Clouds didn't stop us

Last night (Nov. 13) we had "only" 15 people show up on a night when one could look at the sky and usually see no more than a cloud-shrouded Moon and an occasional glimpse of Jupiter. Yes, it was that bad. On a night when we shouldn't have even opened, an attendance of 15 is a surprise.

Still, the clouds thinned enough on occasion to allow decent views of the Moon and surprisingly good looks at Jupiter and the Galilean Moons. Jove's Southern Equatorial Belt was not visible though there are photographic signs from other sources of its impending return. At Stephens we were able to see traces of other cloud banding this and the last time we looked at that world (Oct. 9) and at no greater than 122X magnification. Again, given the conditions, the quality of the seeing was a surprise.

Clouds did close us a bit early but didn't stop us from seeing our two main targets for the night.

Great Jupiter but no comet

Saturday night's (Oct. 9) Open Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory went pretty well. In all we had 28 visitors take a look at Jupiter, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Perseid Double Cluster. I'd hoped and planned to view Comet Hartley 2 but could not find it to save my life! The skies improved as the night went on and by the time I closed, a little after 10:00, the Double Cluster was a naked eye object high over campus and the Milky Way was visible overhead. Our views of Jupiter were among the best I've enjoyed at Stephens. The Southern Equatorial Band is still missing, apparently obscured by high cirrus clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere. The northern band was easily seen but, more remarkable was the fact that we could make out numerous other, much more subtle, cloud bands in the northern and southern hemispheres. When we began the night's explorations, only three of the Galilean Moons were to be seen: three in a triangle on one side. After 9:00, however, Io put in an appearance albeit by itself on the opposite limb of the planet.It was a fine night at the observatory.

Observe the Moon Night

Last night, September 18, was the first annual International Observe the Moon Night. The forecast for the night called for mostly-cloudy skies and that's what we were seeing in the early evening and when I headed to Stephens Memorial Observatory. I'd made an online posting stating that I would open the doors at 8:30 PM no matter the weather but if cloudy, would close at 9:00. Strange how things happen. As the appointed hour approached an opening in the clouds appeared overhead. At first the Moon was very hazy, then clear enough to offer fair views. I worked inside the dome preparing the big telescope for public use. By the time I opened the dome slit, the sky was completely clear of clouds! Over the course of the evening 33 visitors came and went and saw the waxing gibbous Moon and, later, Jupiter. The Moon put in a glorious appearance through the telescope's vintage low-power eyepiece. Jupiter, still minus its Southern Equatorial Band or cloud belt, was also seen in good detail: the Northern Equatorial band was visible and, better still, we got occasional glimpses of cloud bands in Jove's southern hemisphere. The four Galilean moons were also brightly present: three on one side, Io by itself on the other. Late in the evening clouds again intruded first covering the Moon, then Jupiter. Finally Jupiter would wink in and out of visibility as smaller and smaller openings in the clouds passed offering seconds-long glimpses of the beautiful distant scene. Jupiter was near its opposition this night at a distance of about 368 million miles. When told about the distance one woman exclaimed, "you can see 368 million miles with that?! {telescope} I closed the dome at about 10:45 when sprinkles were felt falling from the sky. The people were engaged and enthusiastic and the sights were quite wonderful. It was a good night.

Photo: Waxing gibbous Moon, two days after First Quarter. Photo by James Guilford

A fine night out

After a long period of hazy, hot, humid, and cloudy weather we caught a break... last night's skies were predicted to be about as good as they ever get here. So I went out on an independent session to the astronomy club observing site near Spencer, Ohio -- something I have not done in far too long a time. Skies there are not as dark as they were a few years ago, but a paved parking lot, no street lights, and official permission for the activity made it acceptable.

I got a late start and had to forgo opportunities to enjoy and photograph a marvelous sunset over a broad valley. I did, however, arrive on site in time to use the fading twilight in setting up my equipment. As the last light faded the Milky Way emerged, visible from near the southern horizon to overhead and a bit beyond. Along the horizon were the summer constellations: Sagittarius and Scorpius. Saturn was sinking into the murk of the western horizon but I got a hazy glimpse of the ring world through another's telescope, already set up.

