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09/16/2014 – Ephemeris – My wife Judy passed away last Saturday
Note: This is the transcript of the program that went out over the air:
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 16th. The sun will rise at 7:22. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 7:51. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:12 tomorrow morning.
The love of my life, Judy passed away last Saturday after 48 years of marriage. When I met her, arranged, by my sister, who herself succumbed to cancer last month, she didn’t know much about astronomy, about the same as is seen from our schools today. I was working at the planetarium in Grand Rapids at the time and we went in after hours and viewed the sky. Using flash cards I made up, she learned the constellations. After we were married and I came back from the Air Force, she got a job as the planetarium director’s secretary and sales clerk. She took the college Astronomy 101 course, and even produced a planetarium show for young kids using kids drawings projected on the dome for illustration.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
This the extended version, some of what what I really wanted to say:
Judith Ann Moler 1943-2014
The love of my life, Judy passed away last Saturday, September 13, 2014 at the age of 71, after we’d been married 48 years. I met her, arranged, by my sister Shirley, who herself succumbed to cancer last month. It was kind of a mercy dinner to take this guy (me) out before he entered Air Force for basic training. Shirley said I pretty much ignored her on previous occasions, but this time I was smitten. I’m a pretty much buttoned down guy with the ladies, but it was maybe because I was going to change my life by entering the Air Force that opened me up.
After a few dates I told her I had this, um, problem. I liked to go out on dark nights and observe the heavenly bodies. She could join me or stay inside where it’s warm. She gamely joined me. I suspect it was to make sure these heavenly bodies were celestial and not terrestrial. (Just kidding). Judy didn’t know much about astronomy when we met, about the same as we see from our schools today. I was working at the Planetarium of the Grand Rapids Public Museum at the time and we went in after hours and viewed the sky. Judy got to make up her own constellations. Later, using flash cards I made up, she learned many of the brighter real constellations.
After we were married and I got out of the Air Force we came back to Grand Rapids I got a job with NCR and Judy got a job as the planetarium director’s secretary and sales clerk. By then the planetarium had a name, the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium, named for the Grand Rapids astronaut who died in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967. Judy took the college Astronomy 101 course, and even produced a planetarium show for young kids using kids drawings projected on the dome for illustration.
She joined with us in trips to view the total solar eclipses of 1970 and 1972, but gave up her seat on the small plane we chartered in 1979 to view the total solar eclipse in February that year, being not too keen on flying, especially in small planes. She even found a pilot we nicknamed, “Crash” LaMar, to fly the 5 of us brave souls to North Dakota to view this eclipse. He could fly just fine, but had a problem keeping the wing tips from hitting the high snow banks when taxiing at the Bottineau, ND airport. I recall that once we had to get out and push, or was that my imagination?
We moved to the Traverse City area in 1971 to follow my job at the time working for NCR.
Around 1980 I was approached by the head of the Science and Math department Joe Rogers, at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) to teach their 100 level astronomy course. By then I had programs on the public radio station WIAA for 5 years, so my name was out there as an astronomical expert. The problem was that I had never had any formal astronomical training*, despite that they hired me. My other problem was that I frequently had to work out of town, so Judy stepped in to substitute teach on those nights I was out of town. Actually she had more “formal” astronomy training than I did.
Judy was an instrumental part of the founding and operation of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS), started in 1982 and many years thereafter. She held down the fort at the NMC Observatory with other members of the GTAS on the night in May 1983 when Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock buzzed 3 million miles from the Earth and the public wanted to see it because Paul Harvey featured it on his newscast, when I abandoned them and snuck out to the less known Leelanau School’s Lanphier Observatory in Glen Arbor to photograph the comet in peace. I know, it wasn’t nice of me.
In 1986 our family flew down to Miami and drove down to Key Largo to join the teacher and students from the Leelanau School to observe Halley’s Comet at its closest to the Earth, which was too far south to see from Traverse City. I had the brilliant or cockamamie idea of splitting our 24 hour days into two 12 hour days. A daytime day to explore and enjoy the Keys and a night time day to observe the comet. Judy gamely went along with it: 8 hours up and 4 hours of sleep then repeat. I found that it worked for me, at least for the 6 days we tried it. Judy, at least, didn’t complain, but our daughter couldn’t handle it. She went on our day trips, but stayed at our resort sleeping all night. Beside viewing and photographing Halley’s Comet, which lost its tail that week (bummer), we visited Theater of the Sea, Key West and toured the coral reefs in a glass bottomed boat, and the Everglades.
