Solar System Summer

Every so often it seems the planetary action clumps together. I recall many moons ago when my friend Herman Heyn was doing his sidewalk astronomy gig very routinely that he found a few winters to be challenging to pique citizen interest. Of course being in the heart of light polluted Baltimore made things like the Orion Nebula or Seven Sisters seem a little drab. Compared to Saturn and its rings or Jupiter and its moons, the wow factor just isn't there.

The Family Poses on August 6, 2018

We're approaching that alignment again as Jupiter gradually catches up to Saturn. Two years from now the two superstar ambassadors to amateur astronomy will be huddled together amid the stars of Sagittarius. They'll also be relatively low in the sky for us mid-latitude northern observers, but that won't keep their fans from trying to catch a glimpse of them.

As Labor Day is in our rear view mirror I have to admit that this summer we had a great Solar System family gathering in the evening skies. There was brilliant Venus in the western sky, moving from gibbous to crescent phase all the while maintaining her cloudy veil. Not the best of evening elongations as the western ecliptic lies close to the horizon this time of year, but always a dazzling jewel that is worth visiting and pondering this hellish world - like a scientific experiment gone bad.

Jupiter and GRS in 6" f/8 Reflector July 29, 2018

Next came king Jupiter. This is my favorite planet - not only due to its ample size but especially due to its changing nature. On any given night you might catch a shadow transit on the cloud tops, or the Great Red Spot (which has definitely shrunk but also become a bit ruddier in complexion) staring back at you. Cloud bands with delicate features also await the patient observer or videographer. One evening after having chased down down M104 in my 80mm scope I decided to end with Jupiter to see what the little refractor could do. Cranking up the power with an 8mm TMB Planetary eyepiece + 2x Meade Barlow I was delighted to clearly make out the GRS moving towards the preceding (setting) limb as well as a black pencil point on the clouds betraying Io's presence as it cut across the disk. Old Jove - always the showman.

A couple hours east was full-tilt Saturn, rings wide open as the northern hemisphere has its maximum solar exposure. As he ambles towards Pisces over the next 7 years the rings will gradually fold up until they are razor thin. But for this summer they were in their full glory like a preening peacock - Cassini's division obvious, shadow play on globe and rings creating that wonderful depth of field sensation, tiny moons gathered around the globe. And subtle but evident clouds gradually darkening towards the pole. What's not to love about this view?

Mars on Aug 23, 2018

And finally, bursting onto the stage beyond Saturn was Mars - back with a vengeance from its roughly two year hiatus, sporting a good size disk that we won't see again until (yikes!) 2035. Even with the poorly timed arrival of a global Martian dust storm it still was enticing to see the polar caps and fuzzy albedo markings on the red one. Mars takes magnification well due to its brightness, so you mainly need some patience and steady skies to begin to see some details. Playing around with filters is also enjoyable to see what additional features you might tease out in the different light. While the show's not quite over, for this orb the motto is definitely Carpe Noctum.

A Crowning Achievement

NASA tweeted a link to an article today that takes a look at how scientists fared in predicting in advance how the Sun's corona would appear during the Great American Eclipse this summer using data from NASA resources. The corona (Latin for crown) is the star of the show, the ethereal white light that emerges round an occulted Sun. This super-hot atmosphere of our nearest star is dynamic, being shaped and sculpted by the strong magnetic fields emitted by the Sun.

Scientists used magnetic field information from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory to arrive at the prediction. It was far from a trivial model - the "simulation required thousands of processers and took about two days of real time to complete"!

Below was the best guess by Predictive Science, Inc. Below that is my image of the corona, a combined shot using HDR software to bring out the full details. If we rotate the prediction counter-clockwise a bit it really does give a pretty good outline of the shape we saw on August 21st - well done folks!

M13 - Globular Cluster in Hercules

If you say "globular" then odds are 99/100 that the first thing that will pop to mind for an amateur astronomer is Messier 13, a.k.a. the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Accessible from spring until fall and riding high in the summer sky it is a grand object. Sir Edmond Halley (of comet fame) was the first to note it as a naked eye object under dark skies. While I think I've seen it without optical aid once or twice it has been an averted vision thing at best.

The least bit of optical assistance, however, does make it quite apparent. One of my fondest memories is seeing it through Charles Cyrus' 10" reflector one evening at a Baltimore Astronomical Society gathering. I had always found hints of resolution in my 6" from Towson, but that evening at the Irvine Center, away from serious light pollution, it burst forth like a jewel, countless stars elbowing each other for attention. It was stunning.