Due to not using my own telescope in some time, I suffered some difficulties in setup and alignment. I couldn't even find Polaris in the telescope mount's alignment optic and so "eyeballed" it. Surprisingly, the alignment was very good and for the rest of the night the scope was able to center or come close to all objects I asked its GoTo computer to find.

Though the sky was cloudless, it did suffer overall from light pollution or, perhaps, some lingering natural twilight. Viewing of a number of Messier objects was only fair. My old friends M81 and M82, which can be a lovely sight within the same eyepiece field of view, were barely discernible against the gray background sky. I did view, for the first time, M20 --the Trifid Nebula-- but observed no nebulosity, only the associated star cluster. The "Whirlpool Galaxy" (M51) could barely be seen at all though M31 --the Andromeda Galaxy-- put in an appearance looking, typically, like a cottonwood seed fluff.

I love refractor telescopes but frequent issue is that, when aimed straight up, the eyepiece can be uncomfortably low to the ground. So I happily got a nice view of the Ring Nebula (M57), which at that hour was high overhead, through the SCT of a companion.

In all, I viewed M11, M20, M22, M31, M51 (barely), M57, M81, M82, all in the space of a couple of hours. Then came the Moon.

As the waning gibbous Moon rose, its glow obscured the lovely path of the Milky Way and made it increasingly difficult to see any but the brightest deep sky objects. So I pointed my telescope towards Jupiter.

Jupiter emerged from behind the Sun earlier this year minus its dark southern equatorial cloud band or belt. I was eager to see. Though still low in the sky and rising at nearly the same altitude as the Moon, I was able to get a decent view of the planetary disk. Observed at several magnifications, with and without ND filter and sure enough, only one dark band was visible. I thought I could see hints of the Great Red Spot but, with the planet still low in the atmosphere, couldn't confirm that. I hope to get a better view of Jove next month but, at least, I got to see it!

I aimed the telescope at planet Uranus but that distant world was barely a dot in the eyepiece.

My project for the night was to attach my Canon EOS 50D digital SLR camera directly to my big Meade refractor -- using the 1,200mm optic as a telephoto lens. I'd never tried it before and it worked beautifully. There was some difficulty achieving sharp focus which was a surpise to me. Add to that the fact that I did not yet have a cable release for the camera and I was happy to get usable images at all. I did, however, get one very good shot out of the experiment (shown here) and will be ordering a cable release soon. That little device will help me minimize vibration -- I had to trigger the shutter by pressing the shutter release button by hand; an action that shook the entire telescope and did not help picture taking.

Packed up and left at about 11:15 a happy fellow.

Image: The Moon... both cursed and loved by amateur astronomers worldwide. It brought an early end to deep sky observing tonight but, itself, made a great subject for viewing and photographing. Canon EOS 50D: ISO 400, 1/400 sec., Meade achromatic f/8 refracting telescope: 1,219 mm. August 28, 2010, 10:54 PM. Photo by James Guilford.

Canceled August Public Night

Last night's scheduled Public Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory was canceled. Weather this year has really been an enemy to those occasions. Thunderstorms and cloud cover rolled through the area in the afternoon and evening hours. Unfortunately, at about the time I canceled the event (about 8:30 PM) some reporting stations were saying the sky was "clear." I still find that hard to believe but enough doubt crept into my mind that I felt guilt for the rest of the night. I've got to set up a team of trusted spotters I can call to check the actual sky conditions, or just go to the Observatory every scheduled night to see for myself (a bit of a drive). I hope the weather is good for September's Public Night... we'll see Jupiter (probably without its southern equatorial cloud band), Uranus, and the Moon. It'll be a great show, IF the sky is clear!

Great views of the sun with a Lunt

Today I had the opportunity to work with (okay, play with) a new Lunt solar telescope (35mm) recently purchased by the Physics Department. I was charged with the responsibility of determining what accessories might be necessary to make the scope easy to set up and use in astronomy education. The scope is nicely made and finished --a small refractor equipped with a diagonal-- complete with built-in hydrogen-alpha (Ha) filters. Easiest for the instructor is a system that allows mounting the telescope to a camera tripod; that reduces setup time to five minutes or less. The scope came with a set of mounting rings and set screws and is attached to a base frame. The base is threaded in two places to mate with a dovetail rail but those threads are standard camera threads as well. So, while not elegant, attachment to a tripod is easy and secure.

