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.