We had many more adventures, but these have come to mind now.
* I’m not self taught. My astronomy education comes via the members of the Grand Rapids Junior Astronomy Club and my close association with John Wesley, a true genius, and Donn Cuson, and members of the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association, and one of its founding members the late Evelyn Grebel, who let me tinker with the planetarium in its early days, and countless others including my still good friends Jim and Evie Marron at whose home Judy and I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 work on the Moon’s surface, and my friend and sometimes antagonist Dave DeBruyn, now Emeritus Director of the Chaffee Planetarium.
I’ll have more of these remembrances in the days to follow, maybe with better sentence structure, but they will not be filed under Ephemeris. Look for the category Memories and the tag Judy. It’s my way of coping and healing.
Obituary for Judith A. Moler
Judith (DelRaso) Moler, 71, of Traverse City passed away on Saturday, September 13, 2014 at Munson Medical Center. Judy was born on April 20, 1943 in Grand Rapids to Adolph and Edith (Antonini) DelRaso. She was married to Robert C. Moler on April 16, 1966 in Grand Rapids. Judy and Bob moved to Traverse City in 1971. She was a member of St. Patrick Catholic Church and was named St. Patrick’s Women of the Year in 1991. She volunteered, helping people with Alzheimer’s and with the Crop Walk. Judy was a member of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. Judy was proud of her Italian heritage; she loved to cook Italian food and she perfected the family sauce with no sugar. Above all, Judy loved spending time with her family and friends. She will be missed by all who knew her.
Judy is survived by her husband of 48 years, Robert, daughter Stephany Farrell, mother Edith DelRaso, three grandchildren Christopher Farrell, Nicole Farrell and Bernadette Farrell, two brothers; Robert DelRaso and Carl DelRaso, and brother-in-law Donald (Terry) Moler. Also surviving are many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her father Adolph DelRaso, sisters-in-law Gladys DelRaso and Shirley (Moler) Burnham.
Friends are welcome to visit with Judy’s family on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home, 305 Sixth Street Traverse City, MI 49684.
Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 18, 2014 at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 630 SW Silver Lake Rd., Traverse City, MI 49685, with visiting one hour prior. Rev. Fr. Greg McCullum will officiate. Burial will follow in Linwood Cemetery.
Those planning an expression of sympathy may wish to consider memorial donations to The Alzheimer’s Association or the American Diabetes Association.
Please feel free to share your thoughts and memories with Judy’s family at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com.
The family is being served by the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home.
09/15/2014 – Ephemeris – The mer-goat Capricornus
Ephemeris for Monday, September 15th. The sun will rise at 7:21. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 7:53. The moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 12:21 tomorrow morning.
Nearly 2000 years ago the southernmost of the constellations of the zodiac was Capricornus the water goat. That’s why the latitude on the earth where the sun is overhead on the winter solstice is called the Tropic of Capricorn. Not any more, Sagittarius, one constellation west and due south at 9 p.m., has that honor today. Actually Capricornus does need the press. It’s large, but made up of dim stars. To me it looks like a 45 degree isosceles triangle, long side up, but which all the sides are sagging. The constellation is found low in the south at 11 p.m. and tilted a bit from the upper right to the lower left. The image that is supposed to be represented by the stars is that of a goat whose hind quarters are replaced by a fish’s tail, not a mermaid but a mer-goat.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Capricornus as represented by Stellarium.
Capricornus the way I see it. Created using Cartes duCiel.
An artist’s rendering of Capricornus. A part of Stellarium’s functionality.
09/12/2014 – Ephemeris – There’s a star party tomorrow night at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Ephemeris for Friday, September 12th. The sun will rise at 7:17. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 7:58. The moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:08 this evening.
