October Open night

Open night at Stephens Memorial Observatory: Arriving in the dark I met two of my regular attendees: a woman and her 80+ year-old-mother. They drive up from a place about an hour away for every one of these sessions, even when it's the same objects for observation -- in this case it was the Moon. The drive took less time tonight so they arrived early. By the time the event was over we had 19 visitors aged 4 years and up look through the century-old refractor; we might have had more visitors but there was a big Cleveland Indians baseball game on TV. Guests were treated to superb views of the first-quarter Moon, however, as the atmosphere was extremely clear and mostly steady. I don't think I've personally ever seen the Moon so clearly with my own eyes! Using a massive antique eyepiece that I'm really growing to love we viewed the entire Moon at about 40X. With a modern eyepiece we saw excellent details within craters along the terminator and in the lunar maria at about 100X. After closing (10 PM) I experimented to see how high I could push the power on the old scope. I went as high as 370X but the image was too soft. I did get acceptable results at 270X, however, which was a shocker. The telescope still isn't tracking well when pointed south, however, so I couldn't stay fixed on any lunar detail for very long. I couldn't find the planet Neptune --1.5 degrees from the Moon this night-- in the orb's bright glare so I turned the telescope away from the Moon and targeted the Perseus Double Cluster: NGC 884 & 869. They filled the great antique eyepiece with diamond-like lights delighting our guests more than I had expected. This night was also to be the peak of the Orionid meteor shower but I saw not one "shooting star." Best viewing was after Moonset but I wasn't about to stay up that late or get up very early -- things to do Sunday!

"Discovering" NGC 1981

They say there's a difference between looking at a celestial object and observing it. A case in point was this morning's appreciation of Orion. The weather was very humid and warm for October --about 72 degrees at 6:20 AM-- when I stepped outdoors on our westward-facing stoop to check out the dark morning sky. Despite the humidity, the sky looked clear and Orion floated high above our roofline. I decided to take a better look so fetched my 10 X 50 binoculars. Of course Orion's sword was the real target of the morning. I could easily see the cloud of M42, The Great Orion Nebula, which is a favorite to view using telescopes. I was surprised to note I could just make out the glow of the Trapezium with the handheld binoculars. The heavy air, it seems, was also very steady. Looking around in the field of view I appreciated the surprising clarity of the stars then noticed something I'd never really seen before... a loose group of tiny points of light just at the top end of the "sword." A star cluster? Beautiful, but was it really a cluster? I swung the binoculars around to check out a very bright star to the south --Sirius-- like a mercury vapor light in the sky. Then a quick look at brilliant red Betelgeuse in Orion and I headed back into the house ... had to get ready for work! Checking the books later I learned that the sprinkling of stars I had "discovered" for myself was, indeed, a cataloged loose open cluster: NGC 1981. The two-minute session with my binoculars may have been a quick look, but seeing the cluster was observation. A pleasing way to begin the day.

September open night

September 22 -- The Stephens Observatory open night went very well. We had 29 visitors, all ages represented, with a good number of them College students. The last little group, two college couples, arrived just before 11 PM closing. Most visitors got to see the Sagittarius Cluster (M22) -- the beautiful globular star cluster of about 70,000 stars -- which resolved into individual stars very handsomely, the Moon, and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) which was a struggle to find with so many people in the room! The Moon is always a big hit with the public: something we see very often but not with the kind of detail we see through a good, big refracting telescope. Our best views came through the big wide-field antique eyepiece (about 40X) but views at 110X through a modern eyepiece were crisp and thrilling. At one point in the evening I think we had around 22 people in the dome -- a 16-foot diameter room -- which may be some sort of record for us! The air was cool, the sky was perfectly clear (for Northeastern Ohio) and the atmosphere fairly steady (some shimmering of crater details visible at higher power).

Clear night, photo experiments

Having missed one night of excellent seeing Saturday night, I decided I must get out this night... the second very good night in a row! Went to Stephens and enjoyed about 2 1/2 hours of excellent skies. I practiced locating and observing the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with the big scope. Viewed the spectacular M22 globular star cluster in Sagittarius, and enjoyed seeing the Milky Way in the dark sky overhead. Attempted to image M31 and M22 through the telescope but it still isn't tracking nearly well enough for photography... not yet, anyway. Did take the camera outdoors and photograph the dome against the night sky and the photos were excellent as first tries! Sensitivity setting of ISO 1600, however, generated a lot of electronic noise amongst the stars. I'll use that rarely in future! One of the clearest skies in a while and I got to enjoy it in comfortable 68-degree conditions. Closed up at midnight. A good night.

