Neptune at the Bonebrake Center

Tonight there was an astronomy outreach program at the Bonebrake center in Salem.  Since I'm friends with two of the ringleaders and one is an avid geocacher we decided to go early, have dinner at Angies Cafe and do some geocaching in the area.  We snagged a few, had a great pork steak bbq dinner, and met the crew at dusk.  I helped Joe Schuster and Jason Stotler set up their scopes and helped a bit as the night progressed.  They had a nice small crowd of mixed adults and kids. We were treated to clear skies, a quarter moon, and views of Saturn including Titan. Jason and I managed to get a glimpse of M31 in my 10x50 binocs but I was unable to catch Neptune.  It was just too low and the sky not quite dark enough.  Later at home around 11:00 I was finally able to verify Neptune. I thought it was a little brighter than the 7.8 given by Sky Safari and was able to see it easily in my 10x50s. There were not enough stars of Aquarius visible unaided due to the quarter moon glare so star hopping with my binocs from Fomalhaut was a bit tedious but I got 'er done! Uranus would have been a bit brighter but it was still too low to be easy to catch.  Maybe later in the valley although seeing anything in the East is difficult down there.

A Night to Remember

Actually all of yesterday was a Day to Remember: a perfectly beautiful early spring day in Missouri. We went back to Bray Conservation Area outside Rolla and hiked the Full Moon trail, about 2 miles I think. Of course we were geocaching and we found Rick and Joy's Golden Ammo Can at about the half way mark near the sinkhole feature. Yesterday evening I took advantage of the crystal clear moonless skies to observe Venus next to the Pleiades. I've been observing several Venus conjunctions this year as part of my BRGVSP outreach sessions but this one was different, and very pretty in binoculars. Leo looks like it is trying to catch Jupiter now and Jupiter makes a nice pairing with the Beehive cluster nearby. Early this morning I got up at 5:00 am to see if Nova Sagittarii 2015 No 2 was still visible.  It is and is still about magnitude 6 by my estimate. S&T claims it varies in brightness between 4.5 and 6 so I'll need to try again if we get any more clear mornings.  It's overcast again today (haze was coming in at 5:00) so one never knows.  This IS Missouri after all!

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2

A Nova in Sagitarius

I've been trying to remember to get up early on a clear morning to see if I could see the new nova in the south. Today was the day.  Judy couldn't sleep so she went outside, noticed it was clear, and woke me up about 6:30. I grabbed my 10x50s and headed south to the fence where I just might get some relief from the depressingly large number of streetlights in our neighborhood, not to mention the added bonus of a yardlight every couple of yards, LED accent lights, rope lights, and every other form of light polution known to mankind! I was able to see Scorpius high in the south, much higher than it is up north at this time, and I knew that Sagitarius was following along close behind.  I couldn't see much unaided though so I pulled out my trusty 10x50s.  There it was, a pattern that was familiar: the teapot.  I looked for the lid and THERE IT WAS! There was a new fourth 'star' where there has always been only three before. I wasn't able to do a very good comparison but there was definitely a bright star not shown on my star chart. When I got home I estimated that it was about the same brightness as HD166023 a bit further west and out of my field of view. That would put the nova at about magnitude 5 or 6. If it is still clear in the morning, and if I'm able to get up again, I'll try a bit earlier from a darker location and see if I can't get a better estimate of brightness, but for now this will have to do.  I believe this is my first viewing of a nova! The image is a screen shot of the field around the nova as seen through my 10x50s assuming a seven degree FOV. The white arrow points to the location of the nova which I penciled in on the screenshot.

Venus and the Moon (and Mars, and the Sun finally)

Moon/Venus Conjunction

As bad as the seeing was last night (non-existent) it was superb tonight.  The sun finally broke through the cloud bank about noon and it got steadily better the rest of the day. Tonight was perfect except for a horde of pesky mosquitoes that have been taking advantage of all the rain and warm weather we've had lately. I missed the Mars/Moon conjunction last night because of the clouds but the Moon/Venus duet really put on a show tonight. I was able to capture a nice image of the pair framed by the neighbor's palm tree across the street. Mars was also in view, barely. I was able to make it out in my 10x50s after it got a bit darker.  I also used my new Nexus 7 tablet and Google Sky Map to help find Mars.  I've come to really like the new tool.  I've not use the 'point and shoot' feature of Sky Safari Pro, preferring to use manual mode instead, but I've been using Sky Map auto mode quite a bit ever since discovering that the compass and magnets don't go well together! I discovered that while geocaching a few days ago with it. The compass feature of c:geo was leading me all over the place until I realized that the cover had a magnet to turn the Nexus on and off by opening the cover. After removing the case, all was well, and the operation of Sky Map also improved! I also noticed that Jupiter is now high overhead, leading Leo to the west. I had originally intended setting up the scope for an evening of viewing but decided against it after providing dinner to some hungry mosquitoes.

March's Star Party - in the rain!

