August, 2010
Coercion? Gentle arm twisting? Polite persuading? Proselytizing? Evangelizing? Guilty on all counts and variations thereof. And this month, it’s an even easier con. When there’s a prediction of potentially hundreds of shooting stars per hour, the Perseid meteor shower always guarantees that the Lawnchair will have hordes of company, all reveling about in a clear, comfortable and dark summer night sky. Nothing wrong with luxuriously lounging about the backyard, chewing the fat, grilling the ribs and staring up a truly awe-inspiring summer sky. Hell, you might as well get the binoculars and the telescope out of the closet now so that they’re ready for the mid-month fireworks.
The Perseids start occurring beginning in early August through the middle of the month, with the peak of the storm typically happening on the late evenings and early mornings of the 11th, 12th and 13th. The biggest numbers generally fly after midnight and into dawn. This year, for those prime peak dates, the sliver first-quarter Moon sets early after sunset making the sky perfectly dark for the best part of the showers. Best of all, all you need is a Lawnchair and/or blanket to set out under your favorite dark sky. You don’t even have to know anything about the sky, other than to look up and enjoy the tapestry of our galaxy.
If you choose to start the evening early in mid-August, a special treat awaits your gaze. A spectacular planetary conjunction occurs just after sunset. Venus, Mars and Saturn, all close to the horizon, follow the Sun down and soon become apparent, slowly emerging from the solar glare of the Western sky. Venus will be first to appear, followed shortly thereafter by Mars, and then last, but certainly not least, Saturn. All of this visible without any special equipment. However, a Lawnchair though not necessarily mandatory, couldn’t hurt.
As the evening wears on mid month, under comfortably dark skies, somewhere preferably well away from the glow of city lights, the Milky-way is brimmingly apparent. Rising up from the southern horizon its opaque lanes of dust and gas silhouetted against the thick bright star fields are unmistakable. No binoculars or telescope are required to trace its path up into and across the summer night sky.
The Southern horizon is where you’ll find the large stick figure constellations, Sagittarius and Scorpius. Both are home to a wealth of Milky-way jewels. Easy to recognize, the Teapot asterism of Sagittarius seemingly pours its contents down onto the treetops, while Scorpius, whose scorpion tail is often unseen as it lays low on the horizon, also looks somewhat like an archer’s bow. Each of these constellations are wonderful for binocular or small telescope star-cruising. Anchoring the Milky-way to the horizon, beginning with these two easy to find constellations, you can trace its meandering way up to the zenith above your head. However, as you gaze through the thick star fields and clusters and nebulae throughout Sagittarius, an even more interesting tidbit about it is that it marks the center of our galaxy. Today, we now know that the center is the home to a massive black hole, the engine at the core of the Milky-way.
With Lawnchair in tow, I beseech you to get outside this month, preferably on the nights of the 11th through the 13th, and enjoy the free extravaganza that is a dark summer sky, pregnant with meteors and planets and star clusters and nebulae of all shapes and sizes. Lastly, there are no rules against making it a community activity. Wake the kids, call the neighbors. They’ll forgive you after seeing a few streaking fireballs splash across the dark August sky!
Clear Skies
The Lawnchair Astronomer
July, 2010
It's official! It’s summer again and what that means to the Lawnchair is more and better opportunities to get out and revel in the best the night sky has to offer. Can you believe it's almost July! I guess that the saying, "time flies when you’re having fun," is really true. And stargazing is just such an activity. One that will seem to make the hours slip by without perception. On many a star hunting expedition I’ve been known to comment, hey we just got here, . . . four hours after the fact. What's more interesting though, is the night sky is actually the biggest clock of all time. Think about it. As the Earth spins, the skies rotate across the celestial sphere, marking stellar appearances and disappearances on the east and west horizons. If you know when a certain constellation is due up on the horizon for a particular evening, then once visible it is quite easy to calculate the current local time. Of course having a wrist watch to back this up is handy, but once you’re familiar enough with the system, it's not necessary at all.
I'd like to start by highlighting some of the Summer sky's known and not-so-well-known constellations, some which will point us to some excellent deep-sky objects (DSOs). An easy area to locate and see some of the most spectacular and really deep-sky targets, is behind Leo, The Lion in the West just after Sunset. This is the area above Virgo and below Coma Berenices where the realm of galaxies as well as the Coma Cluster can be found. But first, with your eyes alone, try some star-hopping and see if you can make out these two opposing constellations. Coma Berenices contains only a few main stars and its wide upside-down V shape points towards another of the summer's most easily recognizable constellations, the kite-shaped Bootes. Virgo, headlined by the bright star Spica, can be found below Bootes tail, reclining high above the treetops.
By 9:30 PM, as the sky turns very dark, directly overhead in Coma, you should easily find what is known as the Coma Cluster, a close, open star cluster, best viewed with binoculars. A telescope's narrow range will miss most of this thin and widely scattered group of predominantly binary star systems. Besides this large grouping of fairly bright stars, you'll find a pair of spectacular globular star clusters here in the constellation named for the Egyptian Queen, Berenices. M-53 was found by J.E. Bode two years before Charles Messier found and catalogued it independently in 1777. In a wide angle view, less than a degree away lies a fainter, but just as magnificent star cluster, officially registered as NGC 5053. Slightly closer to us than the much brighter M-53, this cluster does make for an interesting and contrasting view of globulars. Finally, one last sight worth mention here inside the constrictions of Coma is the galaxy known as M-64, or the Black-Eye Galaxy. This object, also discovered by J.E. Bode, is not believed to be part of the larger Coma-Virgo cluster of galaxies nearby, as it is much closer to us. What makes this particular galaxy note worthy is its extremely dark central lanes, which of course is why it received its peculiar name.
