A cold celestial dance

Earth's Moon and Jupiter in Close Conjunction, January 21, 2013

Despite the fact it was 9 degrees (F) and just before 11:00 PM, I simply had to go out and try a shot of Monday night's close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter. Skies had cleared and snows stopped so I had a good opportunity. I stepped out on to our sidewalk and, tolerating the frigid breeze as long as I could, shot several exposures, bracketing the shutter speed. I only got one or two that were acceptable to me mostly due to focus being off. The image I'm sharing is sharp enough that (in the uncompressed original) even shows hints of Jupiter's cloud belts, diagonal here in its tiny disk. None of Jove's moons show due to the short exposure needed to record Earth's Moon. Pictures done and shared here, on Twitter, and on Google+, it was off to slumberland having witnessed a cold celestial dance before bed.

Notes: Single-exposure image -- Canon EOS 50D: ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/500 sec., 400mm lens (600mm equiv.), cropped and adjusted in Adobe Photoshop.

Yes, we have no Geminids (in photos)

Curious about how the Geminid meteor shower was going, I stepped outdoors at around 10:00 last night. In the five to 10 minutes I stood in the cold air, I spotted three bright meteors and that's under our light-polluted suburban skies! Reports were coming in from other areas of North America remarking on the quality of this year's crop of meteors. And so, despite my fatigue, I set out with camera and tripod for points farther away from city lights. A dark parking spot along a road in Hinckley looked mighty good: there was no ambient light and I was south of a layer of thin, city-lit clouds. Not long after I'd set up, a car drove up, its lights bothering me. The car pulled into a nearby parking spot and the driver started a conversation. I thought it might be a policeman about to tell me to move along or a not-so-nice person out to pester me or worse! Turns out it was another would-be meteor watcher/photographer seeking darkness and a bit of reassuring companionship. This was good. So there we stood, out in the cold, quiet darkness comparing notes and experiences, snapping shutters, spotting a meteor here and another there. Now and again a sound was heard coming from the woods -- deer? Occasionally commotion came from the direction of the lake -- ducks and geese. Not creepy if you aren't alone. Photographic efforts continued. Thing is, if your camera doesn't happen to be aimed at the spot where a meteor zips by, you're not going to get a picture of it ... no matter how bright it was. I saw a Geminid cover half the sky, in the portion of the sky opposite where my camera was aimed. My companion and I suffered the same frustrations ... aimed at the wrong space of sky at the wrong time to record bright streaks. So after maybe an hour, with cold feet and 117 photo exposures done, I said goodnight and we headed in our separate directions. I had seen more "falling stars" than I've seen in a good long time. Although I got no meteor images it was a beautiful night. From the southern horizon, up, was the brilliant star Sirius, then the grand constellation Orion, and up from there was planet Jupiter floating just above the Hyades star cluster. Above them all (though not in the photo I am displaying here) was the lovely Pleiades star cluster. Those pesky thin clouds, illuminated by street lights, formed patterns in the sky even where they did not completely cover it. That was my little midnight meteor-chasing adventure.

A beautiful night with friendly visitors

After weather caused us to cancel the September and October Public Nights at Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College, it was a pleasure to behold beautiful skies tonight! The first visitors arrived just before 7:00 PM as we were just opening. The waxing crescent Moon was down among neighboring trees but their bare limbs allowed a few minutes of lunar viewing that we did not expect. As others arrived we turned the big telescope towards the east and the brilliant Pleiades star cluster (M45). During the evening I believe we were able to make out traces of nebulosity around a couple of the stars -- the "Seven Sisters" were beautiful to see. Like diamonds scattered on black velvet, the stars of the Perseus Double Cluster shown through the eyepiece. We couldn't fit both clusters within the field of view so the telescope was pointed at the brilliant center of one. Jupiter rose steadily and, with a little ladder-climbing, we were able to observe the gas giant through most of the evening. Observing conditions were not ideal through, remarkably, we were able to make out three and sometimes four cloud belts in the planet's atmosphere! All four Galilean moons were visible during our session. Conditions did not support 200X magnification so we stayed at about 120X. In the same area of sky as Jupiter was the double-binary star system of Capella; a brilliant reddish dot, twinkling in the eyepiece. As the last visitors were leaving, we stood on the front lawn and looked up. One guest said she saw two meteors -- likely late-arriving Leonids -- though I saw none. I pointed out that we could make out the glowing patch of sky that is the Double Cluster without the use of binoculars or telescope ... seeing was that good! It was a very enjoyable night sharing the night sky with a friendly group of visitors.