Who would be silly enough to show up for a star party in the pouring rain?  Those thoughts went through my head today as a fairly steady rain poured down all day long. A small clearing in the clouds appeared late this afternoon but quickly closed up toward sundown. The answer to my question came in the form of Judy and me and about ten others! I anticipated a stellar no-show and added about twice as much material including slides on the signs of the zodiac and why the sun's not in Leo in August anymore, Dawn at Ceres, CME's on the sun, and finding your way around in the sky. A crash of OpenOffice that occured before the show even started resulted in several slides 'disappearing' but otherwise it all went without a hitch, except no stars. There were several good questions and everyone seemed to enjoy going outside to see if we could catch at least a glimpse of something. There were no 9 year olds at this event so I basically skipped 'birthday stars' but will include them later. It was a kind of blah way to end the season's star parties as we will be heading back north soon, to darker skies hopefully, but it was fun anyway.

February's Star Party in the Park

The weatherman could not have cooperated better tonight unless it was a bit less windy but the wind at least kept the mosquitoes at bay.  The temperature was a balmy short-sleeve shirt 70° and the sky was clear as a bell.  I talked to about 30 people of all ages, both local and winter texans, from about 6:00 to 7:00 and we then moved out to the patio where we had three telescopes set up.  While the group admired the Mars/Venus conjunction and Jupiter's moons, I got the scopes aligned on the conjunction and Jupiter. I then pointed out several features in Orion, the Pleiades, Taurus, Canis Major and identified Canopus low in the south. I found comet Lovejoy and several were able to find it with binoculars. A satellite passing overhead thrilled the young cub scouts that were present.
I did a three star alignment of the Celestron goto which was successful but when I set Jupiter as the target it slewed in the opposite direction.  Not sure what was going on there. I next did a solar system alignment on Jupiter which was a quick way to keep Jupiter in the FOV. Many in the group were at least somewhat familiar with the sky so everyone seemed to keep each other entertained and a good time was had by all. We shut down and were home by about 8:00.
I arrived about 4:00 to get set up. The finders were all finicky as usual.  I replaced all three batteries in the three scopes we used and had to put a penny under one battery to make a decent connection. Once I got them all aligned and tightened up they all performed pretty well.  Roy mentioned that the park has a modest budget for a new goto scope for next year.  Today was Melissa's last day. She is moving to Mother Neff state park near Waco TX.

Venus, Moon, and Mars Conjunction

It was clear tonight again and the big conjunction was high and bright at sundown. I could barely make out Mars in the glare of Venus so I grabbed my 10x50s and got all three in the FOV.  It was a gorgeous preview for tomorrow's Star Party in the Park at Bentsen RGV State Park.

Comet Lovejoy again

I've been watching Venus and Mercury the past few days.  Of course the skies have been pretty clear since Saturday night! Tonight was spectacular: clear, dry, cool but not too cold so I decided to set up the ETX.  After fumbling with the alignment a few times I was finally able to center on M45 and star hop to Lovejoy. It was  just ok and a bit disappointing.  I think the view might even be better in my 10x50s. The problem is the nearby street light and security light across the street combination. Between the two there is enough stray light to choke a horse. An improvised light shade made a noticeable difference.  A bit higher magnification would have helped too.  Other than that, the view was steady so at least Judy was able to get a peek at this fairly rare event. I finished off by reporting my sighting of Orion on Globeatnight.org.  My limiting magnitude of 4 was actually pretty good compared to all the 1s, 2s, and 3s I saw from around the world.  There was one 7 reported from a remote site in Japan.

Special Event at the Park

Tonight I gave a presentation on Astro101 at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park to about 27 visitors. I spoke for about a half hour on the basics of optical aids, star charts, and citizen science then we moved to the patio outside where we were able to see Venus and Mercury.  Most had not seen Mercury before. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy and we weren't able to see much more.  A little bit of Orion was visible occasionally. The talk was well received but the highlight for me was spotting a large brown tarantula on the way in on the driveway about 5:00. Judy had fun talking to a four year old boy who had 'seen an alien'. We finished up about 8:00pm. This was not advertised and the park staff were pleased with the turnout. We plan to repeat in Feb and March.

Comet Lovejoy

Finally a clear night.  It has been cold and cloudy, even rainy, pretty much all year so far in 2015.  Today about noon it cleared off and we had a beautiful day.  Judy and I did a bit of geocaching about 4:30 and picked up several along Military Highway just south of us, including a 'thorn in my side' that has bugged me for awhile, and a D4 that was just put out recently. The D4 was laying on the ground! It had fallen from it's perch so I signed the log, took the D4, and slid it back into its hidey hole. After that we grabbed a bite to eat at Las Comales, practiced our Spanish a bit, and zipped back down to the park to see if Venus and Mercury were going to be visible during the 'event' tomorrow. They were and will be.  Beautiful in the west at 6:30 pm. They have pulled apart a bit since I last saw them a couple of weeks ago but still pretty close, less than 6 degrees. Tonight I pulled out the lounge and went looking for Comet Lovejoy.  I used M41 as a pointer and my trusty 10x50s.  Follow the line of Eta Tau and 23 Tau about 12 degrees NW to find a large-ish fuzzball.  I did not see a tail but the comet itself is fairly bright.  I admired it until clouds moved in about 10:00.  This should be quite a treat tomorrow night if the weather cooperates.