Bootes, also known as The Guardian of the Bear, is a kite shaped aggregation of stars, whose primary member, Arcturus, is the brightest star north of the celestial equator. Taking fourth place in overall brightness, this star is very large, twenty million miles across, twenty five times the size of the Sun and one hundred and fifteen times brighter. This star's heat has been measured here on Earth as comparable to a single candle at five miles distance. Think about what that means. A close, warm neighbor, in galactic terms, Arcturus lies a mere thirty-seven light years away. What's even more interesting is that this star is moving quite fast in a path that will bring it past us eventually on its way towards Virgo. Passing through the plane of the galactic arm in which we reside, its velocity has been calculated to almost ninety miles per second! There’s also another wonderful star cluster lying between Bootes and Coma Berenices. Only the third on Messier’s list of a hundred plus, M-3 is very bright at its core, with bright outer cluster stars giving it that jewel-like sparkle. It gets better as you add magnification, though you don’t need a huge telescope to enjoy this beauty.
As far as local targets this month, the moon, just a sliver on July 15th, is joined by Venus, though slightly higher in the sky. Both will be very low to the western horizon. Slightly higher and just south of due west, they are in turn, followed by the reddish Mars below Leo’s tail and, Saturn leading Virgo across the horizon. A literal parade of planets awaits your gaze. All will eventually sink below the horizon, so it would be best to get your eyes on these wondrous sights as early in the evening as possible. And lastly, this month the temperatures are perfect for outdoor adventures such as this. Just remember to consider the tiny, flying and biting interlopers and prepare their welcome with a good arsenal of bug juice. Also, no one will fault you for carting out the grill and the refreshments of your choice. The Lawnchair certainly won’t mind!
Clear Skies
The Lawnchair Astronomer
June, 2010
"On the road again. I just can’t wait to get back out on the road again." Well, okay, I can wait. After an extremely primitive week of camping up in the wild woods of Vermont, I’m pretty much content with the idea of never leaving home again. Clicking my sneakers together three times and saying, "There’s no place like home" didn’t work at all. Seems there’s never a wizard around when you need one. Now, you may ask, whatever could of possessed the Lawnchair to undertake such a drastic turn from the norm?
Well, for starters, a chance to do some stargazing on a mountaintop field where the sky is so dark that you can see thousands of stars with just your eyes. Where the dim nebulae I’m used to perusing from the light-polluted skies in my backyard, stand out in the eyepiece like brightly lit diamonds against a coal black background. Where bugs the size of small bi-planes buzz by your head and sometimes crash into you, mistaking you for the mother ship. Well, alright scratch that last one. Wrong category. It belongs on the other side of the pro/con list. But there you have the basis for this month’s column. If you don’t live near enough to a dark-sky site, camping is an option you might consider.
How luxurious or primitive the experience will be is entirely up to you. In my case, I’ve learned that lying down on the ground in a tent that requires a Master’s degree in engineering to construct isn’t my cup o’ tea. Cynically, I’ve come to suspect a marketing scheme developed by evil camping-industry movers and shakers to get you to fall into line and rent or buy an RV. Well Dorothy, I surrender! If and when I ever attempt this again, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a heated waterbed in a very large RV somewhere in the loop. My future camping escapades will absolutely include extreme adherence to the Winnebego concept. There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home... oh excuse me, I was having a flashback. PTCD - Post Traumatic Camping Disillusion.
But enough of that! I’m here to expound on how good it is to see the sky the way it should be seen. The way our ancestors, the cavemen, saw it. It’s the view seen by the hunter-gatherers out on the open plains of ancient days. It must have indeed been spectacular. Accustomed to the artificially lighted skies above our heads each night, it’s easy to forget how wonderful it is to see the sky from a place free from city lights. For our ancestors this was the norm. This was their TV. They identified with the night sky. They saw themselves and their mythologies represented in the thousands of sapphire pinpoints strewn about the heavens. They imagined and fashioned the connect-the-dot patterns of the early constellations after their experiences. They told and recorded their stories in these pictures using them to pass their history down through the generations.
Whether you camp-out or just visit for the evening’s festivities, you’re guaranteed to take home exceptional memories. Seeing the sky from a really dark location as summer rolls into play can leave one speechless. As always, sharing the experience can only serve to make it that much more special. Most importantly, do not forget the bug spray. You’ll thank me in the morning for that!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
Under a dark sky, peering into the heart of the Milky-Way is simply one of humanties greatest thrills. Away from the constant light pollution of the cities, the night sky reveals incredible vistas of thick star fields and dark clouds of gas and dust.
May 2010
April 2010
So Many Sights, So Little Time
Coercion? Gentle arm twisting? Polite persuading? Proselytizing? Evangelizing? Guilty on all counts and variations thereof. And this month, it’s an even easier con. When there’s a prediction of potentially hundreds of shooting stars per hour, the Perseid meteor shower always guarantees that the Lawnchair will have hordes of company, all reveling about in a clear, comfortable and dark summer night sky. Nothing wrong with luxuriously lounging about the backyard, chewing the fat, grilling the ribs and staring up a truly awe-inspiring summer sky. Hell, you might as well get the binoculars and the telescope out of the closet now so that they’re ready for the mid-month fireworks.
The Perseids start occurring beginning in early August through the middle of the month, with the peak of the storm typically happening on the late evenings and early mornings of the 11th, 12th and 13th. The biggest numbers generally fly after midnight and into dawn. This year, for those prime peak dates, the sliver first-quarter Moon sets early after sunset making the sky perfectly dark for the best part of the showers. Best of all, all you need is a Lawnchair and/or blanket to set out under your favorite dark sky. You don’t even have to know anything about the sky, other than to look up and enjoy the tapestry of our galaxy.