The sky was reasonably clear so I set up the telescope outdoors, added an eyepiece, and set about finding the sun. By the way, one nice thing about the Lunt is that you can use regular 1.25-inch eyepieces because all of the solar filtration is internal to the scope! The actual hard part can be getting aimed at the sun... that's one object you want to be careful when aiming toward.

Trying several eyepieces and various focal lengths I found my ideal combination with the Lunt was an ancient Kellner 12mm. The field of view includes the entire solar disk and presents an excellent combination of magnification (33X), brightness, and clarity. After focusing and tuning the filter I was rewarded with very good views of three areas of prominences in the same quarter of the sun's limb. I briefly made out a filament on the sun's surface and saw two sunspot groups, though they were not very clear -- attributable to seeing conditions. I took the scope down and stowed my gear. The next thing I did was order the simple Tele Vue Sol-Searcher --not included in the basic telescope kit-- which will be a big help in quickly and safely aiming.

I set up the telescope one more time, at about 5:45 PM, to take one more look at old Sol. Seeing had improved and, to my delight, I could now make out structure in the prominences and, with a slight tuning adjustment, filaments and some granulation. Much better than the smaller Personal Solar Telescope by Coronado. It's a fine instrument, that Lunt, and makes me want my own!

After I receive and install the Sol-Searcher I'll be returning the telescope to Physics. Before that, I hope to try a bit of digital imaging of the sun's now-active face -- but I'll need a little camera.

A changeable sky

Even before heading to Stephens Memorial Observatory conditions were changeable. The mixed forecasts called for partly cloudy skies with the chance of isolated thunderstorms. Seeing conditions, well, the forecast was from no good to okay. As it turned out, all of those things were true! I opened the Observatory and my first visitors for the night began arriving shortly thereafter. Due to neighboring trees, we hauled the portable 10-inch reflector out to the lawn to catch a look at the Moon which was floating in clear sky. Nice views enjoyed by all present. Even as we watched a shelf of clouds moved steadily from the northwest first obscuring, then covering the Moon. As a few more folks arrived we talked about telescopes and adjourned to the Observatory interior to see and discuss the big refractor. In all 23 people took a chance that the sky would be clear enough and visited. By about 10 PM we were all talked out, there were flashes of lightning in the sky along with rumbles of thunder. I closed up, picked up my gear and loaded the car. As I left I could see patches of clear sky and one of my intended showpieces --Antares, the red supergiant star in Scorpius-- shining through a "sucker hole" in the southern sky. In the west, flashes of lightning. It was a changeable sky indeed!

Photo: A massive thunderstorm brews on the horizon east of Hiram. Photo by James Guilford.

Not a good weekend for astronomy

On Friday I learned that the International Space Station, because of orbital characteristics, would be visible many times over the next nights. One of those overflights would take place that night. So at about 10:21 PM I stepped out on to our stoop, looked to the twilight of the western sky, and immediately spotted the ISS. The moving "star" was nearly as bright as planet Venus and quickly climbed high into the sky, nearly overhead, and over the roof of the house. It was at least as interesting to see Venus, Regulus, Mars, and Saturn lined up along the ecliptic. "Probably the best night of the weekend," I wrote, and that turned out to be true.

I called off the Saturday night Public Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory due to mostly cloudy skies. Open areas between the masses of clouds were essentially translucent and totally unsuited to seeing any trace of two Messier List objects we were to see. Reinforcing the decision, a local storm developed north of Hiram possibly even dropping light rain there at the announced opening time for the event.

Tonight, after an exceptionally hot and humid day, waves of rain and strong thunderstorms passed over the region.

Not a good weekend, overall, for astronomy!

Night of Scorpius

The day had been clear and predictions were for an unusually good sky for nighttime astronomy. I headed to Stephens Memorial Observatory for a private observing session. I arrived around 9:00 PM and quickly determined that both the Moon and Saturn were down in the trees so I took my time checking the place. There was much sweeping up do do --birds and, perhaps, wind had delivered a pile of leaf and grass material to the observing floor-- and I discovered that the timer for our front door lights had failed in the "off" condition. The huge dehumidifier vat was nearly full and had to be dumped. After some cleanup I opened the dome and uncovered the telescope. More sweeping... nesting materials had fallen on to the canvas telescope cover (which is why it is used) and then to the floor.

