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Astronomy contributing editor attends White House star party

Matt Quandt — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:53:00 GMT

Special guest blog from Contributing Editor Martin Ratcliffe

President Barack Obama and his family joined 150 school children, dozens of amateur astronomers, professional scientists, and education and public outreach professionals Wednesday night during the Star Party at the White House. And how cool was this? “Cool” doesn’t even come close. I was lucky to be a part of the exciting events running one of the planetarium domes set up on the South Lawn of the White House.

Thirty of us spent most of the day setting up for the 2-hour evening event. And weather cooperated except for some strong winds during the daytime. A more perfect night could not have been achieved, with crystal clear skies of the nation’s capital.

Crater impact experiments and samples of Moon rock provided great activities to highlight today’s LCROSS impact on the Moon. Many telescopes ranging from 2 to 18 inches were available. Dr. Stephen Pompea demonstrated the 2-inch Galileoscope, and he showed me a great view of Jupiter’s moons. Dean Koenig of the Starizona company brought his amazing f/2 Fastar imaging system, which showed one group of children a quick image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) right after they had seen M31 in my planetarium dome. The teacher had asked if they could see M31 directly, and I suggested they visit the Fastar scope and ask for a CCD image, and they saw it in all its glorious detail.

This unique night included special guests such as astronaut John Grunsfeld (Hubble servicing mission), Sally Ride (first American woman in space), Buzz Aldrin (second man on the Moon), and Charlie Bolden (NASA administrator, who helped launch Hubble from the cargo bay of the space shuttle).

White House staffers said presidents are not known to spend much time at events on the South Lawn. The Obamas spent more than an hour at the event, and the family showed a great deal of interest. They looked through telescopes at Jupiter and the Moon, and after his formal remarks, the president and first lady viewed the famous Double-Double in Lyra. As readers of Astronomy magazine know well, these objects are star party favorites.

Two planetarium domes were there, one supplied by Sky-Skan, Inc., a major digital planetarium supplier, and a second from Goddard Space Flight Center. The Obama family, daughters included, climbed into the Sky-Skan dome along with 25 school children, and they spent 10 minutes flying around the solar system and asked interesting questions. With two girls of my own, I know how important it is to expose your kids to science, and astronomy is a great way to do it. It was a great privilege to present the planetarium show for the president’s family, huddled as we were inside the 25-foot diameter dome.

Providing a cosmic perspective to young children is fun, engaging, and important, and bringing astronomy to the nation’s attention for a brief moment Wednesday night was the highlight of nearly 6 months of behind-the-scenes work by NASA educators, who, following encouragement from IYA organizers and many individuals to host a star party at the White House, were called in by the White House to plan the event.

Martin Ratcliffe, in addition to being a contributing editor to Astronomy magazine, is also Director of Professional Development for Sky-Skan.

Astronomy contributor images new Jupiter impact site

Karri Ferron — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:52:00 GMT

Astronomy magazine contributor and longtime imager John Chumack had some luck spotting the new Jupiter impact site from his home in Dayton, Ohio, July 24, and he was nice enough to share his account with us:

Even though the seeing sucked, and the sky was full of thick haze, I was able to capture the impact mark on Jupiter.

I shot these images with my ToUcam PRO II webcam attached to my 6-inch f/8 cave reflector from my front driveway last night.

Unfortunately, the neighbors’ trees block my view from my backyard 10-inch scope, with little time to capture it between about 11 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., so I dug out a small portable 6-inch scope to shoot it from my front yard.

I Stacked 643 frames out of 1800 in Registax. North is up in the images.

You can see the Great Red Spot (GRS) on the right edge of the first image (above) and the Little Red Spot (LRS) on the second image (to the right), just above the dark impact mark. Surprisingly, it is very noticeable in small telescopes.

I’ll have to try again with my DMK Firewire camera and a bigger scope when the sky is clearer and more stable!

Thanks, John!

Have you spotted or imaged the impact site? Vote in the poll on our home page and share your stories below.

Photos credit: John Chumack

Send us your astronomy questions

Liz Kruesi — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:05:00 GMT

Perplexed by planets? Confused by cosmology? Baffled by black holes? Then send in your questions to Astronomy magazine at askastro@astronomy.com.