If you choose to start the evening early in mid-August, a special treat awaits your gaze. A spectacular planetary conjunction occurs just after sunset. Venus, Mars and Saturn, all close to the horizon, follow the Sun down and soon become apparent, slowly emerging from the solar glare of the Western sky. Venus will be first to appear, followed shortly thereafter by Mars, and then last, but certainly not least, Saturn. All of this visible without any special equipment. However, a Lawnchair though not necessarily mandatory, couldn’t hurt.
As the evening wears on mid month, under comfortably dark skies, somewhere preferably well away from the glow of city lights, the Milky-way is brimmingly apparent. Rising up from the southern horizon its opaque lanes of dust and gas silhouetted against the thick bright star fields are unmistakable. No binoculars or telescope are required to trace its path up into and across the summer night sky.
The Southern horizon is where you’ll find the large stick figure constellations, Sagittarius and Scorpius. Both are home to a wealth of Milky-way jewels. Easy to recognize, the Teapot asterism of Sagittarius seemingly pours its contents down onto the treetops, while Scorpius, whose scorpion tail is often unseen as it lays low on the horizon, also looks somewhat like an archer’s bow. Each of these constellations are wonderful for binocular or small telescope star-cruising. Anchoring the Milky-way to the horizon, beginning with these two easy to find constellations, you can trace its meandering way up to the zenith above your head. However, as you gaze through the thick star fields and clusters and nebulae throughout Sagittarius, an even more interesting tidbit about it is that it marks the center of our galaxy. Today, we now know that the center is the home to a massive black hole, the engine at the core of the Milky-way.
With Lawnchair in tow, I beseech you to get outside this month, preferably on the nights of the 11th through the 13th, and enjoy the free extravaganza that is a dark summer sky, pregnant with meteors and planets and star clusters and nebulae of all shapes and sizes. Lastly, there are no rules against making it a community activity. Wake the kids, call the neighbors. They’ll forgive you after seeing a few streaking fireballs splash across the dark August sky!
Clear Skies
The Lawnchair Astronomer
After sunset
during mid-August, Venus, Mars and Saturn can be seen together prior to
their slipping down below the horizon. Later into the evening, on
the nights of the 11th through the 13th, the Perseid meteor shower
nears its peak, often stretching into the pre-dawn hours of the next
day.
July, 2010
Summer Star Hop
It's official! It’s summer again and what that means to the Lawnchair is more and better opportunities to get out and revel in the best the night sky has to offer. Can you believe it's almost July! I guess that the saying, "time flies when you’re having fun," is really true. And stargazing is just such an activity. One that will seem to make the hours slip by without perception. On many a star hunting expedition I’ve been known to comment, hey we just got here, . . . four hours after the fact. What's more interesting though, is the night sky is actually the biggest clock of all time. Think about it. As the Earth spins, the skies rotate across the celestial sphere, marking stellar appearances and disappearances on the east and west horizons. If you know when a certain constellation is due up on the horizon for a particular evening, then once visible it is quite easy to calculate the current local time. Of course having a wrist watch to back this up is handy, but once you’re familiar enough with the system, it's not necessary at all.
I'd like to start by highlighting some of the Summer sky's known and not-so-well-known constellations, some which will point us to some excellent deep-sky objects (DSOs). An easy area to locate and see some of the most spectacular and really deep-sky targets, is behind Leo, The Lion in the West just after Sunset. This is the area above Virgo and below Coma Berenices where the realm of galaxies as well as the Coma Cluster can be found. But first, with your eyes alone, try some star-hopping and see if you can make out these two opposing constellations. Coma Berenices contains only a few main stars and its wide upside-down V shape points towards another of the summer's most easily recognizable constellations, the kite-shaped Bootes. Virgo, headlined by the bright star Spica, can be found below Bootes tail, reclining high above the treetops.
By 9:30 PM, as the sky turns very dark, directly overhead in Coma, you should easily find what is known as the Coma Cluster, a close, open star cluster, best viewed with binoculars. A telescope's narrow range will miss most of this thin and widely scattered group of predominantly binary star systems. Besides this large grouping of fairly bright stars, you'll find a pair of spectacular globular star clusters here in the constellation named for the Egyptian Queen, Berenices. M-53 was found by J.E. Bode two years before Charles Messier found and catalogued it independently in 1777. In a wide angle view, less than a degree away lies a fainter, but just as magnificent star cluster, officially registered as NGC 5053. Slightly closer to us than the much brighter M-53, this cluster does make for an interesting and contrasting view of globulars. Finally, one last sight worth mention here inside the constrictions of Coma is the galaxy known as M-64, or the Black-Eye Galaxy. This object, also discovered by J.E. Bode, is not believed to be part of the larger Coma-Virgo cluster of galaxies nearby, as it is much closer to us. What makes this particular galaxy note worthy is its extremely dark central lanes, which of course is why it received its peculiar name.
Bootes, also known as The Guardian of the Bear, is a kite shaped aggregation of stars, whose primary member, Arcturus, is the brightest star north of the celestial equator. Taking fourth place in overall brightness, this star is very large, twenty million miles across, twenty five times the size of the Sun and one hundred and fifteen times brighter. This star's heat has been measured here on Earth as comparable to a single candle at five miles distance. Think about what that means. A close, warm neighbor, in galactic terms, Arcturus lies a mere thirty-seven light years away. What's even more interesting is that this star is moving quite fast in a path that will bring it past us eventually on its way towards Virgo. Passing through the plane of the galactic arm in which we reside, its velocity has been calculated to almost ninety miles per second! There’s also another wonderful star cluster lying between Bootes and Coma Berenices. Only the third on Messier’s list of a hundred plus, M-3 is very bright at its core, with bright outer cluster stars giving it that jewel-like sparkle. It gets better as you add magnification, though you don’t need a huge telescope to enjoy this beauty.
