Amateur Astronomer Discovers New Nebula

Amateur astronomer Steve Mandel recently discovered a new nebula near the often viewed galaxy pair known affectionately as M81 & M82.

Dark Sky Friendly Outdoor Light Fixtures by Progress Lighting

Periodically, we like to showcase outdoor light fixtures that are both dark sky friendly and attractive. The thought being, if more of these high quality, dark sky friendly lights are installed... instead of the typical brass & glass glare bomb... there'll be more cool things to see in the night sky. With that said...
Here, we have a beautiful dark sky friendly outdoor wall lantern by Progress Lighting. This fixture, shown in Copper, is available in Antique Nickel, Copper, Guilded Iron. You'll immediately notice that the bulb is not directly visible at this angle. That's because, the bulb is mounted up inside of the fixture. This ensures that it won't be contributing to light pollution. It'll be a great first step towards implementing a dark sky friendly Outdoor Lighting plan... and it can be found in the metallic wall lights section of your favorite outdoor lighting retailer, Starry Night Lights.

Mars & The Moon (II)

I got out briefly to view a couple of early risers last night. Mars & The Moon were sitting low in the east around 11pm. Views of the pair were nice, but... not too exciting. Skies were simply too turbulent and unsteady to really get much of a telescopic view. At 90x through the 6" Mak-Cas... I could just barely perceive the larger continental sized features on the red planet. All this, from an object that seemed to have the consistency of a cotton ball :-The Moon, at least showed off its usual battery of craters, valleys and mare. It too was seriously hampered by the turbulence. Views seemed comparable to observing through a fast moving stream.
Oh... did I mention... I also got a decent view of The Pleiades Star Cluster (M45). This looked probably the best of the three. At 60x, I could just about fit the entire cluster into the field of view. A 30x view would have given me enough sky background to recognize the true shape of the cluster. Nevertheless... I noted a hint of nebulosity around many of the stars. This was pretty cool (at least to me, anyway)
Oh, well... it seemed that... at least last night... the naked eye view to the east was by far the nicest. Mars was to the right... with the Pleiades to its left. Further left... and more towards the horizon was an almost last quarter Moon. SaWeet!

Mars & The Moon

The red planet, Mars hung out with the Moon this past night. I watched the pair rise in the east around 10pm. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera out for the event. Conveniently, the pair were high overhead when I awoke in the morning. Not wanting to miss the same event twice, I put the camera on a tripod and headed outside to snap the accompanying image.
The image is a composed from two separate images. The first was 1/1000 second exposure... designed to tame the brightness of the moon. The second was a 1/8 second exposure... designed to capture the color of Mars. The pair were then overlayed in PhotoShop.
Events like this are known as conjunctions... or alignments... and have been thought to convey all kinds of supernatural meanings through the years. Nowadays, we just see them for what they really are... the comings and goings of Earth's nearest celestial neighbors.

Scope Time

I mentioned that we'll be observing with the 24" Clark Refractor used by Percival Lowell to study Mars. Here's a photo of the beast to put things in perspective. This thing has a 9770mm focal length. That's roughly 33'. Yikes! Can't wait to take long look through this monster :-)

Lowell Observatory Star Party

We're planning a road trip next weekend to attend the Lowell Observatory Star Party down in Flagstaff, Arizona. To say we're excited would be quite an understatement. Four days under dark, clear (hopefully) Arizona skies should be incredible. As icing on the cake, we rented 90 minutes of observing time on the 24" Clark Refractor. This scope was used by Percival Lowell to study Mars. It should be incredible. A small bit of info in a confirmation e-mail they sent indicated that they've got eyepieces to power this scope to over 750x! Yikes!!
If you're planning to attend, the event runs Thursday 9/29 through Sunday 10/2. Regardless, you can expect a report to appear here shortly after my return.

Outdoor Lighting News

Several new blogs have been created recently that discuss Outdoor Lighting. No major surprise... they're mine. The reason for multiple blogs is to hit the various communities out there. Sure, you can search across providers for what you want, but... it seems that communities seem to favor their own. So... Google seems to pay closer attention to their Blogger-based blogs, while AOL seems to pay closer attention to they're journal-based blogs.
The first of these, was the Outdoor-Lighting blog. This was my first foray into outdoor lighting blogs. Its been enjoyable... and highly educational for me. The second of these is an AOL based blog... entitled... not surprisingly... Outdoor Lighting. The goal of these is to spread the word about proper outdoor lighting... by making available my Outdoor Lighting Guidelines.

