The End of a Short Month

It was the last day of February. Posts on Facebook were talking about an astronomical parade of planets that would be happening that evening. Like so many things posted on FB, I didn’t have any real desire to see it. I knew that 3 of the planets would be setting soon after sunset and two of the others would be visible only with optical aid. It always sounds so much more interesting than it turns out to be.

    Instead of watching the parade of planets, I decided to watch an occultation instead. Io, one of Jupiter’s moons was going to be disappearing behind the planet. I always enjoy seeing an object in space moving in real time! The occultation of a star that is light years away will be almost instantaneous. The star is a mere pinprick of light, gone as soon as it passes behind whatever covers it. When a planet’s moon crosses behind the planet, it might take a few minutes for it to completely disappear since the moon is an actual disc that we can see through a telescope. The increased time makes the movement that much more obvious and that much more exciting.

    The day was clear but of course as evening approached, while I was setting up my telescope in the front yard, patches of clouds started drifting in. The majority of the sky was clear but this is Pittsburgh, I knew that the sky will be covered soon. 

    After everything was set up I watched Jupiter and its moons. Io was close to the planet and on the far side, Callisto sat a bit further away. Ganymede and Europa sat further out on either side. With Io disappearing behind the planet and Callisto soon to be crossing in front of it, I could imagine how they were all orbiting the planet. The seeing was steady and I was able to add a doubler to the eyepiece to increase power without getting any distortion.

    Io slowly got closer and closer as I watched until it seemed to touch the planet’s surface. Clouds came and went as I watched and they actually helped me out. The planet’s disc was bright yellow and the moon was both smaller and a fainter orange. The brightness of the planet made it difficult to accurately see the moon as it neared. The clouds would change the color of the planet to grey and as the color faded, the moon became easier to see. This helped when the moon’s disc was partially covered! I thought a couple times that the moon had disappeared only to see it again as the seeing changed. 

    The moon was drifting behind the planet in line with northern cloud band. It was sometime after 7:29 that I lost sight of it. I then turned the telescope to the moon and enjoyed just roaming across the lunar landscape. The craters alongside the terminator were exciting to explore.

    I was wearing only a sweatshirt and the temperature was dropping. The clouds were also increasing so I decided it was time to call it quits. I didn’t need a flashlight to tear my set-up down. The moon was 93% illuminated; I could see my shadow as I was carrying things into the house.

    I missed the planetary parade, but then again, I wasn’t out there to see it. I saw the event I wanted to see and the clouds held off, for the most part, until I was tearing things down. My neighbors generously left their porch lights off and no cars drove by, shining their lights on me. I talked with some of them as they walked their dog and got to pet him for a bit. Petting the dog was "almost" as exciting as watching the moon disappear.

    All in all, not a bad way to end a short month! Come on March, bring it on!

Fingers Crossed

 (1/13/25, Noon) 

Coming back from the eye doctor’s office, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. My eyes had been dilated and I was wearing those stylish plastic sunglasses that are held in place by placing them behind your glasses. The dark tint enhanced the color of the sky! I couldn’t help but get my hopes up, even though I knew better! I had tried to find three geocaches earlier in the morning but couldn’t find any of them. The fourth that I had in my GPS…I decided to ignore, it just wasn’t my day.

    Later this evening, the moon will pass in front of the red planet Mars, an occultation. I have been looking forward to seeing this for a month or two but I have been trying not to think about it. By getting excited about this would make it an even larger let-down when the clouds move in. I know what Pittsburgh weather is like, believe me!

    Astronomical occultations are when one heavenly body, such as the moon, passes in front of another stellar object. These are things that I look forward to; I find that it is exciting to see actual movement of a stellar object in real time. The stars and planets are all moving but rarely is it as obvious as when you are watching through a pair of binoculars or a telescope and can see the two objects getting closer, and closer together. The moon frequently occults stars but they are usually faint and harder to watch. The moons of Jupiter are often occulted by the planet and that also is exciting to watch. I find it fascinating that someone was able to calculate when these events would be happening!

