Thin clouds but a good night

Open night at Stephens Memorial Observatory: Thin clouds didn't keep 27 people from visiting this night and enjoying fine views of the giant planet Jupiter and its Galilean moons. We observed Jove's twin equatorial cloud belts, some additional bands of clouds, and a few sharp-eyed viewers caught glimpses of the Great Red Spot (actually, my first!). Adding to the experience, one of the four visible moons moved closer to the disk of the planet as the night progressed. Eventually moon Io began its transit across Jupiter, first visible against the south equatorial band, then disappearing into the planet's glare. Earth's Moon put in an appearance far later than I'd have wanted -- I got the timing wrong back at the beginning of the year whilst setting up our schedule! Most visitors viewed it as it rose through clouds and neighboring trees, then they headed home. They did, however, spy lunar seas and craters through a network of bare tree branches resembling eyelashes, said one viewer. Our last visitors of the night, however, were rewarded with our usual clear, bright, and astonishingly beautiful lunar sights as presented by the great Cooley Telescope. One, an experienced sky watcher, said it was the finest view he'd had of Earth's neighbor in 40 years of observing! As we left the observatory at the end of the event we looked up at our Moon floating in a thin sea of cloud and there, surrounding it at a good distance, was a beautiful halo... a fine way to end the evening!

Photo: The Moon as viewed through the Cooley Telescope of Stephens Memorial Observatory, Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio, November 12, 2011. Afocal technique with Canon PowerShot G11: ISO 400, f/4, 1/500 sec., at 8:57 PM. Photo by James Guilford.

International Observe the Moon Night - 2011

October 8 -- At Stephens Memorial Observatory we had a grand night showing off Earth's Moon in glorious detail followed by (when it finally rose above neighboring trees) very good views of Jupiter and its four Galilean moons! It was fun looking at and identifying the Moon's seas and craters and the light colored rays that radiate from a couple of Luna's bigger and more recent encounters with asteroids. Identifying crater Hermite on the Moon's northern limb was interesting as well since it is near the Moon's north pole and viewed nearly edge-on.

Seeing was not quite as good as we expected for planet Jupiter but that was likely because it was fairly low when we first began looking at it. There was some trace of bluish coloration in the planetary disk and the two brownish equatorial bands stood right out. As the gas giant rose and we observed through less and cooler air, we could make out some unevenness in the bands and pick out traces of a third band --in the southern hemisphere-- perhaps even occasional hints of more.

All-told 39 visitors took looks through our telescope Saturday night. The last to leave got a bonus... two fast, bright meteors shown through Luna's glow to remind us it was the night the 2011 Draconid meteor shower peaked!

Faint-Fuzzies for Open Night

This seems to have been a very cloudy summer and most of the daylight hours of this day were no different: overcast to mostly-cloudy skies dominated. Amazingly, and as predicted, we got the clear skies we needed for our "faint fuzzies" night of public observing at Stephens Memorial Observatory. Best seeing was from about 9:30 to 10:00 -- after that a high haze seemed to set in, illuminated by natural and artificial light pollution. Still, these were some of the best conditions we have enjoyed in quite some time. While the skies were at their best our few --only 7-- attendees (conflict with Ohio State football??) saw the Milky Way stretching from Sagittarius in the south-southwest, high overhead, and into the northeast and constellation Cassiopeia -- even the dark dust lane of the Milky Way was visible. We viewed the cottonwood seed-like wisp that is the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and considered why it is that faint-fuzzy objects don't look like magazine photos when viewed with our own eyes, even through telescopes. We also viewed a beautiful globular star cluster (M22), its approximate 70,000 stars some 10,600 light-years distant in Sagittarius. Then we looked high overhead and found the Ring Nebula (M57); putting the big old refractor so near the zenith was made possible through use of the star diagonal for our 1.25-inch eyepieces. Not only was observation easy but no ladder-climbing was required -- an office chair worked just fine. During the night's event I spied two speedy, faint meteors through the dome's slit -- one coming in north to south, the other (a bit brighter) headed east to west. As the last visitors of the night departed Jupiter and the Moon were rising over Hiram -- a fitting end to a fine night of stargazing.

Solar Astronomy: Seeing the Sun with three name tags

I spent a fun couple of hours this afternoon sharing views of the Sun through my telescopes at the Westlake Porter Public Library. It was a sort of sidewalk astronomy event, part of "Science Week" there, and drew 53 participants. Lots of passing clouds got in the way, shoved along by steady winds, and people were surprisingly patient waiting for the Sun to return. When we had clear skies we were rewarded with very good viewing of a beautiful loop-shaped solar prominence through the 35mm Lunt Ha scope; careful viewers with moments of better seeing spied several more! Seeing wasn't quite good enough to reliably find the two small sunspot groups visible today, nor was it good enough to see granulation patters this afternoon. I did see granulation this morning during testing at home. Sadly, a very large sunspot group, visible only days earlier, was just over the Sun's limb this day. Procrastination in these things isn't good but it was well worth the morning's last-minute effort of fabricating a sturdy piggyback mount to mate the Ha with my trusty old Meade 390. It took just two trips to the hardware store for less than $10 worth of parts to create an excellent mount! A newspaper reporter asked me what organizations I represented and it turns out there were three: Cuyahoga Astronomical Association, Stephens Memorial Observatory (Hiram College), and the library! And I wore three name tags.

