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ISS
I missed seeing the Inspiration 4 Falcon 9 rocket by a few minutes but I did capture a picture of the ISS just above Jupiter & Saturn.
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Intro. to Amateur Astronomy given by the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society president Richard Bell
Jeffrey Thornton
Just an FYI. This is an email I received from Richard Bell regarding the Introduction to Astronomy course :
Hello, Amateur Astronomers.
Thanks to everyone that attended (or at least registered) for the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society's five-part Introduction to Amateur Astronomy lecture series earlier this year. That installment far exceeded our expectations. I am happy to announce that the series will return online in early 2022. We're tentatively planning to begin on January 15th. Registration will likely begin in late October or early November. We will be contacting everyone that registered for the previous installment and astronomy clubs around the country.
The main purpose of this email is to inform you about another "semester" of my 11-week Introduction to Astronomy course. Many of you expressed interest in taking this college-level 101-style course in the Fall and I'm happy to announce it will begin on Tuesday, September 28th. Please download the syllabus for full details about the course. Here are the key points to know:
Please feel free to contact me with questions or to register. Thanks and clear skies!
Richard Bell
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Re: Patterson Observatory (Sierra Vista AZ)
We think its pretty cool – I’ve even had feedback from NASA! Patterson is a member of the NASA Museum Alliance and the administrator of that program wrote me to tell me how neat he thought it was! (By the way, that NASA rep is Jeff Nee of JPL and he grew up in Virginia Beach – remembers the Virginia Beach Planetarium.)
So, as payment for the tour, I’m supposed to mention that it was produced by the MA-VR-X Lab at CAST (University of Arizona’s College of Applied Science and Technology) and it resides on a US Army server. That’s at Fort Waa Chew Ka, Chuck. By the way, if you have a copy of the movie Scent of a Woman (1992), Al Pacino mentions Fort Huachuca and pronounces it correctly.
Everything here, it seems, is named either Huachuca or Cochise.
Ted
From: BackBayAstro@groups.io <BackBayAstro@groups.io> On Behalf Of charles jagow
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 6:04 AM To: BackBayAstro@groups.io Subject: Re: [BackBayAstro] Patterson Observatory (Sierra Vista AZ)
Ted,
Just now wandered around the online Patterson Observatory, very familiar controls for anyone “house-hunting” these days, very good job and well thought out stopping points. I thoroughly enjoyed it and with the ability to zoom in almost anywhere, it was like being there in person. I wonder if we could set something like this up in Kent’s garage, just to view the number and variety of telescopes?
v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
From: <BackBayAstro@groups.io> on behalf of Ted Forte <tedforte511@...>
I have probably mentioned the Patterson Observatory a few times on this forum. I’ve been “Director” at this observatory since 2013. It’s sort of the club house for our astronomy club and a center of many of our outreach events. It’s pretty much my second home here.
The 3D tour of the observatory was created by Ryan Straight, a professor at the University of Arizona, College of Applied Science and Technology cyber program. I hope you enjoy it.
Ted BBAA Southwest
v/r v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
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Re: Patterson Observatory (Sierra Vista AZ)
Waa-chew-ka
From: BackBayAstro@groups.io <BackBayAstro@groups.io> On Behalf Of charles jagow
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 5:58 AM To: BackBayAstro@groups.io Subject: Re: [BackBayAstro] Patterson Observatory (Sierra Vista AZ)
Ted,
How should a nearly blind and bald dude pronounce Huachuca?
v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
From: <BackBayAstro@groups.io> on behalf of Ted Forte <tedforte511@...>
I have probably mentioned the Patterson Observatory a few times on this forum. I’ve been “Director” at this observatory since 2013. It’s sort of the club house for our astronomy club and a center of many of our outreach events. It’s pretty much my second home here.
The 3D tour of the observatory was created by Ryan Straight, a professor at the University of Arizona, College of Applied Science and Technology cyber program. I hope you enjoy it.
Ted BBAA Southwest
v/r v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
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Re: Patterson Observatory (Sierra Vista AZ)
Ted,
Just now wandered around the online Patterson Observatory, very familiar controls for anyone “house-hunting” these days, very good job and well thought out stopping points. I thoroughly enjoyed it and with the ability to zoom in almost anywhere, it was like being there in person. I wonder if we could set something like this up in Kent’s garage, just to view the number and variety of telescopes?
v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
From: <BackBayAstro@groups.io> on behalf of Ted Forte <tedforte511@...>
I have probably mentioned the Patterson Observatory a few times on this forum. I’ve been “Director” at this observatory since 2013. It’s sort of the club house for our astronomy club and a center of many of our outreach events. It’s pretty much my second home here.
The 3D tour of the observatory was created by Ryan Straight, a professor at the University of Arizona, College of Applied Science and Technology cyber program. I hope you enjoy it.
