Tea Time

Astronomy students doing their
sky journals outside of A-Building.

Last night we started off our viewing session by looking at Venus in the western sky. It seems like starting our viewing sessions on top of the hill in front of A-Building to view Venus and then heading off to the soccer field works quite nicely since we aren't able to see Venus from the soccer field due to the trees. The Tea Pot however was clearly visible to us in the southern sky along with the star Antares in the constellation Scorpio. It turns out Sagittarius and Scorpio are located close to the Milky Way in our sky, but because of the amount of light pollution we are unable to see the numerous amounts of stars and dust clouds in that region of our sky. (Click here to see that image).

The Tea Pot and Scorpius (Antares)  (and an Airplanius Flybyus)

Though most of the light pollution seems to linger around in the eastern and southern sky, Pegasus and Andromeda are becoming easier to see as they continue to rise higher in the sky. With binoculars, we can easily see the Andromeda Galaxy if we know where to look.

The Andromeda Constellation. Also visible is the Andromeda Galaxy a little to the left of center in this photo. 
The streak of light is a plane moving.

Above is a picture I took that night which shows the constellation of Andromeda, and what appears to be a faint smudge above some of the stars in this constellation. That smudge is the Andromeda Galaxy! Though this picture doesn't do it justice, it is quite amazing that we are able to capture it with a few seconds of exposure. We'll try to photograph it through a telescope one of these nights. 

A longer exposure time that shows Cygnus (Deneb), Lyra (Vega), and a plane.

The Summer Triangle has also been quite the prominent feature that is among the first things to jump at us when we start our viewing sessions. Deneb and Vega are very close to the zenith, while Altair is a little lower and to the south. Cygnus lies on the plane of the Milky Way, so we expect to see a lot of stars when taking a long exposure photo. (Click here to see such a photo)

Capella rising in the northeast at the very bottom center of the photo. Also visible is a portion of Perseus.

We are also starting to witness the rise of some new objects like Capella from the northeast, and Aries from the East. This is a sign that autumn is here, and winter is right behind it. Brace yourselves, the snow is coming!



SHH