 This evening’s moon will be full so it will be extremely bright.  Mars is easy to see in the night sky but sitting very close to the moon will make it difficult to see without some optical aid. By using a telescope with a drive on it, hopefully I will be able to use a powerful enough eyepiece so that only a small portion of the moon’s bright surface will be visible.

    I have started making my list of things to take with me. I find that by making a list, there will be less chance of forgetting something important. There is nothing worse than driving for a long distance and discovering one of the most important things I wanted to bring was left at home. I’ve done it before; my camera memory left sitting in the computer or batteries left in the charger, these lists help me, considerably!

    It is going to be cold, so I'll need to dress for that. I’ll bring along a hot beverage and maybe a snack.  My journal and a couple pens, the camera, binoculars and my eyepieces are just a few more of the things on my list. It will continue to grow as the day wears on.

    The sky is still clear, not a cloud to be seen…eight more hours to go. My fingers are crossed!

(Written 1/14/24, 9:00AM)

    Well. Let me tell you about last night. I prepared for a night at our clubs observatory by dressing for the occasion. I wore long underwear, top and bottoms, heavy socks over my regular socks, a winter jacket, gloves and a nice thick alpaca tousle cap to keep my head warm. All the gear I had on my list was in the car, and it was almost time to leave. 

    The moon was rising from behind the trees on the far side of the valley, there were no clouds in the sky at all, things were looking good! There was one more thing to do before hitting the road, watch the International Space Station pass over my neighbor’s houses.

    It was just past 6 and the sky was cloudless. I set up my camera and waited. In less than a minute, I saw it coming from behind one house and rising up to pass over another. A couple neighbors passed by and I pointed the satellite out to them. I’m not sure how excited they were, but I was!

    A quick stop was made for a large cup of coffee and then a drive through the countryside followed. The moon was getting higher and it was easy to see the scenery on the sides of the road. Mars could be seen sitting below the moon whenever I stopped to look.

    A fellow club member, Jody was at the observatory when I arrived. Together we opened the roof and exposed the telescope to the cold air, Eric showed up soon after. 

    Using the Brashear 11” refractor, I pointed it first at Venus. It appeared to be about 50% illuminated. After a quick look we moved the scope over to Saturn. This was a much more important view as far as I was concerned. The planet is just a couple months away from when its rings will appear edge on.

     I couldn't help it, I was ecstatic...the view was spectacular! The seeing was nice and steady. A couple light bands could be seen crossing the planet, but the most exciting thing was its rings. 

    The planets rings appeared like two golden bars on either side of the planets disc. Just below the bars was a thin black line crossing the planet, what I am guessing was the rings shadow. (Excuse the poor drawing, I wish I could’ve gotten a picture!) Off to the side was the largest of its moons, Titan.

  The brightness of the moon lit up the interior of the observatory, the red lights were useless this evening!

    The moon rose up over the observatory’s roof about 30 minutes before the occultation was due to happen. I put a high power eyepiece into the focuser and centered it on Mars. (14mm, 295X) We were able to see the markings on the planet’s surface and the northern ice cap. During periods of extreme clarity we were able to glimpse the southern cap as well.  

    As I watched, the moon eventually entered into the eyepieces field of view. Just a small section but as I watched, it got closer and increased its size in the eyepiece. Slowly it got closer and closer. As it neared, it seemed to increase in speed though this was just an illusion. This effect was really noticeable when the moon was only a “planet diameter” or two away from Mars. It was there one moment and gone the next. It was dramatic watching the planet as it was cut in half and then disappeared behind the moon!

    Yells and high fives were shared after it happened!

    I thought how amazing it was to see this planet, looking so small beside our moon, which looked so big. Mars is about half the size of the earth!  Mars is about 61 million miles away from us while the moon is only about 239,000 miles away. Quite a difference!

    Jody and Eric left soon afterwards but I stayed to watch the reappearance. Approximately an hour and 13 minutes later the planet showed up again, just as predicted.

    I then shifted the scope over to look at the planet Jupiter. The planets moon, Europa was nearing the planet. I watched as it finally appeared to touch the planets disc and then cross over in front of it. It “touched” Jupiter in nearly the same spot as Mars had disappeared behind the moon. In a weird kind of way, it was as if I was watching the event all over again. I watched until the moon had completely crossed onto the planets face, a bright dot sitting below one of the colored bands decorating the planet’s surface. Then I updated my journal and started to close things down.