Tomorrow night will be the last of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore held on Saturday by the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society for the year. Never fear the GTAS has three more events planned in October: a lunar eclipse on the 8th, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore’s 44th anniversary star party on the 21st, and a partial solar eclipse at sunset on the 23rd. Saturday’s event will be held at the Dune Climb starting around 9 p.m., and the featured attractions will be the wonders of the summer Milky Way. These are star clusters and nebulae or clouds of gas, some expelled by dying stars and others where new stars are being born. The Dune observing events will be canceled if completely overcast or rain.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) is available to host sun and star parties around the Grand Traverse Area. Below are photos from two recent visits to the Betsie Valley District Library in Thompsonville, MI. First an evening visit inauguration of their new library building, and a daytime visit for the youngster’s reading program. The photos courtesy of Librarian Michelle Guerra and her staff. Contact the society via email at info@gtastro.org.
He just saw Jupiter through the GTAS 25″ telescope.
What’s in this telescope? (A really small Jupiter.)
A crowd gathers to view Saturn and Jupiter.
During both the evening and the daytime visits I take the folks through the sky using Stellarium pointing the constellations and telling their stories.
GTAS member Gary Carlisle shows the Sun through his telescope.
GTAS member Richard Kuschell shows his meteorite collection. Always a hit.
Here I am showing the kids how a telescope works.
Using a telescope solar filter to show how small the sun looks.
09/11/2014 – Ephemeris – The waning gibbous moon and a strange double crater
Ephemeris for Thursday, September 11th. The sun will rise at 7:16. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 8:00. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 9:30 this evening.
It might be about 10 p.m. before the moon gets high enough to appreciate with a small telescope. The terminator running across the moon is the sunset line. It has gobbled most of the little round Sea of Crises at the upper right of the moon. The Sea of Fertility just below it has two distinctive small craters in it with two parallel streaks of ejecta emanating from the one farthest from the terminator. No one knows exactly what happened here, but it appears that a binary asteroid struck the moon at a low angle coming from the direction of the terminator and gouged out the two small craters, which are elongated in the direction of the streaks. The crater names are Messier and Messier A, named after the French astronomer who cataloged some of the brightest interstellar objects.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The gibbous Moon at 9 p.m. September 11, 2014. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
Closeup of Messier (right) and Messier A with the twin ejecta streaks. Credit: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter via Virtual Moon Atlas.
These craters were named for the 18th century astronomer Charles Messier whose famous catalog of deep sky objects is a who’s who of the brightest star clusters, nebulae and galaxies for the amateur astronomer. For instance M22 is not only a scenic state road in Michigan, but a beautiful bright globular star cluster in the constellation of Sagittarius. To Messier the objects on his list were a quick check of objects to ignore. He was looking for comets at the Paris Observatory. He found 12 of them.
09/10/2014 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets this week?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 10th. The sun will rise at 7:15. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 8:02. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 8:54 this evening.
Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. Mars and Saturn are now nearly side by side with Saturn to the right by 10 degrees, about the width of your fist held at arm’s length. Saturn will set at 10:30 p.m. Saturn in a telescope will suffer because it’s getting close to the horizon but it’s still possible to see those rings and its large moon Titan. Reddish Mars is leaving Saturn in the dusk, leaving Libra, where Saturn is and will be entering Scorpius on Saturday. Mars will set at 10:38 p.m., 8 minutes after Saturn. In the morning sky brilliant Jupiter will rise in the east-northeast at 4:04 a.m., while the brighter Venus, will rise at 6:14 a.m. Jupiter is increasing its distance from the sun, while Venus is retreating toward the Sun from our point of view.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Saturn and Mars with the evening summer constellations at 9:30 p.m. September 10, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn through the telescope at 9:30 p.m. September 10, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and Venus with the Winter constellations at 6:30 a.m. September 11, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic view of Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons at 6:30 a.m. on September 11, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
The waning gibbous Moon at 6:30 a.m. September 11, 2014. Created using Stellarium. Tomorrow the program will be about the moon and its features that will be visible late in the evening. The terminator will advance by a small bit between tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening.
09/09/2014 – Ephemeris – Our address in the universe just changed
Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 9th. The sun will rise at 7:14. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 8:04. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 8:19 this evening.
Two and a half years ago my wife and I took a week-long cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. I always said I’d go back in a minute. Well, now maybe I and you are already there… in spirit, anyway. Astronomers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the University of Hawai’i announced the pinning down the dimensions of the local supercluster of galaxies containing over 100 quadrillion stars spread over a diameter of more than 500 million light years that they have dubbed Laniakea which in Hawaiian means “immense heaven”. The lead researcher was R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawai’i. Also participating were two astronomers from France and one from Hebrew University. So your ultimate address is: your address, City, State, Country, Earth, Solar System, Orion spiral arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Laniakea supercluster, Universe, and maybe Multiverse.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Bad Astronomer’s take on Laniakea.