Astronomy class visits observatory

I hosted the Hiram College Fall Semester Astronomy class at Stephens Memorial Observatory this morning at 9:00. They were given a brief history of the Observatory and telescope and we observed the Sun. The sky was mostly clear and temperature was around 70 degrees. Using the Cooley Telescope's relatively new Baader film filter, we observed, when seeing was good, granulation and a small sunspot group surrounded by faculae. The 12 students seemed to enjoy the visit and were encouraged to attend public nights. We'll also be hosting some student-only observing sessions.

Total lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse! This was the first lunar eclipse that I've observed that ended at totality with the sun rising which means I only saw the first half of "the show." Never mind, it was an excellent experience! It was well worth my getting up 90 minutes early! I watched the Moon move from the shade of Earth's outer shadow or penumbra and into the deep inner cone of darkness, the umbra. Within the space of a bit more than an hour Luna changed from a full, golden disk to a dull coppery remnant in the western sky. Sunrise erased the last traces of the spectacle from sight a little after 6:00 AM Tuesday, August 28.

At about 4:45 AM, I stepped out on to our western-facing porch and carried my camera (Canon Digital Rebel XT, set at ISO 400), already mounted to its tripod, down to the walk. From there I shot my first photos of the mostly-bright Moon; it was fully inside the Earth's penumbra at that hour and beginning to enter the umbra. I worked out the best exposure settings and tested the focus. Next I moved to the court at the end of our driveway apron, set up the tripod there, shot a few more images. From there I swung the camera around and got a few images of Orion rising above the trees... long time, old friend! Those shots, along with one of the Pleiades and neighboring Hyades star cluster, came out surprisingly well.



Progressively, stopping here and there, I began working my way up the hill stopping on the pavement several times to look up and maybe make another image or three -- no cars at all, thank goodness, just some guy on a bicycle who seemed surprised to see me. Then I took a non-stop hike to a place just across from the town square.



On a knoll beside a nursing home, overlooking the police station and the Columbia River valley beyond, I set up to stay til the end. Staff on break from the nursing home called across in the morning darkness, "is there a lunar eclipse?" "Yep," I yelled back, "and it's nearly in totality now!" "Wow, I thought it was," they answered after taking a peek, "but I didn't hear about it on the news." I tried different exposures, zoomed in and out, refined focus. In all, about 70 digital shots. None of the lunar images is truly sharp but several are "keepers."

Nonetheless, these are my best lunar eclipse images yet and certainly reflective of the visual experience. Next lunar eclipse is in February of 2008. I hope it's clear because that one should be a very good show for us Mid-Western North Americans! Next time, the camera rides a telescope!

Perseid meteors fizzle

The weekend's Perseid meteor shower was a bit of a bust for me. I didn't have much ambition and the sky conditions were rather hazy with a few passing clouds. Not great inspiration for staying up til all hours to watch for "falling stars." I stepped outside a few times Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and bagged about six meteor sightings but wasn't inspired to head to darker skies. Tonight, however, was a beautiful night! The humidity and haze were down, it was nicely cool, and the sky was cloudless. I stepped outdoors at about 10:30, binoculars in hand, and decided to take a look around. The light-polluted sky was clear enough to display a good number of stars, Jupiter, with Antares nearby, shown brightly to the south, and, OH! a single bright meteor streaked north to south as I gazed skyward! Later I believe I spotted a very faint meteor headed in the same direction. Checking out the northeast sky with the binoculars and yes!, I was able to find the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with no trouble at all so we've got a shot at showing it off at the next observatory open house. In the binocular field of view the galaxy was a faint fuzz-ball, rather indistinct in the bright skyglow, but it was there! I was too tired to go to the club meeting tonight and too tired to haul myself out to actually observe. The sky, however, is a wonder to behold no matter how you behold it!