    The temperature was a balmy 19° as I loaded my car. The wind made it feel even colder.

    Driving home I was almost tempted to turn off my headlights since the moon was so bright. (But I didn’t!!) The day had started out badly but it sure had taken a turn for the better!  The Pittsburgh weather gods had smiled on us all this evening! I finally uncrossed my fingers as I pulled up in front of my house.

“To see an occultation during a night of observing is sort of like putting a dollop of vanilla ice cream on a slice of warm apple pie, oh…so comforting!”

Watching Stars Disappear

 The skies above are filled with constant motion. Besides the clouds and the sun crossing slowly across the sky during our days, we also have the motion of the moon. Further out, the planets move around in our night and morning skies and change their positions to each other. Even further out, though much less noticeable, the stars slowly change their nightly position (due to the earth’s orbit) and their positions as compared to each other, visible only through telescopes and by comparing their positions to older pictures.

    In our own solar system, with even a small telescope we can see the moons of planets moving over the course of a night. We can also see the motion of our own moon by watching it pass in front of the stars behind it. Using telescopes and even binoculars we can watch as stars are covered by the moon. This is called an occultation, when one object moves in front of another, blocking it from view. I find it fascinating to watch this happen! 

    The solar eclipse we saw in April was actually an occultation; the moon slowly covered the sun from our view!

    A friend in my astronomy club recently sent out an e-mail, reminding us that there was going to be an occultation of the bright star Spica on Saturday night. (7/13/24)

    Since the club had two star parties scheduled for that weekend, I felt as if the event couldn’t help but be clouded out, that is how so many of our star parties usually end up. It is a Pittsburgh thing and also an astronomy thing.

    The jokes about rain and clouds and the recent purchases of telescopes and astronomical events are both old and completely uncountable.  I can’t recall how many times I’ve heard people apologizing for buying new equipment and for the resulting clouds they brought with it. I didn’t want to get my hopes up…

( For another blog about astronomy, occultations and clouds, click below)

Notes from a Reading Addict: Waiting for the Clouds to Part (bookman56.blogspot.com)

    I started making my list. I don’t want to forget anything important, the last thing I want to do is set everything up and find out I’ve forgotten one of the most important things required! This is what was on the list; my camera (charged!) and its assorted gear, the telescope, its tripod, counterweights, binoculars, a notebook and pen, flashlights (red and white), an accurate timepiece and of course, the obligatory cup of coffee. I knew where I was going to go, I had called the owners and left a message with their answering service saying when and where I’d be.

    I set up the telescope in the front yard as a test run. I pre-set the camera and checked my field of view. The entire diameter of the moon would be able to be captured. It took about 10 minutes to set everything up. I had put a 1.25” adapter on the camera and mounted it where the diagonal goes.

    The time for the occultation was approximately 11:20PM, so I made sure the car was packed by 9. Then I sat inside and did some reading, caught up on a few e-mails and also kept an eye on the sky. Around 10:15, I left the house and hit the road.

    My observing spot was in a cemetery situated above the town of Sharpsburg. The area itself is dark and hardly ever visited and it is high enough that I would have no problems with seeing Spica and the moon through trees, buildings or power lines. The roads around it were empty, there were no cars going by. I pulled in and started setting up. I was early and as far as occultation watching goes, that is always good thing. The telescope has time to acclimate and there is time to do some test shots and make sure that the focus is proper and locked. The camera is using the telescope as its lens so it has no automatic focus like the camera lens have. It all depended on my aged eyes to get as crisp a shot as possible.

    After taking 5 or 6 shots and making slight adjustments after each one, I tightened the focuser and then stood and watched through binoculars as the bright star neared the moons darkened side. Looking through binoculars I could see Spica but I couldn’t see the nearing edge of the moon; it blended in with the dark sky behind it. I couldn’t see the edge using the preview screen on the camera either. I could only guess how close the star was. I was watching the time carefully but the occultation might happen earlier than predicted.

