Saturn shines!

The day was warm and the sky was very clear on May 19. Of course, a thin veil of clouds began to cover the sky during twilight as I opened Stephens Memorial Observatory for a public night. We were to view Saturn. It wasn't until some time after 9:00 PM when Saturn and star Spica began to show through the twilight. Saturn did not disappoint and the view improved as darkness came. The sky also improved after dark. Rather than start with our beautiful but very low-power (about 30X) eyepiece I began running the telescope at 104X and received beautiful views of the ringed world, about a month past its opposition. Then I decided to try a 2-inch University Optics eyepiece that would deliver 222X and the view went from good to extraordinary. All evening long, along with 25 guests, enjoyed images of Saturn that included three moons (including Titan, fairly close in) colored cloud bands, the shadowy "C" ring against the planetary disk, and the Cassini Division! The crowd was lighter than expected so I had little else planned for the evening but for a look at rapidly-departing Mars. The Red Planet was disappointing as usual though, at 222X, there were hints that we might have made out a polar ice cap and some shadowy surface markings, but for unstable air that caused Mars's image to shimmer. So we stayed on Saturn for most of the rest of the time. After the final guests departed, I turned the big scope to the east and northeast to practice finding M13 and the Ring Nebula. A little fishing produced gorgeous views of M13 -- the great star cluster in constellation Hercules. The Ring (M57) was trickier to find but I got that too. The Ring looked far better at low magnification appearing dim and diffuse at 222X. M13 was stunning at both high and low magnification. I packed it in at about 11:30. We'll be able to show off Saturn and M13 with ease to guests on Friday of Alumni Weekend followed on Saturday by the June Public Night. I forgot to mention to visitors ... Saturday is named after the god Saturn -- it's "Saturn's Day."

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!