Ted BBAA Southwest -- v/r v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
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Re: Patterson Observatory (Sierra Vista AZ)
Ted,
How should a nearly blind and bald dude pronounce Huachuca?
v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
From: <BackBayAstro@groups.io> on behalf of Ted Forte <tedforte511@...>
I have probably mentioned the Patterson Observatory a few times on this forum. I’ve been “Director” at this observatory since 2013. It’s sort of the club house for our astronomy club and a center of many of our outreach events. It’s pretty much my second home here.
The 3D tour of the observatory was created by Ryan Straight, a professor at the University of Arizona, College of Applied Science and Technology cyber program. I hope you enjoy it.
Ted BBAA Southwest -- v/r v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
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Re: Observing Jupiter & Saturn
The seeing here was poor could barely see cloud bands on Jupiter, the Cassini division was on vacation…
Early Wednesday morning, checking out Orion in my 20” and the seeing was worse than the previous evening. It sure looked nice and sparkly in the 38 degree morning temps here on my driveway.
v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
Despite hazy skies Tuesday night the seeing was incredible. Saturn and Jupiter looked better than I have ever seen them in the 25”. Saturn was 3-D like at 250x. Color filters often help to see details in Jupiter’s belts. I often use a green filter such as a Wratten 56 or 58. Just by chance I tried a Lumicon Comet filter. You won’t believe how much intricate belt detail is visible with that filter. If you have such a filter look at Jupiter the next time you’re observing. -- v/r v/r Chuck Jagow Member – Dark Skies of The Wet Mountain Valley Member - Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Member – San Diego Astronomy Association Member – Colorado Springs Astronomy Association Future Verde Mont Observatory Gone... Rott'n Paws Observatory
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Oh a different satellite report
jimcoble2000
Forgot to mention last night we saw a satellite passing under the moon which would normally not merit comment but as it went under the moon it lit up quite brightly. Those of you who have spent some time under the skies can recall the Iridium constellation of satellites that flared and then faded on a remarkably predictable schedule. All those are now de-orbited so it is odd to see a satellite flare and fade now. I suppose that the moon's light was reflected off the solar panels when the satellite came into the right window to reflect lunar reflected light. Double reflected light so to speak. The satellite faded quickly after passing away from the moon.
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Photo of Jupiter
jimcoble2000
The photo sourced from the internet site Spaceweather shows the two dark ovals we saw tonight. There was definitely no remnant of the impact tonight as we observed that area for hours.
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Re: Observing Jupiter & Saturn
jimcoble2000
Thanks for a great night. It was a planet night for sure. We saw a blizzard of Saturn's moons in the 25. I was able to see three of the faint moons close to the planet in the five inch. I would not have believed that a comet filter showed what it did on Jupiter. It is sort of a supercharged 56 or 58 green on steroids. Very rarely seen bands in the polar region were accessible tonight in traditional green and the comet filter. Between the main two equatorial belts the comet filter showed many details not visible under normal conditions. I followed the red spot across the planet tonight for a few hours. The goal was to see if perhaps any trace of the reported impact could be seen. It seems to have left no trace but there was so much else to see that the chase was worth it. Two very dark ovals were visible in the northern equatorial belt. The great red spot is a bit pale this year but the Southern Equatorial belt is intense red. There is dark turbulence in front of the red spot. Jupiter rotates at quite high speed so it only took about 4.5 hours to watch it traverse the face tonight. We visited Neptune in the 25 inch and I believe we saw Triton tonight with averted vision. I have seen it several times in dark skies with an 18 inch scope and maybe my 12.5 . In the 25 it took careful observation from the suburbs but it was in the correct position and right magnitude 13.5. The sky looked terrible at 7 but by midnight things had progressed nicely.
On Tuesday, September 14, 2021, 11:28:06 PM EDT, Kent Blackwell <kent@...> wrote:
Despite hazy skies Tuesday night the seeing was incredible. Saturn and Jupiter looked better than I have ever seen them in the 25”. Saturn was 3-D like at 250x. Color filters often help to see details in Jupiter’s belts. I often use a green filter such as a Wratten 56 or 58. Just by chance I tried a Lumicon Comet filter. You won’t believe how much intricate belt detail is visible with that filter. If you have such a filter look at Jupiter the next time you’re observing.
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Re: Possible Jupiter impact
jimcoble2000
After observing Jupiter tonight for 4 hours I saw no trace of any unusual remnants from the reported impact. The site rotated on the face around 0000. While detail was excellent no trace of impact was seen.
On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 12:44:44 AM EDT, galacticprobe via groups.io <lambulambu@...> wrote:
Looks like there's no "maybe" about this one. I saw a notice in my SpaceWeather e-newsletter after reading the post. They've got some details on the impact at
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=15&month=09&year=2021. (I've included the full url in case someone doesn't get a chance to view the article today. If I just put up the main url (https://spaceweather.com/) and someone visits it on the 16th, they'll get whatever news is posted for that day. That said, there is a red "archives" date selection just to the right of the article so you can view past items of interest. Simply choose the month, day, and year, from the pull-down selection and then click the "view" button.)
"Keep looking up!"
Dino.