Once set up I quickly found that the formerly promising sky was really not so good with only fair to good transparency. The early evening saw the cloudless sky take on a pale blue cast, not the deep color I'd expected. Twilight and ground-based light pollution made the sky glow softly, even as the hours passed. The neighbor's obnoxiously placed, bright light at the side of their garage flood lit the observatory building and grounds so no wide-field sky photography this night! Not a dark night but better than we've seen here in some time. At least temperatures in the upper 60s made the night air comfortable for activity.

The "T" of constellation Scorpius dominated the southern sky. I focused the telescope on the scorpion's heart, star Antares, and nudged the scope to the right. Normally I can quickly find star cluster M4 that way but tonight, not so easy. I fished and fished, starting over again and again, estimating the degree separating Antares and M4 and trying again, all without success. I moved on.

The next target was the Ring Nebula --M57-- in constellation Lyra. I surprised myself and found the "gray donut" right away and viewed it at several magnifications up to about 124X. Its appearance was less distinct than I am used to and I am not certain if that was because of seeing conditions or a bit of trouble I was having with my right eye. It may just be it looked less sharp because I was seeing it as a larger image than I'd ever seen before -- a smaller view of a ring nebula would appear sharper and neighboring stars in the field of view were pinpoint sharp. Just finding and observing the ring was reward enough, however, so I was pleased.

Not admitting defeat, I turned back to Scorpius to again seek M4. This time, triangulating off Antares and neighboring star in the constellation I found the star cluster immediately. At low magnification, and as my eye adjusted to the view, a field of diamond-dust appeared in the eyepiece. The appearance was very subtle. It could just be I'd scanned over the object several times but didn't see it because twilight had obscured the view. A darker, more transparent sky would increase the contrast but this was a beautiful sight -- much more impressive than I remember from earlier viewings.

I closed up around 11:30 and headed for home. As I left the area I glanced to the south and could Scorpius floating in the sky due south of me, nearly all of the great constellation visible. The sight was a fine way to end the night's stargazing.

Astronomy Class - PM

The students from the three-week intensive astronomy course returned to the Observatory last night. Their instructor and I worried over the skies in the afternoon wondering if we should postpone or cancel due to big patches of cirrus clouds. We decided Wednesday night might be the last possibility of getting the class together for a little nighttime astronomy. As it turned out, the sky only offered fair seeing but better than it would have been tonight (Thursday). They got decent views of Saturn --its ring plane nearly edge-on, moons in a nice line-- along with very good viewing of the Moon through both our 10-inch Dobsonian reflector and the big nine-inch refractor. We saw brilliant Vega through the telescope as well as a beautiful (unknown) red star. I fished through the glowing murk of the northeastern sky for any sign of M57 (the Ring Nebula) but to no avail. We had a decent session, conditions considered, but it was a little disappointing knowing what was "out there" last night, obscured by glowing clouds. Shutting down the place for the night took longer than normal -- the lawn had been mowed and, carried by dew-damp shoes, clumps of dry grass covered the floors and had to be swept up. Session lasted from 9:30 to about 11:00 with approximately 10 students in attendance.

Astronomy Class - AM

Students from this spring's second session of three-week intensive astronomy course visited Stephens Memorial Observatory this morning to take a look at our Sun. This class was luckier than the previous course's students for we were blessed with mostly-clear skies, reasonably steady seeing, and a sunspot (#1072). Using the big Cooley Telescope and a modern white light solar filter over the objective, we looked at the solar disk as a whole with the low-magnification eyepiece and could see traces of, I suspect, "supergranules" and the lonely sunspot floating in the lower left-hand portion of our field of view. At about 122X granulation wasn't apparent but good detail could be observed in the sunspot! When seeing was best we could easily make out the shape of the umbra (dark central portion of the spot) and the filaments of the penumbra. Interestingly it seemed almost as if the entire assembly was encircled by a solid line cleanly separating the spot from the rest of the solar atmosphere. There have been very few sunspots to observe and (seemingly) fewer clear days during which to observe them so the morning session was a real treat. The visit lasted from about 9:00 to 10:00 when the students returned to their classroom... for mid-term exams! If they survive their tests and the sky is clear, we plan to have a nighttime visit from the astronomy class with the Moon and Saturn as featured attractions.

Image credit: SOHO/MDI - image "flipped" side-to-side to illustrate telescope view.