As far as local targets this month, the moon, just a sliver on July 15th, is joined by Venus, though slightly higher in the sky. Both will be very low to the western horizon. Slightly higher and just south of due west, they are in turn, followed by the reddish Mars below Leo’s tail and, Saturn leading Virgo across the horizon. A literal parade of planets awaits your gaze. All will eventually sink below the horizon, so it would be best to get your eyes on these wondrous sights as early in the evening as possible. And lastly, this month the temperatures are perfect for outdoor adventures such as this. Just remember to consider the tiny, flying and biting interlopers and prepare their welcome with a good arsenal of bug juice. Also, no one will fault you for carting out the grill and the refreshments of your choice. The Lawnchair certainly won’t mind!
Clear Skies
The Lawnchair Astronomer
For a great early
evening adventure, here, facing West and the setting sliver of moon, is
your stepping stone to some of early summer’s most wondrous
sights. There are both naked-eye targets to find, as well as
deep-sky-objects, that will require adding a telescope or binoculars to
the task. All are well worth discovering under a clear dark sky
throughout the month of July.
June, 2010
GOING TO LAWNCHAIR EXTREMES
"On the road again. I just can’t wait to get back out on the road again." Well, okay, I can wait. After an extremely primitive week of camping up in the wild woods of Vermont, I’m pretty much content with the idea of never leaving home again. Clicking my sneakers together three times and saying, "There’s no place like home" didn’t work at all. Seems there’s never a wizard around when you need one. Now, you may ask, whatever could of possessed the Lawnchair to undertake such a drastic turn from the norm?
Well, for starters, a chance to do some stargazing on a mountaintop field where the sky is so dark that you can see thousands of stars with just your eyes. Where the dim nebulae I’m used to perusing from the light-polluted skies in my backyard, stand out in the eyepiece like brightly lit diamonds against a coal black background. Where bugs the size of small bi-planes buzz by your head and sometimes crash into you, mistaking you for the mother ship. Well, alright scratch that last one. Wrong category. It belongs on the other side of the pro/con list. But there you have the basis for this month’s column. If you don’t live near enough to a dark-sky site, camping is an option you might consider.
How luxurious or primitive the experience will be is entirely up to you. In my case, I’ve learned that lying down on the ground in a tent that requires a Master’s degree in engineering to construct isn’t my cup o’ tea. Cynically, I’ve come to suspect a marketing scheme developed by evil camping-industry movers and shakers to get you to fall into line and rent or buy an RV. Well Dorothy, I surrender! If and when I ever attempt this again, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a heated waterbed in a very large RV somewhere in the loop. My future camping escapades will absolutely include extreme adherence to the Winnebego concept. There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home... oh excuse me, I was having a flashback. PTCD - Post Traumatic Camping Disillusion.
But enough of that! I’m here to expound on how good it is to see the sky the way it should be seen. The way our ancestors, the cavemen, saw it. It’s the view seen by the hunter-gatherers out on the open plains of ancient days. It must have indeed been spectacular. Accustomed to the artificially lighted skies above our heads each night, it’s easy to forget how wonderful it is to see the sky from a place free from city lights. For our ancestors this was the norm. This was their TV. They identified with the night sky. They saw themselves and their mythologies represented in the thousands of sapphire pinpoints strewn about the heavens. They imagined and fashioned the connect-the-dot patterns of the early constellations after their experiences. They told and recorded their stories in these pictures using them to pass their history down through the generations.
Whether you camp-out or just visit for the evening’s festivities, you’re guaranteed to take home exceptional memories. Seeing the sky from a really dark location as summer rolls into play can leave one speechless. As always, sharing the experience can only serve to make it that much more special. Most importantly, do not forget the bug spray. You’ll thank me in the morning for that!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
Under a dark sky, peering into the heart of the Milky-Way is simply one of humanties greatest thrills. Away from the constant light pollution of the cities, the night sky reveals incredible vistas of thick star fields and dark clouds of gas and dust.
Going Nocturnal, Lawnchair Style!
Sure signs of winter’s
demise: a thoroughly-thawed, washed, dried and polished
Lawnchair, gleaming in the night air as it salutes the Great Hunter,
Orion, his upright sword slowly disappearing below the western treetops
at sunset. Yes, it’s that time of year when blooms of
spring delight the cacophony of diurnal observers, while their tranquil
counterparts recline in Lawnchair style, quietly rejoicing in the
thought of blizzard-free astronomical adventures in nearly tropical
climes. The time of year when going nocturnal doesn’t
require four layers of clothing, three pairs of socks, two mugs of
coffee and a partridge-feather-filled, pear-shaped, ski parka!
Yes, cabin fever has broken in Lawnchair land. The adventures start just
after sunset on any early evening in May. But for the sake of
this little jewel of interest for a first night out under the stars, on
the 15th and 16th, very close to the western horizon, a thin crescent
moon should appear out of the haze of the gradually darkening sky just
as the sun totally disappears. Above it, a bit higher up in the
sky, the very bright and shimmering Venus, is the “Evening
Star”. Also easy to recognize are the giant stick-figure
twins of Gemini as they become apparent, standing guard over the
western treetops.