-----Original Message----- From: jimcoble2000 via groups.io <jimcoble2000@...> To: kentblackwell <kent@...>; Roy Diffrient <mail@...>; BBAA-Group <backbayastro@groups.io> Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2021 4:14 pm Subject: [BackBayAstro] Possible Jupiter impact It may be that something hit Jupiter last night. I saw no indications of anything unusual but maybe we should monitor the planet for the next few days. May change or may not but it would be a pity to miss a repeat of the great impact years ago.
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Re: Possible Jupiter impact
Looks like there's no "maybe" about this one. I saw a notice in my SpaceWeather e-newsletter after reading the post. They've got some details on the impact at
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=15&month=09&year=2021. (I've included the full url in case someone doesn't get a chance to view the article today. If I just put up the main url (https://spaceweather.com/) and someone visits it on the 16th, they'll get whatever news is posted for that day. That said, there is a red "archives" date selection just to the right of the article so you can view past items of interest. Simply choose the month, day, and year, from the pull-down selection and then click the "view" button.)
"Keep looking up!"
Dino.
-----Original Message-----
From: jimcoble2000 via groups.io <jimcoble2000@...> To: kentblackwell <kent@...>; Roy Diffrient <mail@...>; BBAA-Group <backbayastro@groups.io> Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2021 4:14 pm Subject: [BackBayAstro] Possible Jupiter impact It may be that something hit Jupiter last night. I saw no indications of anything unusual but maybe we should monitor the planet for the next few days. May change or may not but it would be a pity to miss a repeat of the great impact years ago.
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Observing Jupiter & Saturn
Despite hazy skies Tuesday night the seeing was incredible. Saturn and Jupiter looked better than I have ever seen them in the 25”. Saturn was 3-D like at 250x. Color filters often help to see details in Jupiter’s belts. I often use a green filter such as a Wratten 56 or 58. Just by chance I tried a Lumicon Comet filter. You won’t believe how much intricate belt detail is visible with that filter. If you have such a filter look at Jupiter the next time you’re observing.
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Possible Jupiter impact
jimcoble2000
It may be that something hit Jupiter last night. I saw no indications of anything unusual but maybe we should monitor the planet for the next few days. May change or may not but it would be a pity to miss a repeat of the great impact years ago.
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Re: The sky for the last two nights
I stand by my opinion seeing is often better in cities than dark sky sites. Too bad we can't see stars fainter than magnitude 3.5 naked-eye.
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Re: The sky for the last two nights
jimcoble2000
Yes a fair bit of humidity but good temp. Of course seeing is so local so results may vary with user.
On Monday, September 13, 2021, 10:20:58 PM EDT, Ian Stewart <ian@...> wrote:
Oh and 71 degrees and 83 percent humidity On Sep 13, 2021, at 10:05 PM, Ian Stewart <ian@...> wrote:
Yep seeing a little iffy tonight. I got 21.58 on the sky meter. Moon was a little reddish. Good views along the terminator though. Alpine valley was great and a stellar view of Aristillus. Jupiter was ok Saturn seemed better. Cassini was no problem, no Encke though. Out viewing in September in t shirt and shorts. Cheers Ian On Sep 13, 2021, at 8:43 PM, jimcoble2000 via groups.io <jimcoble2000@...> wrote:
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Re: The sky for the last two nights
jimcoble2000
We had exactly the same night. Seeing was pretty good here. I was wondering about transparency as my view of that is not so good. Nice temperature and that was good. Oh by the way I used the vibration dampers with the tripod. The scope does settle out quicker after I move it. just one or two oscillations and then steady. The discs don't prevent a bit of shake but it goes away quickly. Lets see what the night looks like tonight.
On Monday, September 13, 2021, 10:48:41 PM EDT, Kent Blackwell <kent@...> wrote:
I briefly rolled out the 25". Transparency was awful but seeing was amazing. Wow, Saturn's image looked refractor-like in the 25”. I counted 6 moons. Jupiter was nearly equal. Using a Wratten 58A green filter several thin bands between the NEB and SEB stood out quiet prominently.
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Re: The sky for the last two nights
I briefly rolled out the 25". Transparency was awful but seeing was amazing. Wow, Saturn's image looked refractor-like in the 25”. I counted 6 moons. Jupiter was nearly equal. Using a Wratten 58A green filter several thin bands between the NEB and SEB stood out quite prominently.
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Re: The sky for the last two nights
Ian Stewart
Oh and 71 degrees and 83 percent humidity
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
On Sep 13, 2021, at 10:05 PM, Ian Stewart <ian@...> wrote:
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Re: The sky for the last two nights
Ian Stewart
Yep seeing a little iffy tonight. I got 21.58 on the sky meter. Moon was a little reddish. Good views along the terminator though. Alpine valley was great and a stellar view of Aristillus. Jupiter was ok Saturn seemed better. Cassini was no problem, no Encke though. Out viewing in September in t shirt and shorts.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
Cheers Ian
On Sep 13, 2021, at 8:43 PM, jimcoble2000 via groups.io <jimcoble2000@...> wrote:
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