    Spica is the 15^th brightest star in our night sky. It is located in the constellation Virgo and it lies about 260 light years away from us. Even though it is bright, I still needed binoculars to see it near the blindingly bright moon.

    The timer on the shutter was set for 10 seconds to help eliminate vibrations. I also had placed a small bean bag on the camera to help steady it. As the time neared, I decreased the time between shots. I looked at one shot and the star was clearly visible and then the next shot showed that the star had disappeared! 

To see Spica, you may have to enlarge the picture.

    The last shot with Spica visible was taken at 11:20:53PM, the next shot, after it had disappeared was taken at 11:21:11PM, 18 seconds later. The camera's time stamp was accurate to within a second.

    One thing I think I’ll change for the next occultation is that I’ll watch it through the telescope instead of trying to photograph it. I find that it is much more interesting watching the star disappear in real time. Seeing the star, planet or moon disappear is always exciting to me.

    Everything worked out as planned. I saw one of the wonders that our world presents us. I saw something happen in the sky that very few of the world’s population even knew was happening.

    There are so many treasures hidden right in front of our eyes and all we have to do is look for them! They aren’t all astronomical; waterfalls, flowers, the hills and valleys of our planet, sunrises, sunsets and rainbows. There are also the sounds and smells of our world.  Wind rushing across the fields, through wind chimes and the soothing sounds of water rushing over the rocks. The smells of flowers, freshly baked bread and the rain having just fallen on a hot summer day.  We are so lucky to have these opportunities presented to us. They are out there and they have the power to move us, both emotionally and intellectually. Take advantage of them, they are there for us to experience!

    I was back at home a little after midnight, happy and ready to jump into bed. I had spent a quiet hour under a beautiful night sky. I had watched movement in space; I had watched a star disappear. What a wonderful way to spend an evening!

Waiting for the Clouds to Part

 Sitting on a chair with a book in my hands, I couldn’t help but keep glancing up at the sky. Nearing sunset, the clouds seem to be getting darker and thicker rather than dissipating the way I had hoped. I shook my head and returned to my book.

    This evening brings back many memories and my mind drifted away from the book and slipped back into the past.

    I was sitting outside the Wagman Observatory for a reason. In an hour or two, the moon would be occulting, or covering over, the bright star Antares. This happens every night as the moon's orbit around the earth brings it in front of background stars. They rarely are bright ones like Antares. This occultation could be visible by a person with good eyesight! To watch an event like this through a telescope would be exciting. Watching motion in the generally static sky is always fun to see!

    I was planning on watching through the 11” Brashear telescope. The moon and Antares could both be seen with binoculars at sunset after I arrived, but sadly, the clouds followed me up to the hilltop. Every so often a clear patch of sky would appear only to quickly disappear again. I had to chuckle, it is such a common occurrence here in Pittsburgh.

    “Back in the day” as the saying goes, I used to go on car trips to observe and time occultations, especially grazing occultations! This is when the moon's orbit takes it close enough to a star that it disappears and reappears as the moon's mountains cross in front of it. If you’re lucky you might see this happen more than once. To observe this, you have to be within a narrow strip on the earth. Outside of this strip, you will either see the star miss or else just disappear behind the lunar disc. Positioning is very important!

    John Holtz is the man in the astronomy club who coordinated these excursions. Often we would drive for an hour or more to get to a location. The planning involved looking at topographic maps and locating a spot that could be accurately defined. We weren’t using GPSs in those days. Hopefully there would be a spot to pull off and a flat area big enough to set up a telescope. Along with our telescopes we brought a tape recorder and a shortwave radio so we could listen to WWV to get an accurate time. The results would be sent to IOTA, the International Occultation Timing Association to be added to other reports from other observers.

    Living in the western end of Pennsylvania unfortunately brought a lot of disappointing trips. Clouds and poor weather seem to occur ANY time an astronomical event happens in this area. (I say this with jaundiced eyes.)

