Venus Regulus Conjunction

We've talked about the upcoming conjunction of brilliant planet Venus and bright star Regulus in the show, the Times column, and the podcast. The closest approach of the two will be in the early morning hours of Oct 3 (i.e., tonight), but the weather forecast is looking poor at this point. Here is what you'll see if we are lucky, or what we would have seen if it stays cloudy.

The inset represents the view through the eyepiece of a small telescope.

Venus will be about 150x brighter than Regulus, but Regulus is over four million times farther away! The two will stay together in the morning sky the rest of the month, with Venus sinking toward the rising sun and Regulus pulling away. The waning crescent moon will join the scene on mornings around Oct 12.

Images created with Stellarium

New astrominute, Oct 1-15

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~iclarke/hatter/podcasts/astrominute100112.mp3

Observing Session, Sept 24

 Here are a couple photos from a recent Astronomy 101 observing session. The first shows the waxing gibbous moon above campus before students arrived, and the second shows student activity on the observing deck during a thirty second exposure.

Bi-Monthly Astrominute now on WZBT and Blog

We have started a twice-monthly radio segment called the Astrominute. Written by planetarium director Ian Clarke and recorded by student workers Caitlin Hay and Anne Skrabak, it is now airing on the Gettysburg College radio station, 91.1 FM, WZBT . The current times (subject to change!) will be roughly MWF: 7:30 AM; TR: 8:30 AM; Sat: 9:30 AM & 6:30 PM; Sun: 9:30 & 7:30.  It will always play following a station ID. The evening times may be preempted by live DJ broadcasts. New segments will appear around the 1st and 15th of the month. In addition to listening on air, you can stream WZBT online. We will also be posting mp3s of the segments as we create them. Astrominute posts will be tagged "astrominute" and "podcast" for handy searching.
 
Here are the first two segments: 

Sept. 1-14
http://public.gettysburg.edu/~iclarke/hatter/podcasts/astrominute090112.mp3

Sept. 15-30 

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~iclarke/hatter/podcasts/astrominute091512.mp3

Sky this Month Shows Coming Up

Sunday 9/2 at 4:00 PM and Tuesday 9/4 at Noon. Beautiful moon-planet meetings, the autumnal equinox, Mars Curiosity and more at the Hatter Planetarium!

Mars, Saturn, Spica, and the Moon Tonight

Gettysburg, 8-21 at 8:30 PM. Image created with Stellarium.

If it's clear tonight and you can get to a place with an open western horizon, look for this gathering after sunset.

Fall 2012 Schedule

The Fall 2012 schedule of public shows is out! You can see it on the calendar on the web site or download a PDF here. The first show (Sky this Month for September) is Sunday, Sept. 2, at 4:00 PM.

There are two changes from recent years you may want to be aware of.  Due to staff teaching schedules, our Monday noon show is moving to the first Tuesday of the month at noon. We are also introducing a weeknight show! It will be the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. However, since the Astronomy 101 labs use the planetarium at the beginning of September, the first of these will be in October.

We hope to see you at the planetarium this fall!