Eclipse: Tired, dirty, and happy

The Sun at Maximum Eclipse - 2:32 PM EDT - Note Sunspot at Lower Left

Yesterday (August 21) millions gathered along a thin path crossing the continental United States to watch a total eclipse of the Sun. Those with favorable viewing conditions along the path of totality enjoyed an amazing sight and experience. Totality fell close enough to a west-to-east center line across the continent that at least a partial eclipse was visible to anyone with access to clear sky.

Since, with some self-doubt, I had decided not to travel to the path of totality, I organized the Hiram Eclipse Watch event. With the support of the Hiram College Physics Department, it took place on the campus of the college.

I set up two telescopes: a six-inch Meade refractor with a Baader Planetarium Safety Herschel Wedge, and a 90mm Meade refractor with a Thousand Oaks glass/metal filter. I also went equipped with my Canon EOS 50D camera, 400mm telephoto, and 2X teleconverter (>1,200mm focal length equivalent), and white light film filter. Physics staff ran a Lunt Ha scope and an experiment recording temperature and solar energy changes during the eclipse.

Progressing Toward Maximum - Silhouette of the Moon Moves Across the Solar Disk

Summarizing, despite last-minute worries over cloud cover, we had clear to partly-cloudy skies for the duration of our 80-percent partial eclipse. An estimated 375 visitors came out to share the experience, and by all reports had an excellent time. Some families even brought blankets and enjoyed a picnic on the lawn in the shade of old trees!

Detail from Above - Look Along Moon's Edge and Notice Bumps: Lunar Mountains and Ridges in Silhouette

It was very hot and fairly humid and I labored in the sunshine erecting and operating the telescopes, rationing out eclipse viewing glasses, explaining the eclipse event and solar features, and making a few photographs of my own. By the end I was dripping with sweat and very tired but had to rush home to process and upload a photograph of maximum eclipse to a newspaper.

By the end of day, I was was tired, dirty, and happy.

The (Ravenna) Record-Courier - August 22, 2017 - Page 1

Impressive train of sunspots

Train of Sunspots, November 4, 2015

An impressive train of sunspots has been making its way across the face of our nearest star this week. In the photo above: Designated AR2447 (small group to the left), AR2443 (bigger and darker, near center), and AR2445 (far right), the "Active Regions" have the potential of unleashing flares. In fact, AR2445 was the source of a flare that caused this week's "northern lights" sighted across northern latitude locations around the world. Unfortunately for hopeful aurora watchers in Northern Ohio, the nighttime displays were not strong enough to give more than a tantalizing flicker on the horizon to observers on the shores of Lake Erie.

Now rotating over the Sun's limb, AR2445 won't be aimed at Earth for a while -- if ever again -- but AR2443 has potential for high-energy flares.

Photo credit: James Guilford. Canon EOS 7D II: ISO 400, f/11, 1/1250 sec., 400mm lens with Astrozap film solar filter, heavily cropped, November 4, 2015, 2:22 PM.

AR1520 gets even more interesting

The Sun with Sunspot AR1520 and Company, July 12, 2012 at 6:18 PM EDT

Dominating the face of our Sun, this week, has been an enormous group of sunspots including those designated AR1520. The active Sun has been very interesting to watch, of late, as the dark spots rotated over the star’s limb and towards the center of its disk, facing Earth. Hydrogen-alpha observers have also been rewarded with good numbers of prominences spouting into the blackness of space. Forecasters stated AR1520 had great potential for flare activity and on Thursday, July 12, the forecast was fulfilled — just as the sunspot was aimed directly at Earth.

According to SpaceWeather.com, “Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th at 1653 UT. Because this sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.”

As so often seems the case, weather forecasts for the weekend include plenty of clouds to interfere with the view. Still, aurora fans should stay alert to active displays and the potential for clear skies; it could be a good show!

Photo above: The Sun with prominent AR1520 accompanied by smaller sunspots. Canon EOS 50D: ISO 400, f/11, 1/1000 sec., 400mm telephoto lens with AstroZap white light filter, 6:18 PM, July 12, 2012 — “just before the clouds rolled in,” according to photographer James Guilford.