Photo Credit: Kevin Kelley, WestLife

The Moon and the Ring did not disappoint

Spring has been tough for our public observing programs. It seemed we would never see a clear night. On June 12 our public night consisted of peeking at Saturn through openings in the cloud cover; that offered some very good, if unreliable viewing! A week later, on June 17, Alumni Weekend was kicked off with an observing night for attendees and we had both good attendance (30 to 40 visitors) and clear skies for most of the night. We spotted several of Saturn's many moons and saw hints of the great storm raging in the northern hemisphere of that planet's atmosphere. June marked the end of Saturn observation from Hiram due to a line of tall trees just across the property line from the Observatory.

Our first break for the public happened last night (July 9) when we had skies mostly clear of clouds. There was, however, enough moisture in the atmosphere to help make the Waxing Gibbous Moon's glow make the sky glow. In all 23 visitors attended and were treated to our usual exquisite views of the lunar surface. Especially striking, due to the timing of our observation, were the inky-black unlit floors of several large craters. The low sun angle at the terminator also highlighted crater walls and cast long shadows from mountain peaks in the lunar seas. Simply glorious.

Next we viewed the sparkling beauty of the red giant star Antares, at the "heart" of constellation Scorpius. Twinkling from a brilliant star is impressive through a telescope.

The bright sky made locating the M4 globular star cluster very difficult and a less-than-impressive sight! Once found all we could make out was a faint spray of stars in a "Moon-glowed" field of view.

To cap off the night I swung the big telescope so that it pointed high in the sky, fished a bit in a slightly less murky sky, and found M57 -- the Ring Nebula. At first I believed Lyra was too high in the sky for observing with the big refractor but, as it turned out, the elevation put the eyepiece at a very comfortable level for everyone present. We viewed the "gray donut" first at about 100X and, as the hour was growing late, many guests left after taking a quick look. Once everyone had taken a look, however, I swapped eyepieces and boosted the power to 133X. Between the different optics and the slightly greater magification, the Ring looked clearer and brighter -- it was probably the best view of that object I've had to date.

So while the warm, humid summer night didn't provide optimal seeing conditions the sky was clear for a change. We did enjoy a very good night of observing: the Moon and the Ring did not disappoint.

Somewhat larger than average, like the Moon!

Much was made by the media of the so-called "super moon" which was a rare combination of a full Moon phase with Earth's one satellite reaching the perigee, or low point, of its orbit; in this case reaching a distance of 221,567 miles. One attention-seeking astrologer went to far as to suggest the coming lunar event possibly caused the terrible earthquake and tsunami that devastated areas of Japan on March 11. Of course that disaster occurred a full week before the "super moon" happened and the Moon was well within its normal distance range from its parent Earth. The good that did come from the attention was that people were interested in seeing our friendly Moon at its best and brightest. Stephens Memorial Observatory had already scheduled a season-opening Public Night for March 19 --the night of the so-called super moon-- which worked out well. The evening sky was clearer than it has been in quite some time and visitors began arriving early (well before Luna had risen above our local horizon). Though they enjoyed excellent tales and views of stars Sirius and Betelgeuse, and decent looks at the constellation Orion and the Great Orion Nebula, they really wanted that Moon! As soon as it cleared neighboring trees, we trained the old 9-inch refractor on Luna's orange face. I was astonished at the detail I was seeing in the crater ejecta and other markings on the lunar surface; I don't believe I've ever seen those details so pronounced in any previous viewing. I regret not being able to capture that view as a photograph. Other eyes, however, eagerly awaited their turn at the telescope. As the evening progressed and the Moon rose, those details faded and we were left with more typical but still very good views (for so low to the horizon) of Earth's nearest neighbor. Visitors climbed the ladder one-by-one and most were astonished by what they saw. The grand old Cooley Telescope and its 110-year-old optics continue to excite! By the time I closed the door, we had hosted 48 visitors which, while not a world record, was somewhat larger than our average night ... a bit like the Moon itself!

Ugh (again)! This weather!

Just now I canceled yet another Public Night scheduled for Stephens Memorial Observatory. It was set for January 22. Weather for that night is expected to be cloudy to fully overcast with a predicted temperature of 13 (F) degrees at the scheduled starting time, and a 40 percent chance of snow! Just too much. I should have followed through with my resolution to not schedule any open nights for January or February due to the usually poor skies and winter weather conditions. Taking my own advice, I won't set up anything for the public until March!

Through a hole in the clouds I did get a naked-eye glimpse at Orion's sword the other morning. That's about all the astronomy I've done in a month or so. Sad, really.

Ugh! Winter off to a poor start!

This area suffered moderate to heavy cloud cover for the December 10, 2010 total lunar eclipse. I'd been looking forward to it --even considered gearing up to produce a live webcast-- but we were disappointed in the end. I didn't even get out of bed to look out the window. Those who did take a peek largely saw clouds or got brief glimpses of the partial phases of the event.

I had to cancel the December Open Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory due to illness. I was suffering from a stomach "bug" and was well-advised to not stand out in the cold. Skies were mostly-cloudy that night so I hope nobody was very disappointed we did not open.

We're hoping 2011 brings good things for the Hiram observatory: we've a good chance of a construction site for a new observatory and there are plans afoot for a kick-off event in a funding drive! More on all of that later, as developments come.

The next Stephens Open Night is set for January 22 and we plan to show off the Great Orion Nebula. Skies this month have generally been cloudy and snow is currently in the forecast daily -- we'll make plans and see if Mother Nature cooperates!