December Sky this Month Shows Coming Up

Venus (L) and waxing crescent moon (R). Photo by Ian Clarke.

Sunday, November 30, 4:00 PM
Tuesday, December 2, 7:00 PM

Yes, that's right - we scheduled a show on Thanksgiving weekend. Oops! But we hope a few people can make a family event of it and enjoy our preview of the winter skies. If not then, come Tuesday night for the encore. The show will include recent astronomy news, for example what's next for the Rosetta probe at Comet 69P. We'll go over the local almanac and the reasons for the seasons. Then we'll use the planetarium to point out the sky sights you can enjoy over the next several weeks. The Hatter Planetarium is located in Masters Hall on the Gettysburg College campus. All shows are free and open to the public and last about 50 minutes. Note: there is no monthly skyshow for January as it would fall during the college's winter break.

Late November Astrominute

The late November Hatter Planetarium / WZBT astrominute is on the air and on line. Text below the link:

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~iclarke/hatter/podcasts/astrominute111414.mp3

Here is your Gettysburg Astrominute for late November, 2014. The evening skies will be moonless the week of the 16th but look for a growing crescent moon in the west after sunset the following week. On Thanksgiving night, a 23% crescent will be shining just above Mars in the southwest. Official winter is still a month away, but with the sun now setting in before 5:00 PM, it feels like it’s here now. The true harbinger of the season - Orion, the great hunter - is now rising due east by 9: PM. Look for it earlier and earlier as the weeks go by. Just as Orion is rising, look for the Pleiades - or seven sisters - half way up in the east. At midinight they will be almost directly overhead. (This was the time of year the ancient Celts celebrated Samhain, one of the predecessors of Halloween.) And at midnight, with the Pleiades overhead, turn back to the east to see Jupiter rising. It is not at its brightest now, but it’s still brighter than any star in the sky. The astrominute is a production of Gettysburg College’s Hatter Planetarium and WZBT.

Early November Astrominute

The Hatter Planetarium / WZBT astrominute for early November is on the air and online. Welcome, new reader Julia Giannini, '18. And listen to WZBT online too!

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~iclarke/hatter/podcasts/astrominute110114.mp3

November Sky-shows Coming Up

Eclipse sequence from 10/8/14 by Prof. Emeritus Larry Marschall

THE SKY THIS MONTH Sunday, 11/2, 4:00 PM Tuesday, 11/4, 7:00 PM We'll have a recap of the eclipses from October, a look ahead to events such as the Leonid meteor shower, a tour of the November skies, and an Astronomy Class Moment. The Hatter Planetarium is located in Room 115, Masters Hall. All shows are free and open to the public, and the program will last about 50 minutes.

Observing Report, AST 101-L1, 10/27/14

Waxing crescent moon seen from GCO.

The evening began before the scheduled lab start time of 7:15 PM with an attempt to see a rocket launch from NASA's Wallops Island facility. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed at the last minute due to a boat in the restricted hazard area. For context, here is a view of a Wallops launch from 2013. We were, however, able to see a flyover of the International Space Station almost overhead a few minutes later. It looks like a bright, slowly moving star. Want to see the station yourself? It's not difficult. Visit www.heavens-above.com or spotthestation.nasa.gov.

Then we began the lab proper. After a review of celestial sphere concepts, and an introduction to the concept of light pollution, we took a tour of the night sky.

Two compound Meade telescopes were on the observing platform. We reviewed their parts and some concepts form the "Telescopes and Lenses" lab. The waxing cresent ooon in the SW made a great first telescope object. Later, high clouds were moving through, but we were able to see M57, the Ring Nebula, in the constellation Lyra. After everyone had seen it, we used the SBIG 402 CCD camera to take a few images, as you can see below. All in all, a pretty successful night out.

12 second exposure with no filter.

Combination of 3 exposures through red, blue, and green filters.
Real glass filters, not the Instagram kind! Unfortuantely,
there was some equipment movement in both of these shots,
thus the 'double' appearance of stars.

Crescent moon with earthshine clearly visible.

Rocket Launch and ISS pass visible locally tonight

A rocket launch is scheduled tonight from NASA's facility on Wallops Island, VA. It should be visible locally, weather permitting. For context, here's a photo of one from campus last fall: http://gettysburgskies.blogspot.com/2013/11/minotaur-sighting.html The link below has all the details, but basically you want to get to a place with a flat southeast horizon at launch time. Follow NASA-Wallops on facebook or twitter too, as the launch can be delated or scrubbed. http://www.nasa.gov/content/how-to-view-the-antares-launch-oct-27/#.VE46gfnF_nh Almost simultanelusly, the International Space Station will fly over the mid-Atlantic. This is not unusual, but you do need to know where and when to look.  http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_States&region=Pennsylvania&city=Gettysburg#.VE5Ak_nF_ng Clear Skies! ------------------------ Ian Clarke Lab Instructor II (Astronomy) Hatter Planetarium Program Director Adjunct Assistant Professor of English Gettysburg College http://public.gettysburg.edu/~iclarke/hatter/index.html Hatter Planetarium on Twitter: @GCPlanetarium

Partial Solar Eclipse Tomorrow as the Sun Sets

The eclipse at 6:00 PM local,
only about 2 finger-widths above the horizon

We hope you got to see the lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of Oct 8. There is another eclipse, this time a partial one of the sun, on Oct 23. We are in an eclipse season, an approximately 34-day window in which eclipses occur. This one is much more difficult to see. An observer armed with proper protection, such as a pinhole projector*, can see the moon just barely taking a bite out of the sun before sunset. The eclipse begins at 5:50 PM with the sun only a few finger-widths away from setting. In Gettysburg it sets at 6:18. Observers in the northwestern US will get a much better show, but the eclipse is not total anywhere (on earth).

Great eclipse article from Phil Plait on Slate

*EYE SAFETY DURING SOLAR ECLIPSES  (NASA)