Observing Report, Catalina State Park, 10/26/2013

[Skylook123]

Once again the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association assisted Catalina State Park on Oracle Road with a night under the stars on Saturday night, October 26, our final of three CSP events for the year. We had about a dozen astronomers signed up to support an estimated 300 or so visitors, but a high and low pair of cirrus clouds rolled in from California and both numbers were not achieved; more like about eight astronomers and maybe 120 visitors participating in our environmental awareness function.

The goal of these events at CSP is to not only expose the visitors to wonders of the night sky, but to also stress the importance of maintaining and reclaiming the night sky. These gatherings generate a lot of conversation and exposure to the cosmology of our universe, but the protection of the night sky as well.

The State of Arizona Parks aggressively supports night sky events to raise the public awareness of the importance of protecting the night sky. Not to eliminate light, but to use it wisely.

This time I did not bring my 18" truss dob. I am trying to become familiar with live video display in order to serve the physically and visually handicapped attendees, and to give younger children an easier view of the objects in sight. I started out with a Mallincam Junior at the Grand Canyon Star Party, which proved to be such a success that I upgraded to a Mallincam Junior PRO, a quantum leap in capability. Rather than a limitation of four seconds of integration time, I can go as long as 99 minutes, but in the field it would be difficult to achieve the polar alignment required for such an ambitions undertaking. I did just fine on my several seconds of choice when needed, since it was first light for the PRO.

I got there well ahead of time in order to get the video setup organized. The strips of clouds were moving in from the west, so this was going to be a challenging evening, but not our first at this park. While the sun was still up, I collimated the Telrad on a distant ridge peak so that later pointing will be more precise.

Venus was found after sunset with difficulty visually due to the western cloud layer, but once I saw it I went to it, found it in a 50mm eyepiece in the visual back of the SCT, inserted the new camera and crossed my fingers. Son of a gun, there it was on the monitor. I fixed the camera settings a bit, turning off the integration and setting the shutter speed to about 1/3000 seconds, and there was the image of the half disk. Polar alignment was awful so I just did a close polar on Polaris when it appeared, and that fixed the drifting. Time to teach the phases of Venus, and how maximum elongation was coming up at the end of November as Venus raced ahead of us. Beginning of the year, it will be back to a morning star for much of 2014. I did a lot of experimenting with shutter speeds (ALC on the camera) and variable Zoom (took a bit of getting accustomed to the MCJR PRO using slide bar adjustability rather than just a yes/no or other type of binary choice of the Jr.)

As the Summer Triangle started to appear, Al Anzaldua was doing a great narration with his crowd, and started showing Albireo. As other constellations started to appear through the haze it was time to do my short walk around the sky.

For the sky tour I did my usual comparison of the circumpolar view among Greek, Navajo, and Egyptian cultures, with the precession of the pole from Thuban at the time of the pyramids to Polaris today, and the Big Dipper, Polaris, and Cassiopeia making the Navajo revolving family to indicate that wherever one travels, the focus should be on the family. Going back to the solar setting point and Venus, despite the cloud deck now obscuring the zodiacal elements, it was an opportunity to introduce the Greek concept of Zodiakos Kyklos (Cycle of Living things) which became translated into the Zodiac. So all we had was the already set Sun and setting Venus to introduce the zodiac/ecliptic concepts.

Since the Milky Way was visible overhead, we talked about the Seminole concept of the Great Rift representing that the Milky Way branches were the Arms of God to help their children overcome night fears, since they were protected by the grasp of God. That then allowed the introdution of the Navajo First Great One or Mother-in-Law (Scorpius), not visible in the cloud, and First Thin One or Son-in-Law (Orion) not yet risen, being on opposite sides of the sky. When a Navajo girl marries, her mother and husband can no longer see or speak to each other for the rest of their lives, so they are on opposite sides of the sky just as Zeus separated the scorpion and Orion for Greek mythology. Perseus, Pegasus, and Andromeda where in a clear spot in the sky so we touched on the Cassiopeia story, and Perseus carrying the head of the slain Medusa (the eclipsing binary Algol, or Al Ghul or Al Ghoul in Semitic languages, the evil eye or Satan), using it when necessary to complete the legend of saving Andromeda.

Got back to the scope, switched over to align on Schedar (the top point star in Cassiopeia), and jumped down to The Owl cluster. I changed the camera parameters from fast shutter speed to integrating at 2.1 seconds. The wired controller box is SO easy to use for the On Screen Display adjustments compared to having to use the small buttons on the back of the MCJR! I was curious how the 2.1 seconds maximum available time through the wired controller (can go to 99 minutes with the wireless additional controller) would work on The Owl, and it was absolutely perfect for that night. All that was present was The Owl itself (well, upside down so it was The Bat for us, or ET, or Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, or The Kachina Doll) even though we were looking into the Milky Way! I was using an f/6.3 reducer on the SCT, and added a 0.5X Antares reducer to the camera nose piece, and it was a perfect size for the monitor. So, for the rest of the night, we talked open clusters, their formation, the age and distance of The Owl's elements, that their huge size and short life ahead. Later in the evening, a travelling group from Chicago dropped in, as well as a group of very young Cub Scouts, and we had a lot of fun talking everything astronomical. Actually, the Chicago group hung out until 10 PM, and were great to work with, discussing everything from galaxy creation, black holes, stellar evolution, Brian May from Queen having a PhD in Astronomy, Adler Planetarium's Star of Wonder Christmas show, amazing experience. What a great night! Thus ends a string of about five events in two weeks. One more to go - Halloween in front of the house.

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report, Jim. These sound like lovely gatherings. I have some vague plans to come over to the states in the summer of 2017 (there is a total eclipse on August 21, I think), and a (re)visit to Arizona, Utah and Colorado and all their wonderful landscapes and night skies would certainly be on the cards.  I'll certainly drop you a line, should I be in your neck of the woods, as I would love to visit such an event!

[Skylook123]

Great report, Jim. These sound like lovely gatherings. I have some vague plans to come over to the states in the summer of 2017 (there is a total eclipse on August 21, I think), and a (re)visit to Arizona, Utah and Colorado and all their wonderful landscapes and night skies would certainly be on the cards.  I'll certainly drop you a line, should I be in your neck of the woods, as I would love to visit such an event!

Thanks, and great to hear from you again, Michael.   The date is correct, with a path from the Northwest through the middle of the country to the Southeast coast. 

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html

Which is a good thing!  August is the middle of our Mexican Monsoon: think daily/nightly thunderstorms for a two month period.  The eclipse path will skirt the northern edge of the eight or ten weeks of clouds and lightening.  Fun to watch.  Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Southwest Colorado will be limited  to astro-dreaming..  I'm afraid that  observing is quite a challenge that time of year, although some solar is occasionally possible.

We'll have to work out a visit.