Harvest Moon Rising

I just caught a glimpse of the Harvest Moon rising. Ok... the official harvest moon is tomorrow. Tonight, it was only 97% illuminated. Still looked pretty sweet! Skies are forecast to be clear tonight, so... should be a beauty. Look for the moon to rise around 8:30pm or so. At this point, the moon will be with us all night long, so... don't fight it. Put on a moon filter and checkout Earth's nearest celestial neighbor. Details are spectacular in the tiniest of instruments. Even naked eye observations reveal a large bounty.

Aurora Watch Tonight

I'm still slightly giddy from last Saturday night's auroras, but... forecasters are calling for a 70% chance of SEVERE geomagnetic activity tonight. Severe!!! This means that aurora will likely be seen much further south than is typical. Skywatchers at all latitudes should be alert for aurora after dark tonight!

Outdoor Lighting

As light pollution blots out the stars for more and more individuals, I thought it important to add a mention of my new Outdoor-Lighting Blog. Those of you who like to get out and observe... or just get out and enjoy a star-filled sky... really need to get more involved in dealing with this issue. At the current rate, it won't be long before another generation is raised without ever seeing the night sky as it is supposed to be. Another great resource (targeting AOL folks) is my Outdoor Lighting Blog.

Park City Aurora!!!

Aurora Borealis danced across the skies north of Park City, Utah. They started slow, but grew steadily in brightness. Initially, they were mainly green and close to the northern horizon. Eventually, pillars of light shot into the sky... repeatedly climbing higher and higher... till they reached Polaris. What a sweet display.
If you missed out... aurora are possible/likely throughout the weekend.

Aurora Watch

Giant sunspot #798 has so far fired off 6 powerful, X-Class solar flares in the last 5 days. Forecasters are calling for a 75% chance of more X-Class flares in the next 24 hours. Skywatchers are encouraged to keep an eye towards the northern horizon after dark this entire weekend. More information can be found on-line at Spaceweather.com.

Incredible Solar Flares

Sunspot #798 is returning from a trip around our star with a vengance. In the last 4 days, it has launched (4) X-Class solar flares. The most powerful of these was an incredible X17 event... the fourth largest ever recorded. If this can just keep it up for a few days... until it is Earth-facing... we could have one heck of a light show. Keep an eye on the northern horizon and on Spaceweather.com for the latest information.

Beautiful Conjunction

The planets Venus & Jupiter were joined by The Moon in the western sky shortly after sunset last night. What a beautiful sight... a conjunction involving three of Earth's nearest celestial neighbors hanging out together.
The Moon will distance itself from the other two quickly... while the planets slowly separate.

Red Planet Overhead

I got out this morning... around 6am or so... and the red planet, Mars was high overhead. I'd left the scope out... just in case... so it was setup and ready to go. Skies were ok... probably about a 6 out of 10. This allowed me to view sharply to about 175x. I pushed a bit past this... to about 225x, but... views were a bit mushy by this point. Dropping back to 175x gave me a fairly consistent view of the planet's surface. Details were readily apparent... though the south polar ice cap seems to have melted away :(
Mars is currently just over 14" in apparent diameter... on its way to around 20" later this fall. Views will only get better in the coming weeks and months... so be sure to get out there every opportunity you get!

Tiny Crescent Moon Tomorrow Night

The Moon will be new tonight. That means that it won't be visible at all. A tiny one day old crescent moon will be found hanging low in the western sky shortly after sunset tomorrow evening. Those of you with an unobstructed horizon in that direction will have the best chance of spotting it. The next several nights will offer folks the opportunity to see what astronomers refer to as Earthshine. Earthshine is sunlight which reflects off the Earth and illuminates the otherwise non-sunlit portion of the Moon. Earthshine can be quite a dramatic visual effect. If you find yourself under clear skies the next several nights, be sure to look for the Moon and Earthshine.