Section of a map plotting a graze on

April 2^nd, 1994 around Dorseyville

    For me, the work before an event was always fun. Locating these narrow strips of visibility on maps; defining where the best line and where the outside strips would be, marking the maps and then deciding where I would go was something I looked forward to. In the days before Google Maps, we relied on our “old” maps to define where we’d go. The drive there was fun also, usually in the middle of the night, not knowing what to expect when I arrived.

    After many a long drive, I would watch the clouds drift by with no sight at all of the moon, let alone the star. I’d wait until after the event would have happened before I tore down my equipment, just in case the sky might clear. Then, I’d hit the road towards home again.

BUT, every so often, things would go as planned. The sky would be clear, there would be a nice place to set up my telescope, no cars would drive by shining their lights into my eyes and no policemen would stop by just as the star was disappearing. The radio would catch the time station clearly and we could easily see the occultation. I would drive home feeling victorious! These trips made all the other failures worthwhile. The failures just made the successes that much more exciting!

    Back to the present, the occultation was clouded over. The next night, I was sitting in the same spot. I was with some fellow club members and we were hoping that the clouds would clear up so that our star party could continue as planned. Pittsburgh weather and astronomy are archrivals and sadly the weather is usually the bad guy. In the meanwhile, I sit, read and talk with my friends as we wait for the clouds to part.

Satellites and Occultations

 

                The sky during the day was nice, cloud free and a deep shade of blue. The haze from the fires on the west coast had blown away. People in the astronomy club had been complaining about the poor seeing because of the smoke. Both Friday and Saturday had been clear, that and cold!

                For various reasons I had passed the first two nights but I didn’t want to miss the final night of the weekend. I started my set-up after 6, taking the pier out and roughly aligned it towards the north. I brought the 8” reflector out and mounted it, balanced it and left it to acclimate.

                I sat in the sunshine and read my Sky& Telescope magazine, checking to see if there were any close alignments, occultations or groupings I might want to look for. The night before, Saturday, there had been an occultation of a bright double star but the moon had already dropped below the hillside west of my house so I missed that.

                On this night, there would be a re-appearance of Europa from behind Jupiter’s disc. It was listed as happening at 8:04 PM or 00:04 UT. This would be my first target. There would also be a pass of the ISS (International Space Station) a few minutes later.

                I uncovered the scope about ten minutes before 8 and drew a sketch of the planet and its moons. Two were situated close together on one side and the third one was by itself on the other side.

                I was using an eyepiece which allowed me to see all of the moons with the planet in the center. The clock showed it as being 4 minutes till the re-appearance occurred so I kept a close watch. I had to occasionally bump the tube to re-center the planet. Since I wasn’t using a motor, the planet and its moons slowly drifted across the field of view and when the two moons disappeared, I’d bump them back to the other side to start their drift again.

                After a small nudge to bring the planet into center, I noticed a faint spot of orangish light in-between Io and the planet.  At first I thought it might be my imagination but as I watched it slowly got brighter. After a minute or so it was as bright as the other three moons.

                I find it fascinating to watch as these moons move around their gravitational center. Every night they are in a different location. Seeing one disappear behind the planet or reappear is as exciting (to me) as watching the moon occult a star. Any occultation is fun to watch, they show us the movement of the moon(s) and the earth. It shows us that the objects we observe through our telescopes are not stationary. We just can’t see the motion of the things far away from us. We see this every time we observe through a non-motorized telescope.

                So, after watching Europa, the smallest of the four easily seen moons, (just a bit smaller than our own moon!) reappear from the planets shadow, I watched another satellite appear. This was a bit closer, the ISS made a nice pass about 5 minutes later. I had to walk down the street a bit to see it above the hill and the trees off to my west. It showed up right when it was predicted! Another object held in a gravitational grip, spinning around a planet. This satellite was man made and man occupied!

                I went back and looked at Saturn and (some of) it’s moons, M57, the Ring Nebula and M31, the Andromeda Galaxy and finally the planet Mars and then it was time to call it a night. It was the end of a good weekend and what better way to end it than by losing myself in the stars.

 

Occultation-
An event that occurs when one celestial body conceals or obscures another. For example, a solar eclipse is an occultation of the Sun by the Moon.

Satellite-
A natural or artificial body in orbit around a planet.