Observing Log for Friday 21 October

What a fabulous night with clear skies and delightfully cool fall air. Below is a summary of what we observed last night.

• Jupiter : Heat coming off the roof made the image a little fuzzy, but we were able to make out cloud bands on the planet as well as all four Galilean satellites- Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto.
• Saturn : Saturn looked lovely and we were easily able to see the moon Titan. Rhea, Dione, and Tethys were fainter, but also visible.
• M57 (the Ring Nebula): This fine example of a planetary nebula appeared as a delicate smoke-ring in the eyepiece of the 8-inch scope.The Ring Nebula is located in the constellation of Lyra and is about 2,300 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae are the remnants of lower mass stars (like our Sun) after they've used up their nuclear fuel.
• M31 (Andromeda Galaxy): We looked at the Andromeda Galaxy in the 14-inch. This object is a neighboring galaxy located about 2.5 million light-years from us. It's a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way, but it's larger. M31 is about 220,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's 100,000 light-year diameter. Through the telescope M31 looked like a small fuzzy ball with a star-like center. The bright center is the core of M31 and the fuzziness is the light from the hundreds of billions of stars that make up the galaxy.
• The Albireo System: Through the 8-inch, we observed this double-star in Cygnus. The stars of Albireo (one blue, one gold) can't be resolved with the naked eye, but through our telescopes we are able to see the pair. The brighter yellow star is also a binary system, but these two stars are two close for our telescopes to resolve. Albireo is about 430 light-years distant.
• NGC 6826 (the "blinking planetary"): NGC 6826 is planetary nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus. It's called the blinking planetary because when you have it centered in the eyepiece, it appears to blink "on" when you look away from it and "off" when you look directly at it. The effect happens because our peripheral vision is more sensitive than our forward vision.

Sincere thanks to Stacey and Harold for making the evening a success!

And as always, thank you to everyone who attended. Your presence and enthusiasm fill me with happiness.

Observatory Night for Friday 21 October 2022 is on!

I normally can't make the call this early, but the sky is looking great. We are a "go" for tonight!

It's going to be a bit on the chilly side (mid 50s), so please dress warmly. :)

We'll get started at:

8:00 pm

in Science Center (SC) room 406.

As always, sincere thanks for your interest in the observatory!

Observatory Nights for Fall 2022

Finally! Observatory nights will be back in October. I will add additional events this fall as I am able. :)

Observatory nights for Fall 2022 are below. In the meantime, a star chart for September/October is here :).

Friday 7 October 2022 (8 - 9 PM)
Friday 21 October 2022 (8 - 9 PM)

Friday 4 November 2022 (7 - 8 PM)
Friday 18 November 2022 (7 - 8 PM)

Events are free, but because of occupancy limitations on the roof, we require guests to make reservations via Eventbrite.

Reservations can be made here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/astronomical-observatory-nights-fall-2022-tickets-419172856297.

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Events will be cancelled for bad weather. I will make the call as soon as I am able, usually about 2 hours prior to the event start time. An announcement will be sent to the email address you registered with Eventbrite and I will post the status on this website.

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About the Guest Nights:

During Observatory Guest Nights we use Montgomery College telescopes to view and learn about visible solar system objects, star clusters, and nebulae. We also spend some time looking at the sky with just our eyes in order to locate constellations and planets that can be seen this time of the year.

You'll leave with a star chart and the ability to find celestial objects on your own.
Astronomy faculty will be on hand to answer questions about the universe.

Some things to note:

• Dress for the weather. The observatory is located outside on the roof of the Science Center.
• We meet in Science Center room 406 (SC406). We go up to the roof as a group. If you're late, there will be a staff member or student in SC406 to escort you upstairs.
• Children are welcome (and encouraged!) to attend, although campus policy prohibits children younger than five years of age on the roof.
• Parking is free.

I want to continue to improve the observatory nights. If you have suggestions or comments, please let me know.