Sunspot / Space Station Conjunction

Hi Everyone,

It's no secret that 2010 has been a relatively active year so far in regards to sunspots...hopefully heralding the start of a climb out of one of the deepest solar minimums in decades.  In the lower left hand corner of our homepage we have a visible light image of the current Sun provided by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory that links to Spaceweather.com.  Spaceweather.com provides all sorts of neat daily happenings from unique astronomy related pictures taken by professional and amatuer astronomers alike, information about conditions on the Sun and in Sun-Earth space, special observing oppportunities, and more.  Today's highlight was a picture taken from Cape Elizabeth Maine by astrophotographer John Stetson and his son Peter......a conjunction of current sunspot 1057 and the International Space Station (ISS)!....

Absolutely spectacular!!!!  Clearly visible are the dark umbras (cores) and lighter penumbras of the sunspots as well as the huge solar arrays and many modules that make up super-structure of the ISS.  Of course this "conjunction" is an optical illusion as most are.  The Sunspot is on the Sun roughly 93 million miles from the Earth where the ISS is orbiting roughly 220 miles from the Earth's surface.  I encourage you to check out SOHO and Spaceweather.com for more incredible pictures and information about our closest and most important star....the Sun.

WARNING:  NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITH A TELESCOPE OR BINOCULARS, PERMANENT EYE INJURY AND BLINDNESS WILL OCCUR INSTANTLY!!!!

If you are intersted in SAFELY viewing the Sun to observe sunspots like the one pictured above, please note that our 2010 free public programs start on Saturday April 3rd with our Amherst Solar Program at 1 PM on the Amherst Town Common.  If it is clear come see us! For more details and directions please click the "Amherst Solar" link in the upper left section of our homepage.

-Kevin.

Come see Saturn!!!!!

This weekend is very special astronomically speaking. First, Saturday, March 20th is the Spring Equinox….one of two days of the year during Earth’s orbit around the Sun that the Sun will pass directly overhead at the Equator. The other day is 6 months later on the Autumn Equinox on September 22nd. For us here in the Northern Hemisphere the Spring Equinox is the astronomical beginning of Spring and from now until the Summer Solstice on June 21st, the Sun will climb higher in the sky and the hours of daylight will lengthen. This of course ushers in mild but hopefully insect-less nights for amateur astronomers…..a wonderful treat for us all.

Second, Saturn will be at opposition at midnight Sunday March 21st. An Opposition occurs when a planet is opposite from the Sun from Earth. At Opposition the planet will rise in the east as the Sun sets and will set in the west as the Sun rises providing an entire night of observation. At Opposition the planet also comes physically closest to the Earth in its orbit so it appears as large as possible.

While Saturn’s opposition is technically on Sunday the 21st, the weeks approaching and following opposition provide prime viewing opportunities. On THIS Friday March 19th and THIS Saturday March 20th, we will be open the 18 inch Clark Refractor at Amherst College’s Wilder Observatory on Snell Street at 9 PM for the PUBLIC, IF THE SKY IS CLEAR. All ages are welcome to attend!

For more information regarding the opposition and observation of Saturn’s satellites, please click HERE to see a recent post on this subject by club President Tom Whitney.

Please click the “Observatory” link under our FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMS section in the upper left of our homepage for directions to the Observatory.

As of Wednesday mid-day the forecast for Friday night is partly cloudy and for Saturday night is mostly clear. This is New England and that could change, please keep an eye on this blog and the weather for any program status updates.

If you have any questions regarding the program and whether it will go or not you can always contact Tom or myself using the contact information at the bottom of most pages on our website.

We hope you can join us!

Kevin.

First Light - for an Eyepiece

While I don't have any financial interest in Orion Telescope, I have always had very good luck with their eyepieces.  When it came time to step up from my "vintage" 60mm refractor, I didn't buy a new telescope, I just bought a hybrid star diagonal (from Orion) so the 0.965" drawtube would accept 1.25" eyepieces, and went to town buying 2 Orion Sirius plossl's - a 32mm for wide-sky viewing and a 12.5mm for more detailed lunar and planetary viewing.  The improvement in what I could see with the new eyepieces - from shadow transits on Jupiter to clusters and bright double stars - was, well, astronomical.  Whole new vistas had opened up, not because of a bigger aperture scope, but because of better eyepieces.

