The Sky is Waiting.
The Current Number of Exoplanets Discovered is: 4142
Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.
Copyright © 2019 · Education Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in
The Urban Astronomer
Living on the flight path – an aircraft approaches
the Full April Pink Moon. Photo by Author.
Quick: where’s your very own personal observatory?
In an ideal world, most amateur astronomers would simply live in an iconic dome observatory, perched on a windswept mountain under perpetually clear dark skies.
The reality for most of us, however, is a perpetual hunt to find time and space to observe when and where we can. Most of us become weekend astronomy warriors, driving out as far as we can from the suburbs on the perpetual quest for darker skies. Dark sky sites are to amateur astronomers what secret fishing holes are to fishermen, jealously guarded bits of information only passed on to those who’ve proven their dark sky mettle, and promise not to show up with floodlights ablaze.
Trouble is, astronomy doesn’t just happen on the weekend. And every hurdle thrown up – packing, planning, driving, scouting out a spot, and convincing family that investing precious time off in such a quest is a good idea – becomes a barrier between us and our goal: simply sitting at the eyepiece and observing and imaging.
We’ve written before about the challenges of observing while traveling, and the merits of a compact observing kit. This can be especially challenging when the goal of the trip isn’t astronomy, and the trek is long term… but who wants to miss out on southern sky sites during a business trip to Australia, or a backpacking trip to New Zealand?
We’ve recently met a new challenge: urban astronomy. Sure, we’ve done many a public star party from the bright downtown lights of Tucson or Tampa, places where the Moon, planets and bright double stars were the only viable targets. But we’ve found there’s a big difference between making the occasional journey into the city center to promote the cause of astronomy, and living there full time.
Astroguyz base camp is currently in a studio apartment in downtown Norfolk. We’ve got street lamps right outside our ground floor balcony, so there’s not much astronomy to be had there… but we’ve found that you can still explore the Universe, even from an over-lit U.S. east coast metropolis. Heck, modern sensitive imagers even allow for deep sky astrophotography from urban areas these days; we’ve seen great captures of the Pleiades or the Orion Nebula from such an unlikely astrophotography site as a fire escape outside of a Manhattan apartment.
There are few approaches to this dilemma. Our first choice was a small school yard track near our apartment. It’s unlit at night, a small dark patch in the light pollution jungle. Also, solar astronomy is just as easy to do downtown as uptown… just be ready to answer well-meaning queries from passersby as to just what you’re looking at. Too bad we’re at a profound solar minimum right now, and I frequently have to let folks down with a “you can look, sure… but the Sun’s not very active right now…”
The urban landscape offers lots of moonrise/moonset opportunities with foreground landmarks, something I’m still scouting out.
The happiest day, though, is when I found out I could easily access our apartment’s rooftop. We have a five story parking garage that’s open on the top, and it’s mostly for overflow parking and only rarely used… and one elevator goes directly to the top.
But how to get easily there and set up? Our first test was a trial and error affair of having to relay the telescope case and gear from one door to the next, though the elevator and up to the roof…
Our solution? A collapsible wagon, the kind most folks use to haul coolers and gear from their car to the beach. This easily carries my 8-inch SCT telescope, tripod, extra gear and a small chair from our tiny apartment to our rooftop “site” with minimal effort, and easily stows away when it’s not in use. Heck, it also does double duty getting groceries in from the car as well in one haul.
Sure, there’s still rooftop lights to contend with, but we’ve found one dark-ish corner from which to contemplate the sky.
Love and passion for the sky will always find a way.