Swasey Observatory

Perched on a hilltop on the campus of Denison University in Granville, Ohio is a beautiful example of a modest academic observatory from the turn of the twentieth century. Swasey Observatory was, in 1909, the gift of Ambrose Swasey of the Warner and Swasey Company. Built of white Vermont marble, the structure boasts a lovely tiled entry chamber, classrooms (one a former transit/zenith observatory), and a metal spiral stairway leading up to the observing dome. The transit telescope has been uninstalled and its pier removed but is still on display. Several astronomical timepieces are also present though not operating. Under the dome (a modern replacement for the original wood-and-steel structure) is a beautiful nine-inch Warner and Swasey 1910 refracting telescope with Brashier optical components. The drive system has been updated to run via electrical motor but most of the instrument is original equipment. The old telescope is used in astronomy instruction and the building has an observing deck where modern small telescopes may be attached to permanent piers. Dan and Mike, professors of physics at Denison, were most generous with their time answering several questions I had concerning the old telescope (nearly a twin to the one I maintain) and allowing me plenty of time to photograph. It was a fine way to spend a dreary Friday. Making this blog entry is about as close to observing as I will get on this cloudy and rainy Saturday night when I would otherwise present a public observing session at Hiram.

Photo by James Guilford.

Stairway to the stars

It was a rainy and cloudy weekend so no stargazing this time. I did, however, attend the groundbreaking for what will be a unique public facility: the Geauga Park District's Observatory Park. The park will celebrate nature from the ground beneath our feet to the cosmos of which we are a small part, all under skies recognized as some of the darkest in our region. As a part of the development the District acquired the Nassau Astronomical Station from Case Western Reserve University and will rehabilitate its 1957 building and research-grade 36-inch Warner and Swasey Cassegrain telescope for Park use. A second 36-inch reflector has been donated to the cause. Park officials expect the facilities to be open for use next year. As a boy I dreamed of observatories of the design seen at Nassau (and at Baldwin-Wallace College)... their turret-domes, telescopes, control rooms, and catwalks enthralled me then and now. How wonderful it would be to use such a facility on a regular basis! It was a thrill to visit Nassau this weekend as a part of the Park's groundbreaking. Hopefully the facilities will continue to fascinate and inspire for many generations to come, both by themselves and as stairways to the stars.

Sun's unblemished face

The Hiram College astronomy class returned this morning to view the Sun through our telescope and its white light solar filter. On a good day we can see granulation in the solar atmosphere and detail in sunspots. Today was not a good day for while the sky was clear, seeing was only fair. Disappointingly we saw only the faintest traces of granulation and, as it has been for several days now, the Sun's face was unblemished by sunspots.

Astronomy Class!

About 18 students from Hiram College visited the Stephens Memorial Observatory tonight. The visit was part of their intensive three-week Astronomy course. Often, in the past, we have not been able to gather the students together on clear nights and so missed telescopic observation of objects in the night sky. About the best we'd done was a daytime class visit at which time we looked at the Sun.

Tonight, however, after some scary cloudiness during the day, the sky was clear. Oh, there was a thin cloud layer up there but we could see through it. Though seeing was not optimal we had excellent views of the first quarter Moon. Details of lunar surface were splendid to behold and several of the students were quite excited. We viewed Luna through the big telescope at 30X and 133X. Mars was viewed but seeing was unsteady enough that the featureless pink disc was quite unimpressive. We viewed star Castor in Gemini -- that double star system was configured conveniently to allow us to see the two major stars of the system. It was impressive how brilliantly blue the neighboring stars were. Saturn was splendid with occasional glimpses of cloud bands, and the shadow line across the planetary disk. Several (4?) of the ring-world's moons were also seen; Titan was not among them but not particularly prominent. I was unable to find globular cluster M3 in the moonlit haze but easily found M44 the "Beehive Cluster" in Cancer near Mars. Though the viewing was low contrast due to moonlight, everyone found the binocular view and "discovery" of the "invisible" object more exciting than the low-power telescope sighting.

The observatory was open to the class from about 8:30 to 10:30. We plan to open again at 9:30 AM to showcase the Sun to many of the same students who attended tonight. The Sun's face has been free of sunspots recently but one may be forming just in time for the class!