Venus is often the culprit for increases in UFO sightings. At or near the horizon, it’s been known to generate an optical illusion of movement, especially if viewed from a vantage point that is also moving, such as when you’re in a car or riding a bicycle. Each the crescent moon and Venus will eventually move, but only down below the horizon as predicted. They’re not incoming!
As the sky darkens, you’ll find that there are abundant spring treats and sights to take in and ponder. For example, next to Gemini is Cancer where the clusters, M-44 and M-67, are quite interesting, even in small instruments. The Beehive cluster, or Praesepe, is easy to locate at Cancer’s intersecting lines and can be observed in either a wide-angle or close-up lens. Once found you’ll understand how it got its name.
The next treat on the list can be found scanning southward, toward the towering Leo, just ahead of his growling facade, you’ll recognize with just your eyes, the red-faced, though, hardly doomed, God of War, Mars. Another easy observational capture, in a close-up lens, you can sometimes glimpse a lightening tinge on the polar edges of this planetary beach ball.
And if you are so inclined, and just happen to be toting the “big instrument” out for the first time this year, Leo is perfect for a galactic hunting expedition. Several spiral-shaped nebulae tucked beneath his belly and along his rear quarters make the big cat safari a wonderful adventure all by itself. But, the “piece-de-resistance” for telescopic adventurers, is the massive Virgo-Coma Cluster of galaxies following the big cat high across the southwestern sky. Dozens of relatively bright, wispy galaxies can be observed. A good dark sky and a large light-bucket scale telescope will help to capture some of these elusive splashes of light. Some of the brightest of the group can be glimpsed in mid-sized instruments.
And lastly, as the perfect dessert to top a first great spring feast for the eyes, Saturn is perfectly situated high in the southern sky, providing a clear, dark unobstructed background to contrast its magnificent rings against. A pair of binoculars will reveal more than just a tiny ball of light. But, in a small to medium-sized telescope and a good close-up lens, it can be an intoxicating, almost surreal sight.
Though I always recommend sharing this experience with friends and family, there does come a time, occasionally, when you may want to hog the scope all to yourself. After all, we nocturnal beasts are often loners. Besides, there’ll be plenty of warm summer nights to come, on which to share the Lawnchair. It’s not a sin to be selfish once in a while. Keep telling yourself that as you stare, for as long as you want, in sheer amazement over what meets you at the eyepiece.
Clear skies!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
Venus is often the culprit for increases in UFO sightings. At or near the horizon, it’s been known to generate an optical illusion of movement, especially if viewed from a vantage point that is also moving, such as when you’re in a car or riding a bicycle. Each the crescent moon and Venus will eventually move, but only down below the horizon as predicted. They’re not incoming!
As the sky darkens, you’ll find that there are abundant spring treats and sights to take in and ponder. For example, next to Gemini is Cancer where the clusters, M-44 and M-67, are quite interesting, even in small instruments. The Beehive cluster, or Praesepe, is easy to locate at Cancer’s intersecting lines and can be observed in either a wide-angle or close-up lens. Once found you’ll understand how it got its name.
The next treat on the list can be found scanning southward, toward the towering Leo, just ahead of his growling facade, you’ll recognize with just your eyes, the red-faced, though, hardly doomed, God of War, Mars. Another easy observational capture, in a close-up lens, you can sometimes glimpse a lightening tinge on the polar edges of this planetary beach ball.
And if you are so inclined, and just happen to be toting the “big instrument” out for the first time this year, Leo is perfect for a galactic hunting expedition. Several spiral-shaped nebulae tucked beneath his belly and along his rear quarters make the big cat safari a wonderful adventure all by itself. But, the “piece-de-resistance” for telescopic adventurers, is the massive Virgo-Coma Cluster of galaxies following the big cat high across the southwestern sky. Dozens of relatively bright, wispy galaxies can be observed. A good dark sky and a large light-bucket scale telescope will help to capture some of these elusive splashes of light. Some of the brightest of the group can be glimpsed in mid-sized instruments.
And lastly, as the perfect dessert to top a first great spring feast for the eyes, Saturn is perfectly situated high in the southern sky, providing a clear, dark unobstructed background to contrast its magnificent rings against. A pair of binoculars will reveal more than just a tiny ball of light. But, in a small to medium-sized telescope and a good close-up lens, it can be an intoxicating, almost surreal sight.
Though I always recommend sharing this experience with friends and family, there does come a time, occasionally, when you may want to hog the scope all to yourself. After all, we nocturnal beasts are often loners. Besides, there’ll be plenty of warm summer nights to come, on which to share the Lawnchair. It’s not a sin to be selfish once in a while. Keep telling yourself that as you stare, for as long as you want, in sheer amazement over what meets you at the eyepiece.
Clear skies!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
Watching the sunset
at mid month as the western sky darkens, easiest to locate are the
Twins Gemini, followed by Cancer the Crab and Leo the Lion.
Interspersed between them are Mars and Saturn, providing a great
opportunity to take that telescope out for a spring test run.
April 2010
See The Night Sky As Never Before
Christmas in April? Find of the century? The best thing since sliced toast? Could it be? Yes, yes, yes, and again yepperz! After all these years of fawning over my crystal ball of choice, Klassm Software’s SkyGlobe, I recently upgraded to a new computer, a virtual rocket sled no doubt, but sadly, it won’t play nice with many of my old toys, including SkyGlobe. I blame Windows7 and Bill Gates, of course. An easy call. However, that’s not to say that this newest version of Windows is not an improvement. It does seem to have substantially ameliorated features and options. Even to an old MS-DOS dinosaur such as yours truly, it is impressive, especially on this new bad-***, modern machine I’ve come to own.
