Archive
08/03/2012 – Ephemeris – Weekend events here and on Mars.
Ephemeris for Friday, August 3rd. The sun rises at 6:31. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:04. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 9:34 this evening.
The Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers observatory will be open this evening starting at 9 p.m. For views of the heavens including the planet Saturn and the moon. There’s some bright deep sky objects also visible. Mars though up is a very tiny planet and is quite distant. What can’t be seen in a telescope will be visible shortly. Monday at 1:31 a.m. The Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory will land in Gale Crater. If the landing is successful the new rover will be bringing a new arsenal of scientific instruments to probe the martian past. From our vantage point on the earth Mars looks like a tiny yellowish orange disk. We will be back to two operational rovers joining the three operational satellites now orbiting Mars.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Here’s a movie from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of Curiosity’s entry descent and landing called Seven Minutes of Terror: http://youtu.be/ISmWAyQxqqs
07/27/2012 – Ephemeris – I’ll be giving a presentation at the Eyaawing Museum & Culture Center in Peshawbestown tomorrow
Ephemeris for Friday, July 27th. The sun rises at 6:24. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 9:13. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:41 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow yours truly will be giving a presentation Stars and Stories of the Summer Night Skies This will be a talk illustrated by a fantastic planetarium type program called Stellarium which is actually free from the Internet. There won’t be a planetarium dome however. I’ll be exploring the stars and constellations visible in the summer sky and how various cultures saw them and some of the wonderful stories of those who counted on the heavens to be their calendar in order to plant their crops and prepare for winter.. There’s the Greek constellations I tend to talk about on these programs, and others, especially those of the local Indian peoples. The presentation is at 1 p.m. at the Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center in Peshawbestown.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
07/20/2012 – Ephemeris – Astronomical events this weekend in the Grand Traverse Region
Ephemeris for Friday, July 20th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 9:20. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:52 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:17.
This is another big weekend for the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. During the day tomorrow, Saturday the 21st members of the society will be in Kingsley for Kingsley Heritage Days to show the sun, if it’s clear, and have other hands on activities. Saturday night the members will set up telescopes at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for a star party. That will start at 9 p.m. at Platte River Point at the end of Lake Michigan Road off M22 between Frankfort and Empire. That event is weather dependent. If that’s too far to go the Northwestern Michigan College Astronomy Club will be hosting a star party at the Rogers Observatory south of Traverse City on Birmley Road. They will have interesting activities for the kids.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
One thing I omitted: We’ll be at Friday Night Live tonight on the 200 block of Front Street in Traverse City. Friday Night Live runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. We’ll be there later if its clear. Also Kingsley Heritage Days will also be on Sunday the 22nd.
07/06/2012 – Ephemeris – Sun and planet viewing tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, July 6th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 9:29. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 11:06 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:05.
This evening the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold its monthly meeting at the Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory at 8 p.m. This meeting will be devoted to viewing the sun through the society’s new solar telescope. After that starting at 9 p.m. Will be a star party. For both events, the public is welcome. The tiny planet Mars and the ringed planet Saturn will be visible as will a number of binary stars and brighter wonders of the heavens as the skies darken. Mercury is now receded toward the sun so is not visible. For the rest of the abbreviated planet report this week: A note for early risers that Jupiter and Venus make a fine sight low in the east northeast in the morning after 5 a.m.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/22/2012 – Ephemeris – A double header of astronomy events tomorrow
Ephemeris for Friday, June 22nd. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, 3 days past new, will set at 11:19 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.
Tomorrow the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be part of two events. The first is Boardman River Nature Center’s Nature Fest. The society will have telescopes, including the new hydrogen alpha solar telescope, to view the sun and the public will be able to examine meteorites there from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. Then starting 9 p.m. Society members will be at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory for it’s second star party of the month featuring the planet Saturn and the moon plus some of the brighter wonders of the night sky as it gets darker. Star parties in June and early July start before sunset so there’s always some hands on kids activities that are lead by the NMC Astronomy Club.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/19/2012 – Ephemeris – Astronomy at the Traverse Area District Library
Ephemeris for Tuesday, June 19th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:30. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible. | Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.
The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will host an event at the Traverse Area District Library, on Woodmere Street in Traverse City, starting at 11 am this morning. They will be showing the sun through safely filtered telescopes and have other hands on activities. The sun is really getting fascinating to view with a great number of sunspots that are appearing now. The sunspots come and go. Right now a big group is rotating off the edge of the sun that caused northern lights over North America last weekend. There may be some active regions that will rotate on to the sun’s disc soon. Usually sunspots last a couple of weeks. They are the result of intense magnetic fields within the sun that cool the gasses and cause the dark spots.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Grand Traverse Astronomical Society’s Transit of Venus Watch – What a Time!
