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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.
Meteor Watch cloud and meteor status May 23/24, 2014
May 24, 5;33 a.m. EDT
Just got back from the Dune Climb. Yes Virginia there are Camelopardalids. Just not many of them. I saw about 10 meteors overnight with just over half Camelopardalids. Now I was busy with other things, running the star party. However it seemed that of the ones I saw, there were a better an average, compared to the Perseids, number of bright ones. One also left a smokey train that was visible for a few seconds. I didn’t have my binoculars with me to view it longer. But it was impressive. We had maybe 40-50 folks come out, coming and going over the night, with about 11 sticking it out to the bitter end at 4 a.m.
May 23, 5:32 p.m. EDT
Weather is still great. Picked up a tweet saying the the Camelopardalids are being picked up via the radio reflection of their ionized trains.
I’m going to head out in a half hour to the Visitors Center (see below) for the talk and to pick up some traffic cones.
May 23, 12:45 p.m. EDT
The weather is holding. The forecast is for clear skies through Sunday daytime. It should be a great Memorial Day weekend. For those venturing out to observe the meteor storm (we hope) dress warmly. The temperatures in northern Michigan will drop to the mid 40s. I plan to bring a light coat and my winter coat. For those who wish to lie on the ground to see the sky show bring two blankets one under you and one over you. It will get dewy. Hat, gloves and a thermos of warm drinks will also be welcome. Winter boots might be welcome for those who tend to get cold feet. Meteor watching is not an active pursuit, so you may want to walk around or climb up the dune a ways to keep warm. Remember there’s a talk by astronomer Tyler Nordgren at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Philip A. Hart Visitor Center near the corner of M72 and M22 in Empire at 7 p.m. Sunset will be at 9:15 p.m.. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) will be ready to observe the planets at the Dune Climb by 10 p.m.
May 22, 11:00 p.m. EDT
This is a pre-post entry. The blog will be published at noon on the 23rd and be updated as necessary. New updates will appear above older ones. I may also tweet. My twitter handle is @robertcmoler. The hashtag for the meteor shower appears to be #Camelopardalids. I hope you’re a good speller. The National Weather Service for tomorrow (Friday) and tomorrow night is for decreasing clouds during the day and mostly clear tomorrow night. Anttilla Danko’s Clear Sky Chart for the Leelanau School’s Lanphier Observatory also shows clear skies for the night of the 23rd/24th at this time. The observatory is located a few miles northeast of the Dune Climb area. New to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore? Here’s their website: http://www.nps.gov/slbe/index.htm Here’s a link to the map of the park. The Dune Climb is at points 7 & 8 on highway M109 just south of Glen Haven.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 