09/21/07

This is a journal of conditions and observations made during the Thursday Night Open House nights.

September 20, 2007

The observatory was open tonight. The light pollution was a little over bearing, most of the objects we wanted to spot were in areas of large amounts of light pollution; Uranus and M15 - A Globular Star Cluster. In addition the Moon was just past its first quarter but we could not see it in the southern sky because of the trees blocking our view. We were able to observe a double star in the constellation Delphinus - the Dolphin. We looked at different techniques for observing color differences between two stars in a binary system.

September 13, 2007:

Tonight was the first open observatory of the semester. We had a nice crowd - 15 to 20 students. We discussed how Edwin Hubble discovered other galaxies using Cepheid Variable stars, how to star hop, and a little Greek mythology. We used binoculars to spot the Andromeda Galaxy, and the telescope to view Epsilon Lyrae - a double star in the constellation Lyra as well as the Ring Nebula in Lyra.

December 14, 2006:

  Tonight was the Meteor Shower Watch at the Observatory! Check it out here!

December 7, 2006:

  Lousy weather tonight, the observatory will hopefully be open next week!

November 30, 2006:

  Lousy weather tonight, the observatory will hopefully be open next week!

November 23, 2006:

  The observatory is closed for Thanksgiving.

November 16, 2006:

  Lousy weather tonight, the observatory will hopefully be open next week!

November 9, 2006:

     This week at the observatory we were working on overcoming a few obstacles. Earlier in the week a piece at the top of the dome broke off that stopped the dome from closing and opening on one side.

     Therefore, after Wednesday's rain, the observatory had considerable water inside that needed to be cleaned. I arrived to the observatory an hour early to take care of the water damage. It would take 30 minutes for mop up all the water. After that the observatory was ready to open, and it was a good thing we opened tonight, because tonight was the largest gathering at the observatory all year. Approximately 50 students came by tonight to use the facilities.

     We started off the night with a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus called M15. We learned how to use averted vision to see details of faint objects better.

     We then changed direction and looked east to see if we could spot a supernova remnant called M1, The Crab Nebula, but light pollution would hinder us from seeing it. In weeks to come, it will be further off the horizon and won't be as difficult to spot.

     The last object of the night was a quarter moon rising low on the horizon. We were able to see significant atmospheric distortion. This compared to how we see a distorted image above a hot grill.

November 2, 2006:

     There was fantastic weather tonight to start the night. The moon was in a gibbous stage and was very bright. This would provide great views of the moon, however, it would make the sky too bright to see deep sky objects, as predicted.

     We started with the moon and saw the crater Tycho, and discussed impacts, and causes for mountains in the middle of craters. Freshman students from the Physical Science Talent Advancement Program (PSciTAP) showed up to get a hands on astro experience, and were rooting for deep sky objects, we were able to spot the Andromeda Galaxy, but not as bright as past weeks.

     We also talked about the magnifying power of the telescope. We found that the scope could read posters in hallways of the dorms in the distance. Towards the end of the night, the crude focus was not working, which stopped us from moving to the Crab Nebula, but hopefully, by next week, will be fixed.

October 26, 2006:

      There was great weather tonight at the observatory. This was the largest gathering of students that the observatory has seen in years. At the beginning of the night we had 21 students at the observatory. Three police cadets stopped by to investigate the gathering  and after they realized it was educational, they decided to get a glimpse of the Andromeda Galaxy.

     Open Star clusters were the favorite tonight! We saw two great ones, both in the constellation Taurus. The first was the Pleiades Star Cluster and the second was the Hyades Star Cluster. We also got the see the North Star, Polaris, through the telescope and realized that it was part of a binary star system and a had a small blue companion star that was approximately 630 times fainter than Polaris was!

October 19, 2006:

  Lousy weather tonight, the observatory will hopefully be open next week!
 

October 12, 2006:

  Lousy weather tonight, the observatory will hopefully be open next week!

October 5, 2006:

     The observatory opened despite a cloud cover rolling in. We had three students from Astro 100 stop in and we were able to see the Moon really well, even though there was a thin covering over it. The clouds actually acted as a filter which reduced the brightness of the moon so it wasn't so overwhelming through the eyepiece.

     Then two astronomy and physics students from Smith stopped by to see the facilities. They were really impressed with the observatory, but couldn't believe we didn't have a computer drive for the telescope. After glimpsing the Ring Nebula in Lyra, we had to close down early due to the clouds covering the sky completely.
 

September 28, 2006:

     I arrived at the observatory at 7 PM. The sky had some breaks in it, and the    clear sky was visible, but only for a few minutes - after that, a thick cloud covering rolled in.

     I got there early because I had brought replacement bulbs, a vacuum cleaner, and paper towels & cleaner. The observatory had been filled with cobwebs, dust and dirt since I started working in it last year. I spent all of last night cleaning (because the weather was lousy). So be sure to stop by the cleaned observatory next week! We'll keep this weeks targets the same for next week!

September 21, 2006
Objects Viewed:
 M57, The Ring Nebula
 Double Double in Lyra (Epsilon Lyrae)
 Gamma Delphini (Double star in the Dolphin Constellation)
 M31, The Andromeda Galaxy