Crescent Moon, Venus, and Antares Tonight

Created with Stellarium.

If it remains clear locally, expect a nice view early this evening after sunset. Venus and the moon will be fairly close (6 degrees). That's a photo op in itself, but if you wait until it begins to get dark, you may see Antares as the lower left corner of an almost-equilateral triangle. The trick will be for it to be dark enough to see see the star, which is fainter than Venus or the moon, before it goes behind the trees, buildings, etc. on your southwestern horizon.

To get a sense of scale, I'm putting a picture I took of the moon and Venus a month ago (therefore about the same moon phase!), with distance labels. If Antares were there, it would get the label of 5.3 x 10^18 meters, or 550 light years.

AST 101 Observing Report, 9/30/13

Conditions that prevailed during the observing sessions.

Monday lab paid their first scheduled visit to the Gettysburg College Observatory on Sept 30. The forecast indicated mostly clear skies, but unfortunately the hours of 8-10 PM saw a lot of cloudiness, which seriously curtailed what we were able to accomplish. (Except the students did learn about the limits of earth-based observations!)

During breaks in the clouds, we were able to glimpse the Summer Triangle (Vega, Altair, and Deneb), the star Arcturus on the western horizon, the constellation Sagittarius in the SW, and parts of Ursa Major and Cassiopeia. We neverthelesss had a celestial sphere orientation, used one of the portable telescopes to view Arcturus, and had a tour of the dome room and warm room inside the observatory. We are very much hoping for a better night for session 2!

As luck would have it, the clouds broke as Alicia and were moving the telescopes back inside about 9:45 PM. I took the two pictures below, while we were packing up.

Big Dipper and observatory dome.

Looking south over campus. The star above and slightly right of the Jaeger center is Fomalhaut.

October Skyshows

New signs. Thank you, Caitlin Hay!

Here's a look at what we will feature in our October "Sky this Month" show:

• How does the gov't shutdown affect NASA missions?
• A wonderful local astrophotograph by a student
• What's going on with Comet ISON?
• Of course, the sights of the October skies
• And more!

Sunday at 4:00 PM and Tuesday 12 Noon and 7 PM in the Hatter Planetarium, Masters Hall, on the Gettysburg College campus. Free! All welcome!

Venus and Waxing Crescent Moon, Sept 8 and 9

If it's clear this Sunday night, Sept. 8, go out shortly after sunset and look for the moon and brilliant Venus low in the west-southwest. They will be only 1.5 degrees apart: a little over the width of a finger at arm's length. If you miss out on Sunday night, try again Monday. The moon will still be in that part of the sky, but a little fatter and farther to the left. Image made with Stellarium.

Back in Action for the 2013-14 Academic Year: Shows start Sunday

Photo: Gettysburg College PR

The Hatter Planetarium is back in action for the new academic year. Our "Sky this Month" series starts Sunday, September 1, at 4:00 PM. We'll be looking at an amazingly produced spaceflight video, the clear night skies of September, and much more. We'll also mark the autumnal equinox and check in on Comet ISON. Fantasy or fizzle? The full schedule for fall semester is available on our web site or via PDF. Caitlin Hay (Physics '14) is returning as a student assistant after a semester under the southern hemisphere skies, and she will once again be presenting many of our school and community group shows. She's great! A request form for those FREE shows is available here.

Private Show Requests Closed for the Summer

Thank you to all school and community groups for a great 2012-2013! It has been a VERY busy spring and we have shows scheduled right through final exam week. This would be impossible without reliable and talented student workers. Annie Skrabak ('15) was working alone this spring and did an amazing job.

The request form was a great success. I highly recommend the form-hosting utility in Google docs. The form is now offline and will not be accepting submissions over the summer. We would not be able to respond to any requests until the student workers' Fall class and work schedule is clarified, so please hold them until the form is active again in late August.

Have a great summer and seize the night!

ASTRO 102 Observing Report, April 1. Lots of pictures.

Orion, Jupiter, and Taurus to the west of the observatory
 as the sessions get underway at 8 PM. 30 sec, Panasonic camera on tripod.

It may have been too cold for April Fools' jokes, but it was clear. On the agenda for the night was imaging. We first attempted some afocal photography, which simply involves holding a camera up to the telescope eyepiece and snapping. Some students got good results photographing Jupiter and moons with their phones through a Celestron 8 telescope. (Moons L to R are Ganymede, Io, Europa.)

by Peter Rosenberg

by Carlyle Flanagan

After that exercise, we turned to prime focus photography with a Meade 8" telescope and SBIG 402 CCD camera. Below are the results. The links in the captions lead to more information.

Galaxy M82. Unfiltered, 15 seconds

The Great Orion Nebula (Combination of three 2 sec exposures
 through RGB filters.)

Ghost of Jupiter Nebula A planetary nebula, RGB combination, and unfiltered. 2 sec..

Juipiter, Taurus, and Perseus setting after the observing sessions.  60 sec, camera piggyback on guided Celestron 8 telescope.