Which brings me to this month’s topic. Desperately in need of a new crystal ball, but also being the cheap SOB that I’ve become in my almost advanced age, I set out on the hunt for a new astronomically fluent prognostication machine, and of course, one that wasn’t going to cost anything. As you might imagine, prior to finding the Prince Charming of the graphical interface world, I suffered through the downloading and installing and uninstalling of a few dozen amphibian incarnations. Then, after walking away and figuring that I’d have to crack open the Lawnchair’s financial vault and actually buh buh buh buy a new program, hallelujah, here it was, just taunting me to try one more time.
After numerous search engine oil changes, I finally came across what has to be the most incredible piece of software I have ever experienced. And this from a guy who has been playing with these toys for nearly 30 years. Simply put, “Stellarium” (www.stellarium.org) is an astronomy program on steroids. I’ve found, though, that to run it will require having a decent computer, perhaps something along the line of a machine with a dual core processor with at least two gigs of RAM. The authors claim it will work on a machine with half those resources. However, I’ve run it through the Lawnchair Technical Laboratories on different machines, and on a one gig machine it crawled along at a one-legged snail’s pace. I would recommend having or upgrading to a well-adorned modern PC if you intend to try this software out for yourself.
If you do decide to download and install this freeware gem, prepare to be blown away. It runs on both Windows and MAC platforms, and even has a LINUX version available. Ten years in development, it is, in all honesty, comparable to what you’d expect to experience in a multi-million dollar planetarium, albeit on a simple computer monitor. A virtual jewel! As computer graphics have advanced substantially in the last decade, the Stellarium developers have succeeded in incorporating the most amazing visual features into this work of art.
Featuring capabilities beyond what any astronomy-themed freeware program has ever bestowed upon mankind, at least in my experience, the absolutely user-friendly interface lets you view and manipulate the sky from any and every perspective imaginable. Its gossamer-like menus appear almost magically as you mouse over them along the lower left and bottom borders of your screen. They provide the ability to set your location to any coordinate on the planet, even providing an expansive list of cities and coordinates to choose from. There are even add-on catalogs of massive stellar databases available. However, having a machine of substantial computing power would be recommended should you want to bulk up this already monolithic program. At this scale it can be quite taxing to a less than state-of-the-art processor.
Some of my favorite features, so far, are its ability to move the screen/sky around at will by just dragging the mouse and holding the left button down. You can select any target star, planet or nebula and, a transparent informational window materializes in the upper left hand corner of the screen showing you exactly what you’re looking at, its coordinates and particular specifications. Then, if you’d like, you can zoom in on your selected target, as if you had the world’s most powerful telescope at your beck and call. At the closest zoom levels are actual astro-photographs of the selected objects. My only criticism is that some of the images chosen aren’t the best available. Some, however, Saturn for example, are exquisite. Others like my personal favorite, M-13, could be better. But, let’s not dwell on a minor issue, considering the whole. Besides these simple-to-use features, there are even more advanced capabilities and viewing modes which only goes to highlight the work and attention to detail that went into this project. My hat’s off to these folks. Having tried dozens of astronomy programs, both free and costly versions, I have only recommended one piece of software (SkyGlobe) to my readers in the nearly 25 years I’ve been writing this column. However, Stellarium changes everything I ever thought was possible on basically, a home computer. If you are at all curious, it’s an easy download from their website at www.stellarium.org. But be forewarned that you will need a pretty decent machine to experience it in all its glory.
Just in time for the Lawnchair season, and even better for the off-season, when snow and ice regularly hinder actual face-time at the eye-piece, Stellarium is the next best thing. There’s a small learning curve but nothing that you can’t master. Its ease of use and simple concept makes this my pick for the Lawnchair “Best Next Thing” award. Try it yourself and let me know if you agree.
Clear skies!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
Here are day and night
screenshots of Stellarium. Besides day and night views, options
include an ability to manipulate the sky at will, and place as much or
as little information on the screen as desired.
March 2010
How Far is Far?
If you’re a fan of Astronomy, then you may already know that the
Hubble Telescope, utilizing its recently refurbished instruments,
recently stretched its outer limits and recorded the furthest objects
ever seen, or in this case, digitally imaged. Employing its
newest toy, the infrared Wide Field Camera, the Hubble detected a group
of primordial galaxies near the limits of the observable
universe. The images (See graphic) show these ancient formations
at the outskirts of what is believed to be a universe that reaches out
to over thirteen billion light-years. More fascinating still, is
that these splotches of light are seen as they appeared approximately
700 million years after the birth of the universe, in what astronomers
refer to as the big bang.
At that time, these compact blue galaxies defined the edge of the Universe which was less than a billion light-years in size. As time marched forward, the universe expanded into the 13 billion light-year behemoth we are familiar with today. Even in astronomical terms, this is a ridiculously huge space, both in distance and in time. The further away objects are seen, the farther back into time we get to witness. In essence, the Hubble is not just a telescope, but like all telescopes, a sort of astronomical time machine. The Hubble, though, has earned the Big Dog Crown!
The objects recorded in the accompanying NASA graphic are no longer there. They may have evolved into new generations of galaxies, or completely fizzled out eons ago. What we see in these images are how these earliest objects appeared back near the boundary of time itself. In the big bang theory, time and space and matter each came into existence in the now famous cataclysmic explosion, thirteen billion or so years ago.
