Cloudy with a hint of Moon - Jupiter, & Mars

Summer astronomy students practicing
how to measure altitude and azimuth.

The first observing session for our summer astronomy group was for the sole purpose of teaching how to measure altitude and azimuth in our sky. Unfortunately, the clouds where plentiful, the sky was bright, and the stars were either too faint to be seen in the breaks, or covered by the clouds. Luckily, the Moon was bright enough to present itself as a target for everyone to practice their measurements on. It was a waxing gibbous with craters and mountains that stood out along the terminator, and was quite the view despite the haze.
 

Measuring Altitude

In addition to the Moon, we were fortunate to see not one, but two planets! Jupiter was bright enough to shine through the clouds, yet through the telescope it was very difficult to see it's moons. The major reason the moons in the telescope were faint was because it was still the evening twilight, the sky wasn't dark yet! While the summer night sky is filled with spectacular stars and constellations, the Sun doesn't set until late in the evening , 8:40 pm in early May to around 9:15 pm in June. This means that the twilight period where the skies are still bright may go up to about 10:30 pm during the summer solstice.

In any case, the summer constellations are plentiful, and as we make our way through May, we're starting to see some new constellations rise in the East, and some familiar ones starting to set in the West.

Waxing gibbous phase on May 8th, 2014.
The sky was too cloudy and hazy.
Image captured through telescope.

We've had quite a clear nights since the start of the semester - and just this weekend we were predicted to have had an intense meteor shower, but the predictions were wrong, and as of this moment they have declassified the Camelopardalis Meteor Shower as a "non-shower" event with only a few meteors here and there (instead of the 100-200 per hour you might have read on the news). The sky however is always full of surprises, you may never know what to expect unless you keep looking up!

- SHH

All Good Things...

...Happen at the Soccer Field!

Our last viewing of the semester happened on a beautiful evening on April 9th as we made our way to the soccer field for the 2nd time in the semester. It started off with a blazing view of the International Space Station flying over our heads, and ended with a viewing of a brilliant waxing gibbous Moon.

10 second exposures of the ISS with Arcturus near the center right.

We also had the opportunity to look at Mars through the 6" telescope. While we don't see as pretty an image as we do Jupiter, we were still able to make out variations in the surface color, including the brighter (almost white looking) polar ice caps, and of course the prominent red color that is Mars. (Too bad I didn't take a picture >.< )

Waxing Gibbous taken with Nexus 5 phone camera through 6" telescope.

Waxing Gibbous Moon taken with Nikkon D5100 through 6" telescope.

The sky has changed a lot since we first saw it back in January. Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades are now setting in the western sky, and new constellations like Leo and Boötes are rising in the East. We already missed a lunar eclipse due to cloudy weather, but a lot more astronomical events are right around the corner this summer. We have one more week before sky journals are due, make sure you're looking up and making entries every time you can! 

- Clear Skies!! 
SHH 

April Skies

Spring is finally here, the weather is warming up and the snow on the soccer field has melted. I thought I'd post what to look for in April skies. The main event this month is the Total Lunar Eclipse on April 15th. It will occur on the night of Monday-Tuesday (technically a Tuesday). The eclipse will start at 1:58 a.m. EDT and the totality will begin at 3:06 am. The greatest part of the eclipse will occur at 3:46 a.m., and the whole thing will end at 5:33 a.m. It'll be a long night, but if you've never seen the full Moon go from that bright shade of white to that orangish/red hue, then it's totally worth it!

Some other things to look for this month:

- Venus in the morning sky before sunrise
- Crescent Moon one hour after sunset on April 1st
- Mars in the night sky (rises ~ 2 hours after sunset)
- Saturn and Scorpius one hour before sunrise
- Jupiter in Gemini still


Keep looking up, and do those sky journals!

Clear Skies!

A perspective of size ...

Professor Stoddard demonstrating how
small Earth is compared to our own
Sun during the second SSE.

The Solar System Event is one my favorite labs in this course. It is designed to give us an appreciation to how vast our own solar system is, a sensation that usually hits most people by the time we get to Jupiter on our scale. However, it all starts when we compare Earth's size to the size of our Sun. In general, we are already aware of how small we are in comparison to our own Earth. We stand next to mountains, valleys and canyons and we suddenly feel small, and yet that insignificance is suddenly multiplied by a million folds when compared to the Sun. Just try to imagine how many human heads would fit inside the Sun (in 2D first then in 3D) :o)

Location of Mercury at our second SSE.

Where it usually always hits me (I get goosebumps and all) is when I realize how far away the closest star to us is. The fascinating part about all this is knowing that each star in our galaxy is at least that far from the next if not more, and that there are approximately 200 billion stars in our galaxy - the distances are unthinkable!

At Earth ...

At Earth when the BLIZZARD started!

One thing we talked about last semester during the Solar System Event was where the Voyager probes would be right now on our scale. Here's a quick "back of the envelope" calculation:

As of this date, Voyager 1 is about 127 AU from the Sun. On our scale, we said that Saturn (~10 AU) was 1 mile away from the Sun (i.e on Orchard Lake Road). So if 10 AU is equivalent to 1 mile, then 127 AU is equivalent to 12.7 miles (call it 13). This means that on our scale, Voyager 1 right now would be close to Stephenson Highway, right before you hit I-75 if you were driving East on 12 mile. That's a speed of ~ 0.35 miles per year!!! (That's 2.5 inches per hour). Can you imagine driving down 12 mile road at 2.5 inches per hour?

For the first time ever, we had to do the Asteroid Belt inside!

All in all, the solar system is huge - and we have barely ventured out to gain any real perspective of how vast it truly is. While only at Jupiter, we remembered that Earth on our scale was that tiny blue marble in the parking lot close to Farmington Rd, and it is from that location the we were able to discover Pluto, which was all the way on Lahser Rd. It is only proper that I end this entry with the famous words of Carl Sagan from Cosmos:

“The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.” 

Keep looking up, CLEAR SKIES! 

-SHH

Moons Galore!

Waxing Crescent Moon - Taken Feb 5, 2014

This past week the astronomy class was fortunate to go out viewing twice. Despite the cold, most students appreciated being able to see the waxing crescent Moon, Jupiter, and the Perseus Double Open Cluster through the telescope. The details that non-full moons offer when observing them through telescopes bring to light the ruggedness and topography on the surface of the Moon; it is not smooth! Being able to see the crater shadows, have a sense of their depth, and making out the highlands is worth it. In my opinion, the coolest part of viewing a crescent through a telescope is the high craters and mountains that get illuminated by the Sun in a shadowed area.
This observation was amongst the first evidence that the lunar surface was not a perfect orb.

Jupiter taken with Nikkon D5100 using a 180 mm camera lens.
Feb 3, 2014 (This image was not taken through a telescope!)
Notice some of the moons in this image!

While Orion is still dominating the winter night sky, Jupiter is stealing the show for the time being. It has shifted slightly in its position in the constellation of Gemini, and perhaps it's only my imagination but it seems to get brighter every time we go out viewing. One of the major changes we see in Jupiter is its 4 major moons. the position of these moons changes drastically in a matter of days, and it was nice to see that change between Monday and Wednesdays lab. It is always a good idea to note the locations of these moons in your sky journals every time we look at Jupiter through the telescope.

The weather has been discouraging many of us from spending time stargazing, but don't let it take away from the enjoyment. It's only a matter of time before it starts warming up and we get to finally make our way to the soccer field, out usual observing location. Until then, keep looking up!

Clear Skies,
SHH