Sunday, May 13 dawned reasonably clear and so, with cloudy skies anticipated, a few rushed photographic observations were made of our Sun. Solar astronomers of every ilk have been excited lately by the Sun's visibly increased activity. Active Region1476 (a huge sunspot group) dominated the solar disk and astronomers' attention though it had been joined by several smaller but notable sunspots. I decided to use my beautiful new telephoto lens to try and capture images of the solar disk and my efforts were rewarded. The image wasn't perfect and I know I'll eventually get better images but it's the best solar astrophoto I've done to date! Besides the sunspots large and small, visible in this photo are granulation and other disturbances -- the chromospheric network -- in the solar atmosphere. Notes on the photography: Canon EOS 50D, ISO 400, f/8, 1/1,250 sec., 400mm Canon telephoto, AstroZap white light film solar filter, May 13, 2012 at 9:15 AM. Sky was generally clear but this shot was made through a persistent, thin cloud trail left by passing aircraft.

Perseids Meteor Watch

The 2009 Perseids Meteor Watch I worked last night (August 12) was very mixed in results. The Portage Park District set us up in a fine little park with no ground-level lights, a nice paved parking lot, and clear grassy areas. There was a wide view of the sky and a good southern horizon. A Sheriff's deputy was on hand as was the District's naturalist -- really good support, especially in case of a big turnout. Then there are the "buts"...

Admittedly we put the event together in hurried fashion. Word didn't get out to the public as broadly or with enough lead time so only a couple of families showed up.

Then there was the sky. We were very close to the city of Ravenna but I'd hoped we would be just far enough away to escape the light bubble. Not much luck there. As the Sun sank below the western horizon a funny thing happened ... twilight shifted to the south. Yeah, huge levels of light pollution rose up in the southern sky right through the heart of Sagittarius. So while the clear skies allowed us to see the Milky Way, with dust lane, directly overhead, its heart was obliterated by the "Ravenna Nebula." Too bad.

Attendees and volunteers did, however, enjoy a few very good Perseid meteors. I myself saw only about five; being busy with telescopes and chatting with visitors has its costs. The 6-inch Meade telescope worked well but was impeded for want of a really good polar alignment: it had problems centering on objects it was told to "GoTo" but tracked very well once there. The dew point was high and everything quickly became quite damp, even wet, as the night progressed. The extended AstroZap dew shield saved the objective from fogging, however, so we saw decent views of Jupiter with three moons, and very good views of the Andromeda Galaxy, and M15 (a globular star cluster in the constellation Pegasus).

I tore down after the official 11:30 close. Before getting into my car to leave, a very nice Perseid streaked across the sky leaving a trail that glowed for a second or two -- as if just for me. I headed home, a bit disappointed but recalled a few happy visitors who saw planets, stars, galaxies, and meteors!

Solar photo experiment

At Chaunticlair this afternoon I experimented with my AstroZap Baader solar filter and coupling of my Canon Digital Rebel XT to the Meade 390 telescope. I had cobbled together pieces of at least two different camera adapters to come up with a short one that would fit the Canon to the 1.25-inch eyepiece holder of the telescope. The combination focussed easily but the images were a bit disappointing. I had hoped and expected (based on the Cooley Telescope experience) that I would see sunspot and granulation but didn't see any granulation at all! Visually the sunspot showed good detail --today Sunspot 961 was nearly dead-center on the Sun-- but didn't image well (1/1,000th second @ ISO 400). I'll keep trying! Tonight I used the 390 and took a look at the pairing of planets Venus and Saturn in the twilight sky. With the 32mm (about 31X) eyepiece I was just able to fit both planets in the same field of view and got a very nice look at Venus in crescent phase -- the best I've seen it-- with Saturn tiny but distinct. The twilight actually helped by controlling the contrast of brilliant Venus. Swung the telescope around and got a nice look at Jupiter, as well, viewed through openings between the trees here at home. At the end of the brief evening clouds began moving in as I attempted photographs of the Meade 390 pointing towards Venus and Saturn in the fading twilight. The image didn't turn out as well as one I had seen and was imitating but it isn't bad, either.