear Sky Chart prediction of poor seeing was pretty much confirmed. Clouds closed in at about 10:30 so all went home. The professor asked if we could schedule a lunar observation night during the last week of June or first part of July just before the end of the course. Hopefully we'll have a better night because the old telescope really shows its stuff with the Moon when viewed through its fist-size, low-power eyepiece. Driving home I encountered partly-cloudy skies, moderately-heavy rain, and clear skies! I'm happy not to be a meteorologist trying to forecast this!

Dome trouble

Well, we had trouble, my friend! During our April 4, 2009 public night, the shutter began acting up. It was difficult to open for the night and was nearly impossible to close (see previous post)! College carpenters built up a scaffold inside the dome early in May and determined that the rollers that carry the shutter had derailed -- nominally the rollers move along an iron bar at the top of the opening easing operation. The craftsmen lifted the shutter back on to its tracks and lubricated the wheels. With the scaffold in place the telescope could not be moved so all use of the Observatory was suspended during the balance of April and through May. While the scaffolding was still in place, over the late-May Memorial Day weekend, I replaced the pull ropes that are used to manually open and close the shutter. I have no idea how old the cotton rope was; I replaced it with a tough poly braded rope. The shutter works better than it has in years though close examination of the condition of its wooden components left us with worries.

May offered a number of clear nights which was a big change from an otherwise very cloudy spring season. Unfortunately needing to be fresh for work and a nasty late-May head cold kept me from taking advantage of the clear night skies. Hopefully this will be a good year for me and I have hopes of using both the Observatory and my private telescope(s) more frequently than in recent years.

Photo: Crammed inside the Observatory dome is a large scaffold used by workers to repair the troublesome dome shutter. The hundred-year-old sliding wooden cover had become derailed. Taking advantage of the presence of the sturdy apparatus, I replaced operating ropes and inspected the upper reaches of the dome and shutter ... it wasn't pretty!

Tough night at the Observatory

Saturday night, April 4, was to be the first scheduled Public Night at the Observatory of the year not canceled by weather conditions. As forecast, the skies cleared and promised to cooperate for the night's event giving us fair seeing and temperatures in the mid-30s. Because of previous cancellations the Open Night was to serve as our official Saturn Observation Campaign event for the spring and we registered as a local site for the global "100 Hours of Astronomy" which is a part of the International Year of Astronomy observance.

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 12:30 EDT. What a night!

Saturday night clouded out

At first all looked good. Then the forecasts began to change. By early evening it was apparent there would be a generally opaque cloud layer over the region through midnight. No Observatory open night Saturday night. The Observatory will have probably only one more chance at a public viewing of Saturn --next month-- before it sinks into the trees that block our Western skies.

Getting ready for "Opening Night"

We were supposed to have our first Open Night of the year at Stephens Memorial Observatory last weekend. Threatening and thickening clouds, however, put a stop to that. Since it was to be our official International Saturn Observation Campaign event, it was one of the rare occasions where we announced a "rain date." That date is tomorrow. The weather forecasts have been changing as the weekend approaches and now, from forecaster to forecaster, the expectation is something between mostly clear to mostly cloudy. Tonight, however, is cloudless and beautiful even in our light-polluted suburb. I can only imagine how beautiful it is under dark skies. I had nice views of Orion, the Pleiades, M44 - "The Beehive" but no trace of little Comet Lulin. I've been studying the charts and ducking outside with binoculars to become acquainted with the night sky as it presents itself these times. It has been a long while since we've had a passably clear night and tolerable temperatures (it's 30 F degrees). With luck we'll have clear weather tomorrow (Saturday) night and get a very nice view of Saturn, the great Orion Nebula, and some star clusters. All we can do is wait and see what kind of sky conditions come our way.

Seeking Comet Lulin

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 would be easy to spot since bright Saturn and Lulin were to 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 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 and west, 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.

Still, I saw the comet as 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 which is a rare sight.

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 in my basement?

Sidewalk astronomy at the library

Westlake (Ohio) Porter Public Library requested a sidewalk astronomy event to take place during their Customer Appreciation Week. We were only too happy to oblige. After dicey late-afternoon cloud cover the sky cleared in time for setup at 7:30 and viewings from 8:00 to 9:15 off the sidewalk adjacent to the (brightly-lit) parking lot. Still a fellow astronomer (with an 8-inch SCT) and I (with my 6-inch refractor) showed curious visitors Jupiter, the Hercules Star Cluster (M13), the Ring Nebula (M57), and the great Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I was pleased at the performance of my scope's electronics for, after eyeballing polar alignment and a one-star computer alignment, the scope tracked Jupiter exceptionally well and found M57 on the first try! No disconnects and good tracking all evening. The Ring was very difficult for most viewers to spot in the eyepiece but it was actually the best view I've had of it. M13 through the SCT was a beautiful sight, M31 was its usual fuzz-ball self but not bad at all, and Jupiter was best viewed shortly after sundown. Seeing was unsteady at lower angles and as the planet sank lower in the sky occasional good seeing ended and the planetary disk was unclear. The good moments revealed multiple cloud bands in addition to the two big equatorial belts so patient viewers got a good look. Closed up shop at the appointed hour and answered cosmological and planet detection questions from a very curious adult visitor. It was cold (lower 40s F.) so good to get indoors.