Since then I have indeed graduated to (slightly) larger scopes - a C-5 and a 6" reflector, but again the  gains have come from the eyepieces as much as from the telescope itself.  And while an aging back is beginning to limit the size scope I can reasonably aspire to and still use often, aging eyes are beginning to set the parameters of the eyepieces I will find most useful.  And it is my aging astigmatic eyes that have helped me to fully appreciate wide-field, long eye-relief eyepieces.  I have 3 of these now, a 9mm Orion Expanse, a 25mm Celestron wide-angle SMA, and the newest addition, a 16mm Orion Edge-On flat field eyepiece.  These last 2 were put through their paces at the member observing session last Saturday night.  Although in my 6" the difference in magnification between these 2 eyepieces (41x for the 25mm; 64x for the 16mm) is not great, it was substantial enough that the 25mm, with its wide field of view, allowed me to use the scope as a higher-power finderscope, zeroing in on objects faintly, if at all, seen in the true finderscope.  In this eyepiece both the Double Cluster and the Pleiades each fit comfortably in a single field.

But the real treat arrived when I switched to the 16mm.  The field of view, even at the higher power, was still wide enough to fit the entire Double Cluster in a single field, which stayed sharp all the way to the edge.  The higher contrast of the more highly magnified image showed vivid star colors against a black background, and the light-transmitting capabilities of this eyepiece made the 2 cores and subtle structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy apparent with just 6" of aperture for an object that was relatively close to the horizon.

Faint fuzzies were not the only things this eyepiece showed to advantage; Saturn and its thin rings and tiny Titan were crisp edge to edge, giving me time top relax and enjoy both faint surface markings and telltale signs of shadows as the image drifted across my clock-driveless field of view.  And Mars viewed through the 16mm combined with a 2x barlow showed evidence of both a polar cap and hints of surface markings.

Best of all, the wide field and long eye relief of all 3 of these eyepieces means I can keep my glasses on.  I no longer need to constantly take them off to squint through the minuscule portholes of my usual eyepieces and try to find and put them on again when I need to look through the finder.

I'm already saving my pennies to round out my collection with a 5mm Edge On!

Steve Herzberg

Saturn Opposition

Saturn will be at Opposition about Midnite, Sunday, March 21.  At left is a crude TW-CAD (Tom Whitney - Computer Aided Drawing) of Saturn & 5 bright Satellites at 9 pm Saturday, Mar. 20.  One hr. before or after will make a significant difference in Satellite positions.  Will Open Observatory Friday & Saturday, March 19 & 20 at 9 pm, providing weather cooperates.  Opposition is generally the best time to observe Outer Planets & their Satellites.  Saturn will rise about 6 pm & should be clear of horizional obstructions by 9 pm.  Also, it's altitude will improve telescopic seeing.

In the "Old Days" of the 5As, we had a SSS (Saturn Seven Satellites) Group.  Members who saw & indentified the 7 brightest Saturn Satellites.  The Observatory Telescope (Clark 18) has enough apature to see them.  I did.  If I can, almost anyone can.  Even saw an 8th Satellite, Hyperion.

At left is a scale TW-CAD of Saturn & 7 of the 8 brightest Satellites.  Hope you can take advantage & the weather cooperates and see 7 Saturn Satellites (SSS).  Have a short list of the bright Saturn Satellites & some info.  In order is Satellite; D - Diameter in km.; OR - Orbit Radius in hundred thousand km.;  OP - Orbit Period in days; M - Magnitude.  MIMAS D-400, OR-185, OP-.9, M-12.9.  ENCELADUS D-500, OR-238, OP-1.4, M-11.7.  TETHYS D-1,070, OR-295, OP-1.9' M-10.2.  DIONE D-1,120, OR-377, OP-2.7, M-10.4.  RHEA D-1,530, OR-527, OP-4.5, M-9.7.  TITAN D-5,150, OR-1,222, OP-16, M-8.3.  HYPERION D-410x260, OR-1,470, OP-15.9, M-14.1.  IAPTEUS D-1,470, OR-3,360, OP-79, M-11+/-

With Kevin & his K-20, we now have a 20" scope in the club, which should out-perform the Clark-18 in light gathering & make 8 Saturn Satellites visible.  We also have I-Phones, Smart Phones, etc. which can give the instantanious location/position of Saturn's Satellites.  Am planning on a Fri. & Sat., Mar. 19 & 20, 9 p.m. Observatory opening.  Other days & times are available, if you contact me.  Also, on Sat. Mar. 20, will do Solstice Transit at Noon & Solstice Sunset at 6 p.m., at Mt. Pollux.  Hope you can take advantage of these opportunities & observe these neat events.  Feel free to call me, evenings at 256-6234 or email this Web Site w/ questions or requests.

Take Care - By - Tom Whitney