Greetings fellow astrophile! The July 2011 newsletter has been posted in advance of the next Public Viewing Session and can be downloaded below: Astronomical Chronicle for July 2011 If the weather holds, this should prove to be a busy Saturday at Darling Hill. The originally-scheduled lecture/demonstration on telescope collimation by Bob Piekiel is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. This lecture provides you an opportunity to learn about the most important post-purchase piece of telescope maintenance at the hands of the arguably the most knowledgeable telescope owner in Central New York. The 6:30 start provides plenty of daylight as well, meaning you […]
Amateur Astro Announcements
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Greetings fellow astrophiles! Anyone out observing last night was treated to excellent dark skies (albeit a bit shaky along the Western horizon for those observing Saturn before its late setting) and fantastic viewing through high-power. Tonight looks to be more of the same, so we will be opening the observatory around 8:30 (plenty of time to walk the grounds and see the building and member scopes during the daylight). For myself, I will be spending a bit of my observing time trying to see the remaining light of a recent supernova in M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici/Ursa Major […]
Greetings fellow astrophiles! NOTE 2 (8:25 p.m.): We Will Be Opening The Observatory. There is a bit of cloud cover around CNY that is expected to clear around 10:00 p.m. The observatory should be open and populated by 9:30 p.m. NOTE: Check Back Here At 8:30 p.m.Tonight for a Final Update With the recent solar flare now approaching a grazing blow to the planet’s magnetosphere (see, for instance, the fantastic movies at Bad Astronomy – blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/07/the-sun-lets-loose-a-huge-explosion/), it is possible there will be aurora activity tonight after midnight, just in time for the Moon to set below our Western Horizon. In […]
Greetings fellow astrophiles! We’re not even waiting until 5:00 p.m. to announce this one. Tonight looks fantastic for observing, so Darling Hill will be opening. There are no “reasonable” ISS fly-overs tonight (3 a.m. and beyond), but two Iridium Flares are predicted for tonight (shown below, from heavens-above.com). Date LocalTime Intensity(Mag) Alt. Azimuth Distance toflare centre Intensity atflare centre(Mag.) Satellite 03 Jun 22:33:10 -4 18° 273° (W ) 35.8 km (E) -6 Iridium 52 03 Jun 23:49:54 -2 37° 228° (SW ) 31.3 km (E) -8 Iridium 43