Some videos illustrating Laniakea supercluster:
A 3D view
09/08/2014 – Ephemeris – There’s a super Harvest Moon tonight!
Ephemeris for Monday, September 8th. The sun will rise at 7:13. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 8:06. The moon, at full today, will rise at 7:44 this evening.
Tonight’s full moon is the Harvest Moon, being the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox. It’s about the earliest Harvest Moon on can get in the year, occurring 14 days before the equinox because the moon’s cycle is 29 ½ days, and the autumnal equinox falls on the 22nd not the 23rd as usual. On top of that it’s another supermoon. Perigee or the Moon’s closest approach to the Earth of the month occurred yesterday. We were all oblivious to the fact until some astrologer wrote about it a few years ago. It’s nice to know. Actually there’s a supermoon every month but it only nearly coincides with the full moon one to three times a year at consecutive full moons. Trouble is the Moon always appears bigger near the horizon. It’s an illusion.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
See here for last month’s discussion about the supermoon.
09/05/2014 – Ephemeris – Supernovae and the Moon this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, September 5th. The sun will rise at 7:09. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 8:11. The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:07 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold their monthly meeting at he Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory at 8 p.m. featuring Dr. David Penney, who will talk about Supernovae, the brightest, at optical wavelengths anyway explosions in the universe. These will either completely destroy a star or leave a neutron star or black hole remnant. At 9 p.m. there will be a star party featuring the Moon, Saturn and Mars. The observatory is located on Birmley road. On Saturday the society will celebrate International Observe the Moon Night with telescopes set up on the 200 block of Front street in Traverse City. That event starts around 9 p.m., but only if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Remnant of SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 light years away taken by the Hubble telescope’s WFPC2 camera on three occasions in 1994 and 1995. The outer rings are light echos of the explosions ionizing clouds ejected thousands of years before. Credit NASA.
Supernova 2014J in nearby galaxy M82, 12 million light years away. Credit NASA/Swift/P. Brown, TAMU.
09/04/2014 – Ephemeris – Saturday is International Observe the Moon Night
Ephemeris for Thursday, September 4th. The sun will rise at 7:08. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 8:13. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:56 tomorrow morning.
This Saturday the 6th is International Observe the Moon Night and while some of us amateur astronomers consider it as a big street light we can’t get away from. It does have a hold on most of the rest of the population. It is our closest celestial body and the only one we’ve set foot on. It contains the answers to the creation of the Earth as we know it today. Humankind’s impact on the moon isn’t visible from the Earth, so puny his attempts, so the Moon appears as pristine as it did to Galileo, who first studied it with his telescope. Members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will set up their telescopes on the sidewalk on the north side of he 200 block of Front Street near the Martinek clock. And will start showing the Moon to all comers after 9 p.m. but only if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Here’s a link to the InOMN’s annotated Moon map (pdf) for Saturday.
Here’s a link to the InOMN’s home page. Expand the global map on the page for the location of the event nearest to you.
09/03/2014 – Ephemeris – This week’s bright planets
Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 3rd. The sun will rise at 7:07. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:15. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:50 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. Mars and Saturn are now nearly side by side with Saturn to the right by six and a half degrees of about 13 moon widths of the red planet. Saturn will set at 10:57 p.m. Viewing Saturn with a telescope will suffer because it’s getting close to the horizon but it’s still possible to see those fabulous rings and its large moon Titan. Reddish Mars is also in the constellation of Libra the scales and will set at 10:52 p.m. because it is slightly lower than Saturn. In the morning sky brilliant Jupiter will rise in the east-northeast at 4:24 a.m., while the brighter Venus, will rise at 5:53 a.m. Jupiter is increasing its distance from the sun, while Venus is retreating toward the Sun from our point of view.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Saturn, Mars and the Moon at 9:30 p.m. September 3, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn through the telescope at 9:30 p.m. September 3, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon through binoculars at 9:30 p.m. September 3, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter, Venus and the rising stars of winter at 6:30 a.m. September 4, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and moons through the telescope at 6:30 a.m. September 4, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 