Despite the clouds...

Pointing out Vega and Lyra with an imaginary green light
while everyone jots down info into their sky journals.
Notice Arcturus in the background!

When we checked the sky after class tonight, it was not looking promising given the amount of clouds that were present at that time. However, a meteor in the west that lasted about 4 seconds was the omen we needed to assure us that it was going to be a great night. So we decided to do a viewing, but opted to leave the telescopes behind on this one and focus on the stars and their constellations instead.

Students gathering at the soccer field.

We conglomerated at the entrance of A-Building to look at Venus first, since it was the only planet visible for us at that current time. After that, we headed out to the soccer field and looked at the few stars and constellations that were bright enough to be seen through the haze and broken clouds. The Summer Triangle was the most obvious one right over our heads, a few stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, and Arcturus were among the very few things we could see at first. But it didn't take long for the sky to clear up and for the brilliant constellations to become easily visible. Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Draco, Hercules, Pegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and even the Tea Pot were among the constellations present, that most of us are familiar (or should be) at this point in the class. We brought out 6 or 7 binoculars for students to use and some were astonished at how many more stars can be seen simply by looking through a pair of binoculars.

The changes in our night sky are starting to become noticeable, Arcturus is

Students measuring altitude and azimuth of the Big Dipper
later in the night as the sky cleared up.

sinking in the West behind the trees sooner than earlier in the semester, and over in the Eastern sky new objects, like the star Capella of the constellation Auriga are starting to rise. Keep in mind that everything in our sky rotates around Polaris so things appear to rise in the East and set in the West. This of course is an apparent motion of the sky due to the Earth's rotation about its axis and its orbit around the Sun.


Overall, tonight was one of those nights that started off looking not so promising due to some clouds that rolled in from the West, but ended up being a night with a brilliant sky that cleared up quite nicely. Perhaps it was a little reminder that things aren't always the way they seem, and that having a little bit of hope and patience can be rewarding at the end. Let's hope for more clear skies on Wednesday!
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SHH