Stars 'n' Bugs

[Skylook123]

Due to some health reasons, a lot of outreach, and preparing for the Grand Canyon Star Party I've been quite scarce around these parts lately, but I thought I'd scribble a few notes about a special outreach event we had on Saturday, April 30th; a combined "star party" and "insect party" at Tucson, Arizona's Ironwood Picnic Area, hosted by the Pima County Natural Resources Parks & Recreation.  In my typical commentary on observing sessions with the public, "insect party" would be some sort of tongue-in-cheek dig about the session's environment but this time, the event was a joint educational outreach by PCNRPR, a chance to raise environmental awareness in two areas concurrently; the night sky, and the insect life after dark.

Despite the weather conditions that looked impossible for night sky viewing, I decided to show up for a couple of reasons.  First, there were five of us from Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association scheduled to bring telescopes.  Usually, we support PCNRPR at Ironwood with three, or even only two telescopes, which seem a good number to serve the number of visitors attending.  With the setup area being a pullout at a rest room facility, when we've done more than three scopes in the past, it's been very tight to get the scopes set up and still have room for a group of guests to participate.  With five scheduled, I thought I would come early and talk with the Park Rangers regarding how we could best use the space and parking.  Second, the weather forecasts promised a clear sky after 7 PM, so I thought I'd take a chance on the sky conditions.  I was mulling over that decision on the 24 mile drive down to Ironwood from north Marana, with quite a bit of rain as I drove down. 

I got to Ironwood about 6:00 PM, and there were remnants of final sprinkles as the cloud coverage eased from about 90% to 50% in about 20 minutes, so I had hopes.  The first ranger, Jeff, showed up not long after I did, so we spent some quality conversation time.  Then Fran and Axhel arrived and we waited for the public.  Wisely, none of the other astronomers showed up.  Contrary to weather forecasts, the sky kept to about 50-70% cloud cover.  No visitors appeared for quite a while, and with the clouds and high level moisture obscuring stars in most areas, I saw no reason to set up.  But just as astronomical twilight was deepening, two cars of "bug hunters" showed up.  PCNR staff unpacked the special UV lighting equipment and set up for their show time.  I hung around to learn about looking down, to go with the usual looking up.  The southern and western sky were clearing to overhead, Jupiter, Leo, Arcturus, and the area around Canis Major, Gemini, and Orion were appearing in the haze, and some of the visitors were remarking on Jupiter and the hunt was on for binoculars.  I said what the heck, and while more insect hunting and study was going on, I unpacked and set up my 10" SCT and Mallincam Xterminator to try to grab video on Jupiter and The Orion Nebula.  I was able to get Jupiter immediately in the camera, so we played with that for a while.  I had wanted to catch Jupiter's moon Io coming out of eclipse at 7:19 PM, but I didn't set up until after 8 so all four moons were available.  Nice disk about the size of a quarter, but not much definition to the Jovian bands; usually, I can drag in at least 12.  By then, the cloud cover was getting worse.  For a while, the Big Dipper was available but no Polaris to align on, and worse, the thick cloud cover started chasing Leo and Jupiter and all that could be seen in the western sky was a bit of Gemini, and some of Auriga.  And Jupiter was coming and going with the cloud movement.  One minute there, next minute winking out.  Normal Jovian shutter speeds are in the 1/2000 to 1/3000 seconds, but I had to keep adjusting and at times it took from 1/150 down to 1/30 seconds to even get the disk.  Meanwhile, the clouds just wiped out most of the sky.  I did a little talking about the ecliptic and zodiac, and the Big Dipper being the Hindu Elephant of Creation, and the Mizar double star lore for the Plains Indians and buffalo hunting, but huge sections of the sky were coming and going, mostly going.  Gemini, Leo, and Auriga were the only constellations I could point to.

