Saturday night clouded out

At first all looked good. Then the forecasts began to change. By early evening it was apparent there would be a generally opaque cloud layer over the region through midnight. No Observatory open night Saturday night. The Observatory will have probably only one more chance at a public viewing of Saturn --next month-- before it sinks into the trees that block our Western skies.

Getting ready for "Opening Night"

We were supposed to have our first Open Night of the year at Stephens Memorial Observatory last weekend. Threatening and thickening clouds, however, put a stop to that. Since it was to be our official International Saturn Observation Campaign event, it was one of the rare occasions where we announced a "rain date." That date is tomorrow. The weather forecasts have been changing as the weekend approaches and now, from forecaster to forecaster, the expectation is something between mostly clear to mostly cloudy. Tonight, however, is cloudless and beautiful even in our light-polluted suburb. I can only imagine how beautiful it is under dark skies. I had nice views of Orion, the Pleiades, M44 - "The Beehive" but no trace of little Comet Lulin. I've been studying the charts and ducking outside with binoculars to become acquainted with the night sky as it presents itself these times. It has been a long while since we've had a passably clear night and tolerable temperatures (it's 30 F degrees). With luck we'll have clear weather tomorrow (Saturday) night and get a very nice view of Saturn, the great Orion Nebula, and some star clusters. All we can do is wait and see what kind of sky conditions come our way.

Seeking Comet Lulin

It is an unexpected clear night, and it is cold: 17 degrees (F). Between the temperature, recent snows, and being tired it did not make a lot of sense to either set up a telescope (in my situation*) or drive to the Observatory to look for the green comet Lulin (C/2007 N3). I did want to see it, however, and it would be easy to spot since bright Saturn and Lulin were to be very near each other in the sky.

Even with a relatively clear sky the light pollution of our suburban area is bad. Only the brightest stars and planets were visible this night: Venus was brilliant in the twilight and for a couple of hours after sunset, as it has been all winter. Now Saturn rises at a decent hour and tonight was well above the southeastern horizon in the great constellation Leo and, due to its golden color, was easily found. Leo was difficult to make out so I'm glad I didn't depend upon it!

Standing in my winter coat and pajama bottoms --yes, it's 17 degrees-- I aimed my 10 x 50 binoculars at Saturn. The brilliant dot floated in the visual field. I couldn't make out the planetary disk but nearby, and to Saturn's south and west, was a faint, diffuse, oblong cloud -- Comet Lulin. Invisible here to the unaided eye, it's being estimated at between magnitude 5 and 6. No nucleus was visible and no color noticeable. That should not be surprising given less than ideal base sky conditions, light pollution, and the small-aperture binoculars.

Still, I saw the comet as it is passing closest to Earth. And I got out under a "clear" sky with an optical instrument for the first time in months! It has been a long, cold, snowy, and cloudy winter and I'm hoping conditions improve soon. Our first public night for the year is set for March 7 when we'll be looking at Saturn -- the rings will be edge-on this year which is a rare sight.

And maybe I'll get a better look at that little green fuzz-ball Lulin. You never know!

* I've only purchased equatorial, tripod-mounted refractors til now. For occasions like this, however, a nice Dobsonian-mounted reflector would be great as a grab-and-go telescope. Hmmm.... is there room in my basement?

