The Night Sky Naturalist

Golden Pond Observatory - Copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

Saturday, 27 April 2012, was Astronomy Day at the Golden Pond Planetarium and Observatory. WKAA club members set up their scopes (and helped run the observatory scope) to look at the Sun and Moon throughout the day. We started with a mostly cloudy sky offering 10 second peeks at the sun between 10 minutes of clouds, but the clouds slowly dissipated allowing longer and longer viewing times. In the observatory, we set up the Coronado 40mm H-alpha scope to look at solar prominences while outside we set up scopes with glass and mylar solar filters for viewing sunspots. Solar activity is increasing and we were able to show the public some sunspots and quite a few prominences. Several people took pictures of the sun through the scopes with their digital cameras and cell phone cameras with varying degrees of success. My daughter, Merrilee, took the one below through the Coronado. Click on the image to view a higher resolution version with several prominences visible.

Sun through Coronado 40mm H-Alpha - Copyright (c) 2012 Merrilee Vickers Graf. Used by permission.

In the afternoon, a couple of us set up on the Moon as well, so we would have something else to show. People seem to never tire of looking at the Moon. I think they relate more to an object with features they can recognize like craters and mountains. Kids, especially, kept coming back for second and third looks.

I tried to find Venus through binoculars but could not locate it. I didn’t know precisely where to look and the sky was still somewhat hazy with some high, thin clouds.

Over 400 people attended, mostly in small groups that came throughout the day – not too bad. We probably would have had more if the bridge over Kentucky Lake wasn’t out. There were also free planetarium shows and activities for kids and adults inside the Visitor’s Center.

Be sure to come to one (or more) of our “Summer Nights” events from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They are held on selected Saturday nights and WKAA members will be on hand (weather permitting) with their telescopes. Contact the Planetarium for a schedule.

Gemma Frisius - Copyright (c) 2012 by Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

I have uploaded my sketches and notes from the Astronomical League’s Lunar I list to the Lunar Sketches page. There are only thirteen pages but there are multiple links per page. These were done from 1 March 2004 until 1 October 2005.

Planetary Nebula NGC 6781 Copyright (c) 2012 by Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

 Well, I got so inspired by getting the Messier and Caldwell sketches uploaded that I decided to add the Herschel 400 sketches, too. This was a little more of an undertaking as there were over 400 links to set up, but it is finally done. Look on the Herschel 400 Sketches page for an explanation of the observing project. Scroll to the bottom of the page for all the links to the sketches in NGC number order.

Observing and sketching the Herschel 400 turned out to be a two year deep sky adventure from 10 March 2004 until 30 June 2006. The inspiration was mainly from an article by Tom Polakis in the June 1995 issue of Astronomy magazine entitled Deep-Sky on Four a Day. Tom had not only observed but had also sketched the Herschel 400 averaging four per night over 100 nights. These are the best and brightest of the nearly 2500 objects that Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline observed in the mid –to-late 1700’s and early 1800’s.

It has been fun looking back through my Herschel 400 “journal.” It certainly brings back some very good memories of time well spent — memories of cold, frosty nights with snow on the observatory roof as well as warm summer nights alive with cicadas and tree frogs.

I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Globular Cluster C25 (NGC 2419) "The Intergalactic Wanderer" / (c) Copyright 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

 In addition to my Messier sketches, I have now uploaded all my Caldwell catalogue sketches to the page: Caldwell Sketches. The Caldwell catalogue was compiled by British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore (whose surname is actually Caldwell-Moore) in 1995 to provide observers a new set of deep sky objects to augment the Messier catalogue. They are what Moore considers to be the best 109 viewing targets in both the northern and southern skies, excluding the Messiers. There are many striking objects on this list as well as several challenging ones. He includes a broad range of object types, and I have sketched all that are visible (75) from my observatory location in western Tennessee. These sketches were done between 31 March 2002 and 15 February 2004.

Observing sky phenomena is easy. It requires nothing but our attention. Unfortunately, for far too much of my life, I paid little or no attention. Except for an occasional rainbow or sundog, I remained blissfully unaware even of the existence of many of these not-so-unusual sights. Only after reading Fred Schaaf’s excellent book Seeing the Sky did I realize their abundance and variety.

Here are a couple more photos. The first is a sun pillar, taken just before sunrise in February of last year. It is a shaft of light extending upward from the sun (in this case about ten or twelve degrees) created by the reflection of the sunlight off of ice crystals in the sky.

Sun Pillar 9 February 2011 / Copyright 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

The second photo is a 22 degree solar halo. I saw this one morning while driving to work in March of last year. It appeared as a complete halo except for a small segment at the bottom which was below the horizon. The inner edge was tinged with red and the sky inside the halo appeared darker than the sky outside. Once again, ice crystals in the atmosphere are the cause. They both reflect and refract the sunlight.

22 degree solar halo 2 March 2011 / Copyright 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

… beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.

— Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Crescent Moon and Venus in Daylight / Copyright 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

About 1:45pm CST today (26 February 2012) I went out to look for Venus and Jupiter in daylight. I had found Venus yesterday afternoon (4pm) about two to three degrees (two finger widths held at arm’s length) to the lower left of the crescent Moon. I was not able to spot Jupiter which was about ten degrees higher in the sky. A little later (about 4:45pm) I went back out and after repeated attempts finally found it in binoculars, though I was still unable to see it naked eye. Later still, about sunset (5:40pm) I was finally able to see Jupiter naked eye, even without help from binoculars.

Today, I could still find Venus about seven degrees (less than a fist width at arm’s length) to the right and a little down from the Moon. It was really pretty easy and I spotted it quickly. Again, I looked for Jupiter but could not find it even in binoculars (7×35). It helps to stand in the shadow of a building to block the Sun. I took the above picture with my Canon Power Shot digital camera.

There are many interesting things to look at (or for) in the daytime sky besides the sun. There are various halos, arcs, sundogs, pillars, and other light phenomena that are more common than you might think. Most of these are caused by sunlight (or, at night, moonlight) reflecting or refracting through ice crystals in high cirrus or cirrostratus cloud layers.

I have tried to make a habit of glancing at the sky whenever I am outdoors, especially when there are high, thin clouds of the cirrus type in front of the sun. A few days ago at work, I was crossing the street from our warehouse to our office building in the late afternoon when I noticed these types of clouds. I immediately looked for sundogs (bright rainbow patches of light at least 22 degrees to either side of the sun and parallel to the horizon) but I didn’t see any. So, I glanced upward to a spot halfway from the sun to the zenith. I had looked to this particular spot dozens of times in the past seeking a phenomenon called the circumzenithal arc but had never seen it. This time, however, my persistence was rewarded with a small but distinct upside down rainbow not more than two or three degrees wide. I stood there for a minute, transfixed by this ethereal vision, until I thought, “Camera! I need to take a picture.” I hurried to my car, got the camera, and snapped this shot.

Circumzenithal Arc / Copyright 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.

It’s dim, but look near the center where the jet vapor crosses. The clouds scudded across the sky and the arc didn’t last long. Like the smile of the Cheshire cat, it faded in and out and finally disappeared altogether.