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Location: Tech Terrace Park, June 24, 2007 Conditions: started with many clouds, gradually clearing. Moon 2 days past FQ with a large mosquito population, ameliorated by DEET Don Fritz: 12.5” dobsonian, 10mm Antares Elite
Plossl I arrived moments before Don & Jan Fritz, followed by Travis Brown and a couple of vans full of Upward Bound students. Before we were set up, the young people were off the Park track rim and heading down toward us. With all the rains, the trees make excellent barriers to the streetlights with their abundant foliage. Of course, the rains have also produced a plethora of mosquitoes, and they were out in full. I was unable to get steady views of anything as I swatted the tiny winged terrorists lighting on my skin. Given all the cloud cover in the West and toward the ecliptic’s meridian, Jupiter was the first target we could see. I hurriedly struggled to put it in my eyepiece, having finally aligned my scope and turned on the clock drive. My alignment was done with a compass before the sun was completely down, so no Polaris in my polar alignment finder -- a guess. But mercifully, the tracking worked fairly well for the short evening. I was unable to get Jupiter in the eyepiece with my 9mm BO/TMB Planetary, so out it went and in went the parfocal 25mm Antares Elite Plossl. I liked the tiny orb with four Galilean moons clearly visible and even banding at the low 22-power magnification. The sky was still quite blue with the sunset not 40 minutes past. The 9mm BO/TMB went back in for 61-power, a darker image, and certainly more interesting results, especially for our novice crowd. Begin the oooh’s and aaah’s. And the line behind my refractor (Don was still getting his big dob configured) gave me a few minutes to walk downwind (northwest of the scopes) and spray myself down with DEET activated repellent. Travis Brown noticed and asked if he could have a spray, too, so we both got our dose of insect protection. Proved quite useful for me, personally. And Travis brought the group some fantastic news. At 9:40, the International Space Station was to travel from the northwest to the southeast. He had heard we’d get a 45 degree height angle, well above Polaris. Man, was he right! The ISS seemed to almost pass the zenith as it rose quite high and rapidly moved almost the entire breadth of the sky from the northeast, disappearing in the deep southeast, well south and east of Jupiter. What a show! Of course, we discussed the timeliness of this with the young people, especially the girls, explaining that Sonny Williams, a NASA astronaut, had just returned from there having set the longest-stay-in-space record for any woman. A timely apparition indeed! The clouds began to clear a bit, and Venus was finally visible, so while the lines continued on Don’s big dob for Jupiter, I put the little refractor on the Goddess of Love. Venus is MUCH more interesting these days than it was just a few weeks ago. Although I’ve read about it and seen images of it in Sky & Telescope, there’s nothing like seeing the phases of Venus at the eyepiece. The crescent nature of the image is now quite remarkable. Reading about it does the experience no justice. Might as well read about a bicycle. Nothing beats the thrill of the wind in your face as you glide down the road, and the same is true of Venus in this crescent phase. A stunning, underappreciated delight. Of course, no views of this June’s night sky would be complete without majestic Saturn, and this group would certainly agree with that point of view after Sunday night. Saturn appeals like no other target, with its three dimensional effect wowing crowd after crowd, and the Upward Bounders were no different. After everyone had seen Saturn in my scope and were moving on to Don’s big dob, I put the 80mm on a double star I’ve read a lot about but haven’t gone after too much myself. Gamma Leonis, or Algieba, is a 130 light-year distant pairing of K0 and G7 stars with 4.6” of separation. I found the 9mm a bit weak, not clearly separating the pair, so in went the BO/TMB 8mm. It’s less than 8-power greater than the 9mm, but the difference at the eyepiece was significant. I didn’t return to the 9mm the rest of the night, and the 8mm made the barely perceptible double in the 9 stand out as two close, but separate stars. Jan even noticed the color variation the pair is famous for. I put the refractor back on Saturn again, and the image really did look nice in the 8mm. A few people enjoyed the improved view with me. But then, the clouds finally cleared y ¡la Luna! The moon’s effect on a crowd is Saturnial. In the 8mm, the clarity and spectacular detail of the terminator really made me proud. Travis, who’d said goodnight some time before but got started talking to UB tour leader Valerie Martinez, couldn’t resist one peak at the moon. After the kids looked, even Don noted the ease and clarity of the BO/TMBs and I have to agree. After the people left, Don, Jan and I talked for a while. I called Neetu who had dropped me off and dutifully gone to TTU to continue her work on her Dissertation presentation for this coming Wednesday. Travis, Don & Jan had all wished her well when she left around 9:15, and she appreciated the thought. The UB young folk had a good time taking pictures by the scopes in the Park and appeared to enjoy themselves. I sure hope some of them were inspired by the night’s events. Valerie and the rest of the chaperones did a great job, but the students themselves were wonderful -- full of life and vitality, and curious about the universe, which we were graced to show them a small slice of.
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