Sidewalk astronomy at the library

Westlake (Ohio) Porter Public Library requested a sidewalk astronomy event to take place during their Customer Appreciation Week. We were only too happy to oblige. After dicey late-afternoon cloud cover the sky cleared in time for setup at 7:30 and viewings from 8:00 to 9:15 off the sidewalk adjacent to the (brightly-lit) parking lot. Still a fellow astronomer (with an 8-inch SCT) and I (with my 6-inch refractor) showed curious visitors Jupiter, the Hercules Star Cluster (M13), the Ring Nebula (M57), and the great Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I was pleased at the performance of my scope's electronics for, after eyeballing polar alignment and a one-star computer alignment, the scope tracked Jupiter exceptionally well and found M57 on the first try! No disconnects and good tracking all evening. The Ring was very difficult for most viewers to spot in the eyepiece but it was actually the best view I've had of it. M13 through the SCT was a beautiful sight, M31 was its usual fuzz-ball self but not bad at all, and Jupiter was best viewed shortly after sundown. Seeing was unsteady at lower angles and as the planet sank lower in the sky occasional good seeing ended and the planetary disk was unclear. The good moments revealed multiple cloud bands in addition to the two big equatorial belts so patient viewers got a good look. Closed up shop at the appointed hour and answered cosmological and planet detection questions from a very curious adult visitor. It was cold (lower 40s F.) so good to get indoors.

Big open night for the Moon

Saturday, Oct. 11 was a Public Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory. Another amazing turnout! I did my best to keep an accurate count but I'm afraid that with 135 clicks on my counter I still managed to miss some attendees at Saturday night's Public Night. The announced main subject was the Moon though we started out with views of Jupiter -- Jupiter was in clear air while the Moon was behind clouds -- at 7:30 (a full half-hour before official opening). Three of the Galilean satellites were on one side of the planetary body with number 4 not visible. When I learned it had emerged from the clouds, I swung the telescope over to the waxing gibbous Moon --90 percent of full-- and we stayed there all the rest of the night. The crowd was mostly adult, general public, with a smattering of students (maybe half a dozen). Many good questions about astronomy and the history of the observatory. The last visitors left at about 10:30 (official closing was 10:00) after getting a view of the Pleiades and a bevy of hot, young, blue stars.

Brilliant ISS passage

I normally don't watch for overflights of the International Space Station. After the showing it made during Saturday's Public Night at the Observatory, however, I decided to watch again Monday night. From our balcony (aka "Chaunticlair Observatory") I began watching for the distinctive unblinking light at a little after 7:40 PM EDT. Still in fairly bright twilight the bright, moving "star" appeared as expected in the west-southwestern sky and climbed high overhead. Predicted brightness was -3 magnitude and it was brilliant. Because the Sun had not set long before, I watched the ISS as it made a complete arc overhead and down into the east ... it did not disappear into Earth's shadow before it was obscured by distant trees. Most impressive was just how bright the ISS was in the not-very-dark twilight sky.

Jupiter, Andromeda, and the Space Station

It was the monthly Public Night at Stephens Saturday, September 20. The late afternoon and early evening sky were not promising offering a mix of thin and thicker clouds swirled over a background of pale blue. As the Sun set, however, things improved. Jupiter came first and the first observatory visitors arrived at 7:30 -- a full half-hour before the advertised opening! The telescope revealed very good views of the planet and the Galilean moons. Aside from seeing several of the great planet's cloud bands, even some of the detail within the bands, I saw the Great Red Spot for the first time ever. Early viewing actually was best with seeing diminishing as the night went on. Also viewed were the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) looking every bit the huge fuzz-ball in the low-powered eyepiece. From there I moved the scope to the Double Cluster in Perseus: NGC 884 and NGC 869 at distances of 7,600 and 6,800 light-years respectively, and then by steps, back to Jupiter. A highlight of the night was passage of the International Space Station high overhead beginning at about 8:24. It shone brilliantly and arced steadily across the sky and low into the east where it finally fell into Earth's shadow and disappeared after a transit of several minutes. The last visitors of the evening arrived just before I was to close and they caught a glimpse of Jupiter just before it dropped behind the neighbor's trees at 10:00. In all about 50 visitors came to Stephens, 10 or 12 of them members of the College's new astronomy club. After closing I visited the Hiram site where the Aurora Astronomical Society proposed a new club observatory. The site is quite excellent protected from ambient light on all sides by trees and offering decently distant horizons. Clouds moved in and were obscuring the skies by 11:15 and overcast by midnight.