At that time, these compact blue galaxies defined the edge of the Universe which was less than a billion light-years in size. As time marched forward, the universe expanded into the 13 billion light-year behemoth we are familiar with today. Even in astronomical terms, this is a ridiculously huge space, both in distance and in time. The further away objects are seen, the farther back into time we get to witness. In essence, the Hubble is not just a telescope, but like all telescopes, a sort of astronomical time machine. The Hubble, though, has earned the Big Dog Crown!
The objects recorded in the accompanying NASA graphic are no longer there. They may have evolved into new generations of galaxies, or completely fizzled out eons ago. What we see in these images are how these earliest objects appeared back near the boundary of time itself. In the big bang theory, time and space and matter each came into existence in the now famous cataclysmic explosion, thirteen billion or so years ago.
As recently as the mid twentieth century, the three opposing cosmological views were first, the Closed View. It states that the universe is stagnant, where new matter is being created "somewhere" to replace the matter that eventually disappears. The second view proposes that the universe is open-ended and doesn’t contain enough matter, and therefore, the gravitational force needed to halt its observed and proven expansion. This would result in an ever growing universe, one that would continue to expand forever until at some distant epoch everything we see today would have drifted away to unimaginable distances and eventually, blink out of existence. If you’re not aware of the fact, all matter will eventually disappear. Scientists have actually performed experiments that show this happening, albeit on an atomic level. Matter is continually blinking out of existence.
A third theory which has been championed by several notables, proposed that hidden or dark matter undetectable with our current instruments would indeed provide enough gravity to cause the expansion of the universe to stop, and perhaps even collapse upon itself and revisit the Big Bang - the Oscillating Universe Theory.
Throughout history, man has wondered and debated what kind of Universe we live in. Today, "weighing" the Universe is done to determine whether or not it does indeed contain enough matter to halt the expansion, or as some have proposed, includes secret, undetectable places where dark or hidden matter exists, or where matter is continually being created. As notable as the “Hubble Time Machine” has been, newer, more advanced instruments are scouring the Universe today and peering deeper and further back into time and space than man has ever been. What lies beyond? Are other civilizations, somewhere we’ve not yet discovered, asking the same questions as we are? Have they learned things we’ve not yet realized? Only time will tell. As we continue to study the Universe, we’ll continue to learn that there is more than meets they eye, or in this case, more than meets our orbiting astronomical platform-based detectors. The story is hardly over and I am certain that we've still plenty to discover and learn about ourselves and our surroundings.
Lastly, like the Hubble, this month we all get to jump into a time machine of sorts, as we “spring ahead” on March 14th. The big reveal so to speak, is that Sunset, on the 13th will be at quarter to six in the evening. However, almost magically, on the 14th, it will not set till quarter to seven. Before you know it, snow and ice encrusted Lawnchairs everywhere will begin to thaw and find themselves glistening once again, in the late evening sunshine.
Clear Skies!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
February, 2010
Take A Summer Vacation
Via February Morning Skies
Via February Morning Skies
Had
enough? I have. Enough wind and cold, blizzards and ice
sculptures encapsulating the ol’ Lawnchair, I believe it’s
time for a change. So climb into the Lawnchair Time Machine and,
follow me to a time when the evenings are pleasantly warm, the skies
are abundantly filled with sparkling stars and, a frosty glass of Iced
Tea sweats off the day’s humidity. Sounds great about now,
doesn’t it?
If you can disregard that white stuff all over the ground, and replace the Iced Tea with a fresh, steaming pot of coffee, you can be transported to just such a time. Rather than launching the Lawnchair post sunset, aim for a pre-sunrise adventure this month and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see some of the best sights that summer brings, albeit in the dead of Winter!
In the hour before dawn breaks this month, lo and behold, high in the eastern sky, it’s the Summer Triangle. (See Map) Here are the Lawnchair’s favorite summertime trophies. High above the treetops, the Triangle, comprised of Altair in Aquila, Deneb, the Head of the Northern Cross in Cygnus, and lastly, Vega in Lyra, appears exactly as it would look in the middle of Summer. And prior to the sky becoming lighter as the Sun nears the horizon, all of its jewels can be viewed against a dark contrasting background, clear of any turbulence, often common during steamy summer evenings.
If you can disregard that white stuff all over the ground, and replace the Iced Tea with a fresh, steaming pot of coffee, you can be transported to just such a time. Rather than launching the Lawnchair post sunset, aim for a pre-sunrise adventure this month and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see some of the best sights that summer brings, albeit in the dead of Winter!
In the hour before dawn breaks this month, lo and behold, high in the eastern sky, it’s the Summer Triangle. (See Map) Here are the Lawnchair’s favorite summertime trophies. High above the treetops, the Triangle, comprised of Altair in Aquila, Deneb, the Head of the Northern Cross in Cygnus, and lastly, Vega in Lyra, appears exactly as it would look in the middle of Summer. And prior to the sky becoming lighter as the Sun nears the horizon, all of its jewels can be viewed against a dark contrasting background, clear of any turbulence, often common during steamy summer evenings.
The summer sky, looking East on February 15th, at quarter to six in the morning..
In a good pair of binoculars, or a small telescope, Alberio, the foot of the Northern Cross, is simply one of the most beautiful double stars in the sky. Its constituents, a bright blue giant and, an equally striking golden yellow partner, make this a regularly visited target by Lawnchair enthusiasts everywhere. However, as the time before sunrise may be limited, you may not want to linger too long and risk missing out on some even more striking sights.
For instance, just above Alberio, M-56, is a subtle Globular Cluster. But the real treat here, is a little further up into the sky between the feet of Lyra. The Ring Nebula, M-57, is one of the most famous and enigmatic sights of the summer season. Where once shone a massive star, all that remains now is a shell of charged particles, the remnants of a super-novae.