If you have an astronomy question about observing, the planets, stars, cosmology, or astronomy history, send it in! Five are selected each month for publication in the Ask Astro section of Astronomy magazine. If your question is selected, we will forward it to an expert for his or her response. Then, the question and answer will appear together in a future issue. We may edit or revise your question for clarity.

We aren’t always able to respond to questions individually. But please keep the questions coming — they help us to learn what our readers are interested in, and what topics we should consider for future coverage in the magazine.

New videos: Springtime observing targets

Rich Talcott — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:10:00 GMT

In this video, I discuss the objects you can see with your naked eyes and binoculars in this spring’s sky. The season offers several bright planets, notable constellations, and bright deep-sky objects. You can locate all the night-sky sights I talk about with Astronomy.com's interactive star chart StarDome.

Watch the video, "Observe easy-to-find objects in the spring sky."

Venus

As darkness falls during the first half of March, your eyes will be drawn to the western sky. In the deepening twilight, Venus gleams like nothing else. You won’t have any trouble identifying the brilliant planet, which glows brighter than any other point of light in the sky. Venus passes between the Sun and Earth in late March, and will reappear in the east before dawn by mid-April.

Saturn

Beautiful Saturn also lies in the evening sky, although it doesn’t stand out like Venus. Look for Saturn among the background stars of Leo the Lion, where it glows as bright as that constellation’s brightest star, Regulus. Saturn will remain in the evening sky until late summer.

Mercury

Elusive Mercury puts on its best evening show of the year in the last 10 days of April. Watch for a bright point of light low in the west-northwest 30 to 45 minutes after the Sun sets. The easiest evening to spot it will be April 26, when it lies directly below a crescent Moon.

Jupiter

Meanwhile, Jupiter appears conspicuous in the morning sky during April and May. Look for it in the southeast around the time twilight starts to paint the sky. Only the planet Venus shines brighter than Jupiter.

The Big Dipper

Spring’s starry background has its own charm. Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere have a signpost in the spring sky: the bright asterism of the Big Dipper. Seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major the Great Bear create the Dipper’s shape. On spring evenings, the Dipper stands nearly overhead, at the center of this star chart.

Use the two stars at the end of the Dipper’s bowl, called the Pointers, to lead you to the North Star, Polaris. Extend the line between the Pointers (which lie at the bottom left of this photo), and extend it about five times that distance. Polaris is the brightest star in the Little Dipper and forms the tip of its handle.

Head back to the Big Dipper and take a close look at the middle star in the handle, called Mizar. If you have decent eyesight, you should see a fainter companion star just to its east. If you can’t see it, turn your binoculars on this star and its double nature will stand out.

Now, let’s use the Big Dipper to find some of spring’s other celestial delights.

If you follow the arc of the Dipper’s handle away from the bowl, you’ll soon arrive at Arcturus — the brightest star in the spring sky. Continue the arc about an equal distance and you’ll find Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Spica dominates this sprawling constellation, and has the distinction of being the bluest of all 1st-magnitude stars. When it comes to stars, blue means hot, and Spica’s surface blazes at a temperature nearly four times hotter than the Sun.

Next, head back to the Big Dipper, and imagine poking a hole in the bottom of its bowl. The water would flow out and fall on the back of Leo the Lion. Leo consists of two distinctive sections: A group of six stars on the right that looks like a backward question mark, and three stars on the left that form a right triangle. Remember that Saturn augments the Lion’s shape this year, just below the pattern seen here.

Our final stop in the spring sky lies one constellation west of Leo, in the faint group known as Cancer the Crab. Smack in the middle of this constellation lies perhaps the spring sky’s finest binocular target: the Beehive star cluster (M44). On exceptionally clear nights from a dark site, you might spot the Beehive with your naked eyes. Binoculars reveal the cluster’s true nature. Through 10x50 binoculars, you should be able to see at least two dozen stars packed into a circle some three times wider than the Full Moon. It’s a sight you won’t soon forget.

We’ve created two more videos like this one to help you enjoy everything the springtime sky has to offer.

Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich’s video “Springtime observing for small telescopes” highlights this year’s best springtime targets you can see with a 4-inch or smaller telescope.

Astronomy magazine Editor Dave Eicher’s video “Springtime observing for large telescopes, 2009” highlights this year’s best springtime deep-sky objects you can see with an 8-inch or larger telescope. Both of these videos are available for Astronomy magazine subscribers at Astronomy.com/videos.

I’ll be back again this summer to talk about what’s on view during the warmest nights of the year.