Archive
10/08/10 – Ephemeris – Local World Space Week event
Friday, October 8th. The sun will rise at 7:48. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 7:10. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:16 this evening.
This is World Space Week which was celebrated last year by a star party at the White House. This year the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will join societies, planetariums, and observatories around the world. The local society’s contribution is a star party tonight near the Open Space on the bay front in Traverse City. The grassy expanse where the old light and power generators stood appears dark enough for our purposes. Society members will be out tonight from about 8 p,.m. If it’s clear. If not we’ll postpone it to Saturday night. The giant planet Jupiter will be the featured attraction. This is a new venue for the society so we’ll test just how dark it is. For more information go to worldspaceweek.org. Dress warmly, Clear nights are cold this time of year.
Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
10/01/10 – Ephemeris GTAS activities this weekend
Friday, October 1st. The sun will rise at 7:40. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 7:23. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:10 tomorrow morning.
This evening the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will meet at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. Special guest Walter Hoegy, retired physicist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will provide the program: “Climate Studies in the Arctic and a look at the Sun”. Tomorrow night starting at 8 p.m. there will be a Public Viewing Night at the observatory. This is that last shot at viewing the wonders of the southern part of the Milky Way with its bright nebulae where stars are being formed and star clusters. Bright Jupiter and maybe even Uranus will also be featured.. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
9/17/10 – Ephemeris – observing events including International Observe The Moon Night
September 17: This is Ephemeris for Friday, September 17th.* The sun will rise at 7:23. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 7:49. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:41 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will host a public viewing night at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory starting at 9 p.m. On tap will be the moon, and the planets Jupiter and Uranus which will appear near Jupiter. The observatory is located south of Traverse City, on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads. Tomorrow, being International Observe the Moon Night, the society will bring its and its members telescopes to the Clinch Park Marina to view the moon. That is, only if it’s clear. The start time for that event will be 8 p.m. The waxing moon is leading up to the Harvest Moon which will occur only a bit more than 6 hours after the official beginning of autumn.
*Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
International Observe the Moon Night 9/18/10
The Sidewalk Astronomers of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be observing the moon Saturday night September 18th starting at 8 p.m. near the Clinch Park Marina in Traverse City, MI. This is part of the International Observe The Moon Night.
The moon on the evening of September 18, 2010
A Few Points of Interest
A – Sunrise at Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows)
B – The ringed plain Plato
C – Watch for wrinkle ridges in Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers)
D – The crater Copernicus
E – The crater Tycho and its moon girdling rays.
F – The crater Clavius. Notice the ring of craterlets inside
G – The crater Barrow, a nearly square crater.
Also occurring that night is a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus. And on Jupiter the Great Red Spot will be centrally located.
We’ll be there if it’s clear or partly cloudy.
Fun under the shooting stars
Holey Cow! it was clear last night for the meteor watching event mentioned in my last post. We were hosted by Grass River Natural Area naturalist Anne Drake and her assistant. (Sorry I didn’t get his name.) On the GTAS side were Richard Kuschell who helped arranged the event, Gary and Eileen Carlisle, Ron and Jan Uthe, and little ole me.
Ron, with the most portable telescope, a Meade 5″ Maksutov went out where the whole sky was visible on the dock on Grass River a quarter of a mile from the small meadow where most of the rest of us were. The trail over there was mostly a boardwalk. Anne lead groups out there. His main problem out there was dewing of the corrector on the scope.
We also has Gary’s 8″ Celestron, my 11″ Dobsonian and the society’s 25″ big Dob all at the meadow. We were able to view objects rather high in the sky due to the trees surrounding the meadow.
About 27 or so folks came out. They saw the quite a few Perseid meteors and a number of the other wonders in the dark heavens. The last of them left just after 11 p.m. so we packed up and headed back. By the time I got home at about quarter to one a.m. some fleecy clouds could be seen overhead.