But, before we turn into pumpkins, even higher up in the eastern sky, near the Zenith, Hercules just begs for your undivided attention. Here is the home of the most spectacular star cluster in the Lawnchair Trophy Chest, M-13. The Great Cluster in Hercules contains an estimated one million stars. In a wide-angle eye-piece of a small to medium-size telescope, the first impression can look like a fuzzy golf ball. But as you increase magnification, its true nature becomes apparent. Even in small telescopes, the outlying members of the cluster are easily resolved and hint at the cluster’s abundance of stars. In a larger instrument, the view is simply, astounding. But to do it justice, the long exposure photographs really tell the story.
And though, personally, I’ve been known to stare at M-13 until it fades into the lightening sky, there are still more summer sights to see in a pre-dawn February. For instance, using a wide-angle lens or even a pair of binoculars, though embedded in the turbulence near the horizon, you can scan up along the Summer Milky-way as its climbs up through Sagittarius. Brimming with its contents of intra-galactic jewels, the Teapot is an easy target to recognize and, an even more rewarding one to spend time examining in detail.
So, if like me, you long for a chance to escape, even if only temporarily, the bitter chill of Winter nights, brush off that lonely Lawnchair and put it through its paces some early morning this month. The rewards are many and reason enough to entice the kids or neighbors to join you. They’ll thank you in the evening!
Clear Skies!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
January, 2010
2010 = Two For One In Lawnchair Land
Looking into the Lawnchair Crystal Ball, though the icicles are beginning to envelop pretty much everything exposed to the outdoors, Lawnchairs included, there are, indeed, excellent sights to behold as the New Year unfolds. Wonders of a dual nature are perfectly positioned and suited for both naked-eye and telescopic views. As a start, consider the brightest star in the sky. As it reaches high up above the southern horizon each post sunset evening, the Dog Star, Sirius, marks the chest of the constellation known as Canis Major. It has been closely studied since antiquity. Earliest peoples used it to note the coming of spring. Egyptians relied on it to herald the annual rising of the Nile. Easily recognized above the southern horizon at this time of year, no optical aid is required to capture this trophy.
With the aid of a small or medium sized telescope, there’s a wonderful open cluster below the belly of the Big Dog. M-41 is a loose cluster of bright stars that only gets better as you move from a wide angle view to a close-up lens. M-50, just ahead of the doggy’s snout, is another wonderful cluster with both blue and red super giants headlining the group.
Nearly tripping over the dog at his feet, the Hunter, Orion is also the home of both telescopic and naked-eye targets. The sapphire blue Rigel and the red giant Betelgeuse are quite dramatic in their contrast. Once you take the shiny red bow off of that brand new telescope, focusing in on the middle component of the area known as the scabbard hanging from Orion’s famous belt, M-42, the Great Nebula, will be a superb first light for your Lawnchair’s newest component. Just get those cup holders firmly attached and the Universe will be yours.
A wealth of dual targets fill the January skies.
Both naked-eye and telescopic sights are available to observers
every evening beginning after sunset.
For the next dual access target on this tour, you need to look slightly higher up into the sky out above the Hunter’s Bow and capture his prey, Taurus, the Bull. Under a clear and dark sky, your eye will immediately be drawn to the Seven Sisters, also known as M-45, or the Pleiades Cluster. Another of the sky’s many eye-tests, count the number of sisters you can see without any optical aid. At one time, the earliest stargazers counted seven stars in this famous asterism. Adding a pair of binoculars or a small telescope from your Lawnchair arsenal, you’ll be astonished to learn that the cluster is actually comprised of dozens and dozens of bright blue super giants.
In Taurus you can also hunt for the first of Messier’s list of deep-sky-objects. M-1 or the Crab Nebula is quite dim and the larger the instrument you can bring to bare, the better your chances to capture this often elusive trophy. What’s also interesting about the Crab Nebula, is that it is also associated with one of the first pulsars ever discovered. Both an optical and radio object, it is the remnant of what is believed to have once been a massive star that exploded into a super-nova nearly a thousand years ago in 1054. What we see today is the debris that was left behind. Where once, a sun hundreds of times more massive than our own, commanded the attention of its closest neighbors, now is nothing more than an 11 light-year-wide field of sinuous gas and dust clouds. Within the radio spectrum, the Crab Pulsar, early on thought to perhaps be a sentient signal from an alien race, spins like a Ferrari-built lighthouse gone berserk, at over 30 pulses per second in both x-ray and gamma ray wave lengths. Fortunately for us, this highly energetic beacon is over six thousand light-years away.
Our next targets are to the east and closer to the horizon, where the constellation Cancer, made up of a set of three bright stars formed into an upside-down Y, is easily discerned. At its heart is the Beehive Cluster, which is visible as a nebulous patch to the naked-eye. Under slight magnification, it fits well within a wide angle lens view in binoculars or a small telescope. Once your eyes begin to take in the sight, you’ll realize how its name came about.
And lastly, Mars, the easily recognizable red-masked interloper to Cancer’s east is also both a telescopic and naked-eye target. Under a dark sky, the telescopic view is again, a dramatic sight. As you add magnification, you’ll recognize the lightening at the poles and perhaps even some of Percival Lowell’s canals.
Though the winter season has drastically curtailed the Lawnchair’s willingness to embark on late night adventures out into the frozen tundra, the sun sets so early that a late afternoon, pre-din-din peek, up into a clear, dark sky from a potentially snow-encrusted Lawnchair, is still absolutely possible and, guaranteed to provide some excellent dinner conversation.
Clear Skies!
The Lawnchair Astronomer
Read Past Year's Column
