The last two nights I spent my time at two observatories located near Calgary. On Friday night the sky was quite cloudy and there was not much opportunity to observe. However, we did have a class on cleaning eyepieces and an in depth review of the Explore the Universe certificate. After the class we went into the dome and used the C-14 telescope to take a good look at Jupiter. It was still low in the sky so it was affected by bad seeing. The Messier Marathon was hosted the next day at the Wilson Coulee Observatory. The skies were absolutely amazing. I'm waiting to hear feedback on the success of the event. I'm hoping that no feedback at the time of writing means they were up all night trying to pull in as many Messier objects as possible.
Update: 8" Goto telescope pulled in 100 of 110 on the list. Manual 85mm refractor pulled in 94.
Another event on Saturday was the monthly open house at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory. This was a wonderful opportunity to reach out to the public and show them the sky. I brought my 8" reflector with various eyepieces but ended up strictly relying on my 25mm for maximum field of view.
The viewing started when the Sun was still up. We all pointed our telescopes toward Moose Mountain as Venus was just above. Less than 16 hours prior, Venus was at inferior conjunction with the Sun. Venus was an extremely slim waxing crescent that was at its 'New' phase earlier in the day. It was a remarkable sight. More remarkable was actually finding a planet on the day of its conjunction with the Sun.
As Venus set, Mercury started to appear in the sky. At this time of year it is very easy to see; I was surprised. Find a clear view of the western horizon 30 minutes after sunset and you will be guaranteed to see it.
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| Mercury |
It was awhile until the skies darkened to see the stars poke out but there was an incredible iridium flare (-8.4 magnitude) that burst into view at our zenith. The crowd was in a frenzy, they had never seen such a remarkable sight. I'm scheduling a iridium flare photo shoot later in the week.
When the sky darkened I focused my telescope onto the Orion Nebula. It was the first time many have actually seen a nebula through a telescope. It did not disappoint. Throughout the night it kept getting brighter and brighter. M43 was easily seen above the great nebula without any filter.
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| M42, M43 |
After everyone had the opportunity to view the nebula I turned my telescope onto some famous star clusters. M41 in Canis Major and M35 in Gemini were beautiful sights without the presence of light pollution.
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| M41 |
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| M35 |
The two open clusters were actually a big hit with the crowd, I had lineups 20 people deep at some points throughout the evening. I must have had M35 in my eyepiece for more than an hour.
A lot of people were asking about the Little Dipper as it is not easily seen from the city. I will endeavor to do a constellation profile on Ursa Minor this week.
When it got later in the evening, Jupiter started to make an appearance above the big domes. Three of the four Galilean moons were visible as Io was tucked in behind. Even with bad seeing everyone loved seeing our biggest planet.
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| RAO Open House |
The sky looks great tonight so I would suggest getting outside to look up. Find Mercury, see Jupiter, enjoy the warm evening looking for your favourite constellation. The next open house at the RAO will be on April 29. Stay tuned for details!
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