No Moon - Stormy Sunset

Stormy Sunset: I was to have led a local event celebrating International Observe the Moon Night tonight but the weather has been unfriendly to such endeavors! There was one giant "sucker hole" that let me see the Moon briefly; it was quickly replaced by something pretty spectacular but much closer to home!

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.

Truly memorable sunspot

Sunspot group AR1520 as it appeared July 11, 2012. Blame image softness on the photographer!

Hosting a group of kids from Camp Asbury church camp this morning, we were treated to the best views of sunspots I’ve ever had. Sunspot group AR1520 is absolutely enormous, dominating the face of the Sun and observing conditions were very good. We could see good detail within the sunspots and where they merged along with some hints of granulation. We viewed the Sun at about 30X and, later, at 139X through Stephens Memorial Observatory’s 112-year-old 9-inch refractor fitted with a white light solar filter. We had 15 day campers (grades 1-6) and seven staff for a total of 22 people. I'm sure at least a few of them will remember AR1520 and our grand, old telescope for a long time to come! In the front yard we had our little hydrogen-alpha telescope set up. The views were less impressive but, if the viewer knew just what to look for, there were many prominences visible around the Sun's limb; old Sol is really active this summer!

After the campers left I hauled out my camera and discovered I had the wrong direct-focus adapter (1.25-inch instead of 2-inch) with me and could not focus at all! So I removed a piece to shorten the distance to the camera's focal plane, focused as best I could, and hand-held the camera at the open telescope tube for a direct-focus image. A yellow filter is in place within the camera adapter to try and keep the sensor clean. The resulting image is soft, not doing justice to the telescope or the sunspots, but the view is impressive nonetheless; it’s a good representation of what we saw, which was truly amazing!

Image Notes: Canon Digital Rebel XT: ISO 400, 1/1000 sec., yellow filter; handheld direct-focus image using 3,327mm refracting telescope (Warner & Swasey, circa 1901) with white-light solar filter by AstroZap.

Worth the risk, this time!

Simulated view of Saturn and some of its moons as they appeared at 10:15 PM EDT, June 16, 2012. Image generated using "Gas Giants" for iPad.

The afternoon and evening of June 16 offered up skies that were mostly-cloudy to overcast. I thought there was little chance we would be able to provide Public Night visitors with views of Saturn at Stephens Memorial Observatory. I arrived at the appointed hour and the sky looked poor but, in the distance, there appeared to be clearing. Just as twilight grew dim enough for Saturn and neighboring Spica to appear, the clouds thinned. A little late, the celestial pair began to twinkle through the milky sky and, with the help of a sharp-eyed attendee, was able to aim the telescope and immediately get decent views. Starting at low power then, at last, boosting the magnification to 208X, those who ventured out under doubtful skies were rewarded with fine views of the ringed world. Sightings of moons were difficult though one or two could be spotted near Saturn. We spotted Rhea and Enceladus, as best I can determine, in the high-powered, narrow-angle view. Despite the sky conditions, Saturn shown through and many of the same features seen on the previous night could again be seen! There were glimpses of atmospheric banding, Saturn's shadow was seen on its rings, the "F" ring was visible against the planetary disk, and --this surprised me-- we were getting glimpses of the Cassini Division within the ring system. While the Saturday night sky was not as clear as Friday's, the seeing was steadier which made up for some of the deficiencies. Temperature was about 80 degrees F. Only eight visitors passed through our doors but everyone got very nice views of Saturn, 858 million miles distant, and left happy they took the chance on the sky. Sky conditions did not allow views of fainter objects. Saturn began to fade from view at about 10:30 as clouds thickened, no other visitors arrived, so we closed up.