Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Observing Night


We had an observing session tonight.  Four of us set up our telescopes and we had a new visitor as well.  For some observing sessions we have had as many as twenty or more visitors.  It was such a surprise to have one new person tonight.  Here one of our members is showing her a Planisphere, which is a map of the skies showing the stars and constellations.  The skies were not all that dark because of light pollution and moisture in the air.  So she got to see Jupiter, and Saturn and one globular cluster in our telescopes, but most of the galaxies were obscured.  She was absolutely blown away by the idea of seeing the planets with her own eyes.  It is fun to have such an enthusiastic visitor.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You don't usually do requests, but you're probably going to be observing the eclipse on Monday. I'd be interested in seeing what special equipment you're going o use to view and photograph it. Where will you be viewing it? Is there a "best" please on Long Island to go?

Ken Spencer said...

I will be sure to take a photograph of my set up to view and photograph the eclipse. I will be working with another member of the club, and we will be setting up telescopes to show the partial eclipse to a group of people from a college. Because I want to photograph the partial phases, I will be using a 4-inch refractor on a powered equatorial mount for the photography, and for some viewing. I don't know where people can go on Long Island to view the eclipse, I am sorry to say.