But the insect study was fantastic.  The nine visitors we had really were enjoying the adventure, with one bringing his own pocket black light and finding a scorpion, while the other light setup was uncovering other discoveries, with a lot of enthusiasm all around us.  The temperature was pretty chill as the time wore on, and the visitors eventually left around 9 PM.  While I was packing up, the Rangers were talking about other naturalist outreach opportunities, including possible overnight sessions.  I talked about possibly using the camp out opportunities to consider on the naturalist front for PCNR, with possible sketching of  the night flora and fauna to go along with some astronomical night sky awareness.

I am REALLY glad I decided to show up; the enthusiasm of the small crowd along with the staff was really contagious.  And we did get a little observing in.  After a lot of conversation after the visitors left, by around 9:45 PM the sky was almost clear!  Three hours late, though.  I do love doing the Ironwood events, and now I have things to look for closer to our planet next time we support the events.

[Knighty2112]

Sounds like a nice event, even with the partial cloud cover. Bug hunt sounds intriguing, but not sure if finding a scorpion on a dark night is such a good idea! Living in the UK our insects are normally pretty small and tame. I'm sure the insect life in Arizona is much more vibrant in all ways!  

[Skylook123]

At night, scorpions, tarantulas, black widow spiders, and several other hazardous multi-legged threats stay away and avoid people, unless caution where one puts a hand is not followed.  I've had acquaintances who leave their equipment boxes open on the ground and find scorpions that found their way in, but couldn't get out.  Several times, both day and night, I've run into tarantulas on sidewalks and walls and they just don't care about people.  Pets, though, are at risk of being too doggone (pun intended) curious.  On one outreach at a campout for families at a museum, a fist sized tarantula took up residence on the men's bathroom door.  The staff couldn't get it to move with any amount of poking and prodding, so all that could be done is to warn people so that a night bathroom trip would not result in a premature event.

And we are always wary of rattlesnakes that are very common when out observing.  They don't always rattle, especially during molting when they are blind.  I've had a few of those show up at my outreaches, sometimes right in the middle of the waiting public!  Looking up is educational, looking down is a good idea as well.

[Knighty2112]

3 hours ago, Skylook123 said:

At night, scorpions, tarantulas, black widow spiders, and several other hazardous multi-legged threats stay away and avoid people, unless caution where one puts a hand is not followed.  I've had acquaintances who leave their equipment boxes open on the ground and find scorpions that found their way in, but couldn't get out.  Several times, both day and night, I've run into tarantulas on sidewalks and walls and they just don't care about people.  Pets, though, are at risk of being too doggone (pun intended) curious.  On one outreach at a campout for families at a museum, a fist sized tarantula took up residence on the men's bathroom door.  The staff couldn't get it to move with any amount of poking and prodding, so all that could be done is to warn people so that a night bathroom trip would not result in a premature event.

And we are always wary of rattlesnakes that are very common when out observing.  They don't always rattle, especially during molting when they are blind.  I've had a few of those show up at my outreaches, sometimes right in the middle of the waiting public!  Looking up is educational, looking down is a good idea as well.

Yikes! Remind me not to visit Arizona! Hehe!  

[Skylook123]

It's not THAT bad!  In over 20 years of Arizona outreach, often on the edge of town and in the desert, I've only seen one rattlesnake, sleeping in the sun by my equipment boxes, and two tarantulas, that are VERY passive and will even interact peacefully unless overly harassed.  This is with about 10 outreaches a month.  And all of the animal and insect life in Arizona is interesting to watch.  So many owl and hawk species, coyotes going about their lives, bats putting on air shows, geckos and lizards of all kinds, the occasional bobcat and my favorite, a large mountain lion that came past our setup spot one night, trailing a herd of free range cattle.  The only aggressive creature I've encountered is the massive numbers of mosquitoes at times.  But all the rest behave as though they are posing or avioiding, not threatening, if the observer just observes.  Looking down, or around, can be just as interesting as looking up.  All part of our home universe.

Come on over to our corner of the living world, but don't stay TOO long.  The desert is very fragile, and we abuse it far too much.