As part of my project of tackling the Urban List with my 80mm Vixen scope from my home, M13 is one of the required stops. It's always an easy star hop (well, provided you don't struggle with locating the keystone) as the two 7th magnitude "sentinel" stars are easy to locate in the spotter scope. And even with such a simple boost to eyesight one can see a fuzzy something between them.

In the scope it's a round puff of smoke, fairly uniform in brightness compared to larger aperture that reveals the steady brightening to a core. With averted vision and higher magnification on a moonless night I can almost swear it just begins to resolve slightly, a few stars dancing just outside of plain view.

For the last several weeks I have been attempting to image the cluster using my Canon t3i and the Vixen scope. The first few attempts gave less than desired outcome. Either the focus was not sharp enough or there were too many shots where there was some trailing of stars due to alignment or camera shutter vibration. But finally this week I managed to acquire about 45 minutes of 30 second images that stacked and produced the photo below. Not bad, it even shows tiny galaxy NGC 6207 (mag 11.5) in the upper left hand side. What amazing technology we have today.

Full Tilt Saturn

Like Earth, Saturn has a tilt to its axis. Ours is 23.5 degrees whereas Saturn is a tad more at 26.7 degrees. The outcome is that as Saturn orbits the Sun we get differing views of the rings. When it is Spring or Fall equinox on Saturn we see the rings edge on. During a solstice they are tilted as fully as possible to us.

Currently Saturn's northern hemisphere is just past solstice and we are enjoying the rings in all their splendor. There is probably no other object in the heavens that is so consistently awe inspiring. While not a large instrument my 6" reflector is more than up to the task of showing some subtle banding on the planet, the gap in the rings (Cassini's division) and some shadow play of the rings upon the planet.

August 9, 2017 at 10:00 p.m. EDT

First Cut - Images of Solar Eclipse 2017

I'm like a kid on Christmas morning - I have over 150 images of the eclipse to play with, probably half of those taken during totality. It should keep me entertained for many cloudy evenings!

I spent part of my rest day at Scottsbluff looking over the treasure trove and played with some to place on Facebook and to send off to S&T. Once I get with my friend Steve Stewart (who is a digital photo pro in my humble opinion) I should have more great pics to display here. I am especially eager to work with him to generate an HDR of totality given I have some bracketed shots of the corona. The challenge with digital editing in my opinion is to enhance the shot without straying into fiction. Right now the Internet is awash in fanciful renditions of the eclipse with golden Diamond Rings and red hot prominences. And that's OK so long as you let people know it's an artistic creation - otherwise you set people up chasing unicorns at the 2024 eclipse.

So - without further ado - first takes of the Great American Eclipse!

The Sun is reduced to a thin crescent as we count down to second contact. Some sunspots are visible near the 8 o'clock position

The gorgeous Diamond Ring emerges as the Sun struggles to shine its light in the face of the advancing lunar limb

Totality! The corona splendor on full display

Third Contact - the Moon slips off the face of the Sun in this shot. Prominences and Bailey's Beads are highlights to the view.

Success!

Praise be to God - I have been able to witness the Great American Eclipse of 2017 from the Guernsey State Park in Wyoming! It was an incredible experience under nearly perfect conditions. I'll edit this entry or post supplements later when time permits to detail the entire, fabulous experience!

Anticipation

Well we are down to less than a week now until the "Great American Eclipse" happens. Lot of planning has gone into this one - from scouting venue and getting a room reservation 18 months in advance to reading lots of articles. Even some dry runs due to all the technical tools and software I'm going to try to use in order to both view the eclipse as well as photograph it.

At first I was not sure that driving to Nebraska was the very best decision, but given the tools I'm wanting to take it has been making more sense as the weeks unfolded. And of course seeing things like Hertz cancelling people's car reservations and screwing their plans also validates my desire for control!

I continue to pray for good weather - it started off looking iffy 10 days out but it seems to be slowly improving. I'm sure if it is a matter of a couple hundred miles shift I'll be up for that on eclipse day but really hoping Nebraska comes through as a clear sky venue so I can relax and enjoy the event. If it works out it will have been 47 years, 5 months, and 14 days between my first eclipse in 1970 and this pan-American event!