This was a fantastic event at Traverse City’s Open Space on the bay front. The clouds that threatened all day parted and dissolved to reveal a perfect sky. Hundreds of people turned out. Here are some crowd shots I made with my Android phone, plus one of the transit.
Most of a huge line to see the transit with the GTAS’ 25″ Dobsonian telescope.
Transit Crowds near the telescopes.
More of the Transit Crowd an Bill Renis manning our Lunt Hydrogen Alpha Solar Telescope.
A look at the crowd and our GTAS Banner.
Venus against the sun taken at 8:49 p.m. through the Lunt solar telescope and a Droid Bionic phone.
Update (06/22/2012)
I received photographs from Gary and Eileen Carlisle and put them on the gtastro.org website. Here are theirs below. Eileen took the crowd shots, while Gary took the transit shot just before sunset as the crowds thinned. Gary’s crowd estimate was 500 folks.
More information: The transit started at 6:04 p.m. EDT. I spotted first contact through the Lunt. It took another minute or so to spot it in the white light telescopes. The Lunt showed the sun’s chromosphere that extends some 6,000 miles above the sun’s photosphere. The transit ended fro us as the sun set into the hills of Leelanau County across the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay.
The location we viewed from was the Open Space Park on the bay front in Traverse City, Michigan US. It is also used as the main venue of the National Cherry festival in early July and free outdoors screenings of movies at the Traverse City Film Festival in late July or early August.
Bill Renis (yellow shirt, white hat and sunglasses) helping a person view the transit using the Lunt Solar Telescope. This was also the society’s 30th anniversary. Bill and I were the only two charter members attending.
We brought out our Obsession 25″ telescope, stopped down to 8 inches with a solar filter. It gave excellent images. I saw second contact without the annoying teardrop effect.
Our “Meteorite Man” Joe Brooks brings out his meteorite collection for our events.
Member Ron Uthe brought his 8″ telescope to the event.
This is GTAS president Rich Kuschell’s 4″ refractor.
A little impromptu musical accompaniment.
The sun’s getting low now. That’s me in the blue cap.
The small kids got a chance to create moon craters in pans of flour covered by chocolate drink powder.
Gary Carlisle shielding the sun for a young man viewing through his 8″ telescope.
Gary’s photo of the transit.
06/01/2012 – Ephemeris – Great local astronomical events this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, June 1st. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 9:20. The moon, 3 days before full, will set at 4:20 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:59.
There’s a chock full weekend of astronomical events this weekend. First, this evening the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold its monthly meeting at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. We’ll preview the Transit of Venus and will be viewing the sun with the society’s new solar telescope if it’s clear. Following at 9 p.m. is the observatory’s star party. Tomorrow evening starting at 9 will be a star party at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at stop 3, the Dunes Overlook, on Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Both these star parties will feature the nearly full moon and the planets Mars and Saturn. Who knows, we might even spot Venus in twilight. No promises though.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/18/2012 – Ephemeris – Eclipse viewing from the Sleeping Bear Dunes this Sunday
Ephemeris for Friday, May 18th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 9:07. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 5:14 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:09.
For Sunday’s solar eclipse the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will team up with the National Park Service for eclipse viewing at sunset on Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We’ll be stationed at either stop 3, the Dunes overlook, or stop 9 the Lake Michigan Overlook. There we will have telescopes for safe viewing of the eclipse, and the park service will have a number of eclipse viewer glasses that are safe to use. Our telescopes have special solar filters that fit in front of the telescope, and another special solar telescope to see the gasses above the bright ball of the sun. The eclipse will start at 8:19 p.m. And last until sunset at 9:10 p.m. If it’s overcast, the viewing will be canceled.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Views from the observation points. I took these shots May 12th.
View from the Lake Michigan Overlook. The trees won’t interfere.
Sunset from the dune Overlook. The dunes and scrub will cause the sunset at that point up to 5 minutes before the Lake Michigan Overlook.
05/04/2012 – Ephemeris – My talk Friday with star party to follow
Ephemeris for Friday, May 4th. The sun rises at 6:27. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 8:51. The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 5:48 tomorrow morning.
Radio astronomy will be the topic of yours truly this evening at the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society’s monthly meeting at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. This is a rescheduling of a talk that was scheduled for the first Friday in March when we had the big snow storm. Prompted by my recent tour of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank West Virginia, I’ll overview this window on the universe that opened up after World War II. Starting at 9 p.m. will be the monthly viewing night at the observatory. On tap if its clear will be the moon and the planets Venus, Mars and Saturn. The Observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road off either Garfield or Keystone roads.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
GBT: The Green Bank radio Telescope at The national Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank WV.
Click image to enlarge.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 