Saturday, October 28, 2006

Trunk-or-Treat: Saturday, October 28

We saw lots of kids at this event, which was fun although extremely windy. Pictures of the club's car are on the images page, under activities.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Observing: Saturday, October 21

Some dark sky observing in Hocking Hills. The sky at Hocking Hills was extremely impressive, dark enough that you could easily see the Milky Way with the naked eye. There were so many stars that it was sometimes a little difficult to pick out familiar constellations. Some people saw shooting stars, and everyone got to see constellations like Sagitta, Delphinus, Aquila, Lyra, Cygnus, Auriga, Taurus, Cassiopeia, Pisces, Ursa Minor, Pegasus, Cepheus, Andromeda, Perseus, and Draco; a few people saw Sagittarius before it set. An interesting easily visible star was Fomalhaut, in Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish: it's a southern constellation that is only occasionally visible at Wittenberg because of light pollution from Springfield. Along with Fomalhaut, Albireo, Altair, Vega, Alpheratz, Polaris, Capella, Aldebaran, El Nath, Phercad, Kochab, Mirfak, Algol, Rastaban, Eltanin, and Thuban were up. The Pleiades were also up, and we looked at Albireo through the telescope. A fun fact about Polaris, Thuban, and Vega all being visible at the same time: due to the wobble of the Earth's axis as it spins, called precession, Polaris has not always been the North Star. Thuban was the most recent one before Polaris, and Vega is next in line for the honor. Read more about precession here. Sadly, clouds moved in after an hour or so, and we didn't get to see fainter Messier objects like the Ring Nebula or later-rising constellations like Gemini and Orion. Thanks to everyone who drove and to the Reno family for hosting us.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Meeting: Tuesday, October 10

We discussed Eris and Dysnomia, the dwarf planet and its moon formerly known as Xena and Gabrielle. We also looked at the research of the most recent Nobel Laureates, who won for research related to the big bang- click the link for biographies and details of the reseach of the newest winners. Dr. Lewis graciously allowed us to take a look at his new SkyScout and see how it would have been in action had it not been cloudy out. We did some more planning for upcoming events, and all members are encouraged to submit ideas for future events and trips.

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Homecoming Observing: Saturday, October 7

The moon was still bright enough to wash out stars, but since it wasn't completely full as it was the previous night, there were some craters along the edge of the moon that made for interesting viewing. Even with the moon, the sky was clear enough to see Delphinus, the dolphin, and Sagitta, the arrow, two constellations in the area of the Summer Triangle that weren't visible Friday night. There were also two shooting stars visible during the initial viewing session on the deck, in the general vicinity of Hercules and Ophiuchus in the western sky. Click here to learn more about falling stars.

Friday, October 6, 2006

Homecoming Observing: Friday, October 6

While it was very clear, unlike the last session, the moon was as full as it could get, washing out a good part of the visible stars. While we did view the moon through the telescope, its lack of a terminator (the line between light and dark) meant that there wasn't much in the way of defined craters or mountains. We also had the opportunity to hear from the husband of a returning alumna; he was actually at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague where the vote on Pluto was taken. Here is a brief article about the Pluto vote.