We’ll be hanging out at the Grass River Natural Area for the Perseids
On the evening of August 12th, 2010 and morning of the 13th the GTAS Sidewalk astronomers will be at Antrim County’s Grass River Nature Area to view the Perseid Meteor Shower and other wonders of the dark skies. Should it be cloudy we’ll do it on the evening of the 13th. Here’s the blurb I put on the GTAS web site:
Grass River Natural Area: at dusk. Perseid meteor shower. Cloud or rain date the 13th. Location North of Alden on Alden Road. Click here for a Mapquest map. Foe GPS devices use the address 6500 Alden Hwy, Bellaire, MI 49615. Park in the parking lot a ways in. Walk the authorized vehicles road or Cabin Trail to a small meadow. There’s also horizon to horizon viewing at the Dock Access Trail or the Sedge Meadow Trail. Keep on the board walk because the ground is spongy.. We’ll also have telescopes at the meadow. Bring your favorite mosquito repellent. The Grass River Natural Area web site is http://www.grassriver.org
GTAS Outreach memories for July 23 thru 30, 2010
What an 8 days. It began and ended with Friday Night Lives in Traverse City. We had reasonable weather for both. Some clouds to contend with. The sun was cooperating with sunspots both evenings. The setup for the Friday night Live events runs from 5 to 5:30 p.m, with the actual event running to 9 p.m. We always hang around later, moving the scopes to parking spaces.
On the 23rd we were there until after 11 p.m. with the gibbous moon rising above the buildings. On the 30th we had no moon and the sky hazed out, so we weren’t there as long, but we did get a lot of traffic from Traverse City Film Festival, with the State Theater a couple of doors down the street. Our troupe of Richard Kuschell, Gary Carlisle, Ron and Jan Uthe plus yours truly were there with telescopes, GTAS brochures and observatory schedules.
On the 29th we went to St. Francis High School for a morning with the Munson Day Camp kids. Richard Kuschell, Gary and Eileen Carlisle, Ron Uthe plus yours truly showed the kids sunspots with three of our telescopes. The Carlisles put up their display of astronomical photographs, while I gave the kids a tour of the solar system.
We then had the kids experiment with moon balls to demonstrate the moon’s phases. I had a ball that was scaled as the earth to the moon balls and had the kids put their moon balls on the floor, guessing how far from the earth the moon is. We got the usual number of short guesses, but in young man placed his moon ball at the proper distance.
The finale was cooking up a comet. Here’s a video of how it’s done. We had the kids help each of us. Gary made the best comet. The rest of us hada bunch of cometlets.
We took Gary’s comet as an example and made another for Friday Night Live the next night.
Empire and the Cherry Festival
We (The Grand Traverse Asteonomical Society (GTAS) Sidewalk Astronomers) had a very astronomical weekend. Friday night we set up outside the township hall in Empire, MI for the talk by astronaut Greg Johnson. He’ll be the pilot on the last Space Shuttle mission. We had quite a crowd in the rather stuffy town hall. Representing the GTAS were some of the usual suspects: Richard Kuschell, Gary Carlisle, Bill Hathaway, Ron and Jan Uthe and yours truly. It was mostly clear with a few clouds popping up at inopportune times. We had the society’s 25 inch telescope, Gary’s 8 inch and my 8 inch telescopes parked in parking spaces to view the planets and other dark sky objects.
We packed up by midnight. Richard and I went to the Lanphier Observatory in Glen Arbor in the quest to spot the dwarf planet Pluto. Richard’s daughter and friend came up. Well half of us spotted it. I nailed the exact position, but couldn’t spot Pluto. Richard said he could see it.
Saturday night the sidewalk group ended up in the plaza in front of the City Center building on Cass and State Streets in Traverse City for the Cherry Festival fireworks finale. We had some looming clouds come in from the west, but got the planets in and a couple of other objects in. The fireworks were great abd the crowds were great. beside the Empire group we were joined by Eileen Carlisle, our unofficial photographer and Joe Brooks society president in very astronomical duds.
Pictures to come on the GTAS web site: www.gtastro.org.
Astronaut Greg Johnson will speak at the Empire Township Hall
It’ll be Friday July 9 (tonight) at 8pm Empire township hall. NASA Astronaut Greg Johnson, who has family in the area, will speak. The GTAS is invited to set up scopes. We may have our 25″ scope, plus I’ll bring mine.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 