Unexpected Saturn

Unexpected business led me to visit Stephens Memorial Observatory Tuesday night. Since I was there and the sky was nicely clear, I decided to open the dome and do a little observing.

Orion is low in the west these nights and the great nebula (M42) was actually only visible through the bare limbs of the neighbor's trees. The view was splendid, however, and at low magnification, the cloudy expanse took on a fan shape. The stars of the Trapezium were clearly displayed, nestled in the gauze.

Using star Sirius to set R.A., and my notebook computer's The Sky software, I was able to use the telescope's ancient dials to locate the "twin" star clusters M46 and M47 -- not visible to the unaided eye. Declination settings are not visible on the old scope at this time so I had to do some fishing. Still, it was gratifying to be able to get in the right neighborhood using the telescope's century-old devices. The clusters were more attractive through binoculars --a glowing path of cloud across the dark field-- than through the telescope though, at low magnification, M46 filled the eyepiece with diamond-dust stars.

Turning the telescope further east as the Moon was rising, I located Saturn. The ring system is still close to edge-on and opposition took place only a few days earlier (March 22). The planet was crisp and bright and, faintly visible nearby, were some of the Ring World's family of moons. It was a lovely sight. I had my camera with me so tried a few afocal (hand-held, lens-to-eyepiece) shots. At settings: ISO 800, f/8, 1/10 sec., I got a fairly good shot (seen here, cropped to imitate an eyepiece view) that depicts the ring plane's angle and even hints at the rings' shadow on the planetary body. Of course, the moons don't show at all being much too dim by comparison.

I closed up at about 10 PM with the Full Worm Moon rising and drowning out the light-songs of everything nearby. A good night of unexpected astronomy.

Hazy sky but good turnout

Saturday, March 27: During the Public Open Night we had 48 visitors come to the Observatory. Despite high, thin clouds, we were able to enjoy acceptable views of the Moon at about 30-power and 133-power magnifications. We got the season's last look at the Orion Nebula but the view was poor due to those thin clouds above our heads -- looking at clouds (the nebula) through clouds (Earth's weather) is not very good. When Saturn rose high enough to clear neighboring trees and thickening clouds near the horizon the big telescope was turned in that direction. Though not as crisp a view as a good night would afford, we were able to see the planet's ring system nearly on edge to us and, during times of somewhat better seeing, make out the shadow of those rings falling on the planetary disk. We could also see several of Saturn's moons including Titan. (Note: Saturn was at opposition on March 22.) Sky conditions continued to deteriorate so that, by closing time, about the only object visible in the sky was a bright but very hazy Moon. Still it was a good night enjoying views of our universe from Stephens Memorial Observatory. Temperatures in the upper-40s, light wind, Moon was waxing gibbous.

Clouds chasing us

Saturday, February 20: It has been a very cloudy year so far -- only two "officially" clear days since last December. There may have been several clear sky nights but they were so extremely cold that the warmth of the house had a stronger pull than did the stars! There was just enough clear sky at the 7:00 starting time that I opened Stephens Memorial Observatory to visitors for the first Open Night of 2010. Seeing conditions, however, were mostly fair to poor so our visitors got mostly not-so-exciting looks at the Orion Nebula (M42) before Earthly clouds obscured the glowing clouds in Orion some 1,599 light years distant. For only a very few minutes in the entire evening a clearing appeared in the clouds and the nebula splendidly burst forth in the telescope eyepiece; unfortunately only three or four people got to enjoy the view. I only got a glimpse at it myself before urging visitors to look but what I saw was marvelous -- lovely, silken, glowing clouds cradling a nest (The Trapezium) of brilliant "little" stars. Magnificent. Turning the telescope to the east we were able to see planet Mars as a small pinkish disk -- not bad for sky conditions but not good enough to see a polar ice cap, much less any surface markings. Mars was relatively close at 67.7 million miles from Earth. As clouds overhead swallowed Mars, the telescope was swung around and aimed at Earth's Moon, clouds scudding across its face. Cloud cover greatly reduced the Moon's brilliance and gave it an unusual, low-contrast, gray appearance. Everyone got a look at the first-quarter Moon in surprising detail. Along about 8:00 the thickening clouds hid the last traces of Luna and I closed the doors and the dome shutter against the 32-degree night air. About 35 visitors had come through in the space of one hour and, despite the poor conditions, most seemed pleased with the experience.