StarWatch: Moravian College Astronomy

StarWatch for the greater Lehigh Valley

AUGUST 2008

AUGUST STAR MAP | STARWATCH INDEX | MOON PHASE CALENDAR

Print Large Sky Charts For 10 p.m. EDT: NORTH | EAST | SOUTH | WEST | ZENITH

Solar X-rays:
Geomagnetic Field:

Status

Current Moon Phase

624 AUGUST 3, 2008: Perseid Meteors Await: It was the summer of ‘69, and my friend, Mark Adams, had taken a bus from Warrington, PA to Allentown to observe the Perseid meteor shower with me at Pulpit Rock, a 1535 foot escarpment on the Blue Mountains about 20 miles west of the city. We had been preparing for this evening for months, and everything was going according to plans. Weather conditions were cooperative with an autumnal like nip in the air. Driving up the Hamburg Reservoir access road, I noticed a large patch of mud. I accelerated, hoping that my momentum would carry me across the mire. It didn’t. When I got out, I discovered that my Chevy Corvair was down to its rear axel in goop. The first stars were already shining in the dimming light. So close, yet so far. As we assessed our dire situation, the drone of a vehicle in low gear coming down the mountain caught our attention. When it crossed the bridge just ahead of us, it was Ralph Althouse, the reservoir caretaker in his tow truck. Our luck held throughout that exceedingly transparent night, and I saw more meteors than at anytime during my life, 217 according to my records. Perseid meteors continue to please, and they will be on tap anytime this week and next, but best on the morning of Tuesday, August 12. Observe after midnight, and more preferably after moonset which on the 12th will be between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. Dress more for winter because August nights can be chilly. Recline on an air mattress and in a sleeping bag covered with a plastic tarp to protect against the wetting dew. Focus your view overhead which is normally the darkest part of the sky and wait. You’ll soon start seeing shooting stars and their luminous trains. Almost all will appear to radiate from a location in the NE just above the star pattern of Perseus. A locator map can be found below. Much success!

625 AUGUST 10, 2008: Heaven on Earth: Living on the East Coast presents its share of opportunities, as well as challenges. Astronomy has not only been my hobby since third grade, but it is also my vocation. I teach in a planetarium, and they are almost always found in urbanized locals where the real sky is difficult to access because of light pollution. My solution has been to travel to the Southwest during the summer months and volunteer for the National Park Service. Bryce Canyon in SW Utah and Chaco Culture in NW New Mexico have served to give me plenty of astronomy fixes during my six years of participation. But now with gas prices soaring to record levels, journeying 1,800 miles over three days to view the sky does not seem as practical anymore. A better solution for my wallet has been to go local. Luckily for me, Pennsylvania has designated Potter County’s Cherry Springs State Park a dark site for astronomical viewing. It is about one-tenth the distance and reachable in four hours on only one tank of gas. On most days when the moon is not a deterrent, several dozen to over 100 observers will be setting up by light and happily observing by night. It is truly heaven on Earth for astronomy aficionados. The public is also invited, and no telescope is necessary. I realize that most readers of this column are not Pennsylvanians, but there are many rural state and national parks throughout the US and numerous star parties to boot, especially during the summer and fall months. Go to http://www.skyand telescope.com/community/calendar to find a local observing event or simply Google your state’s state parks. Remember, if you’re going to rub elbows with stargazers, make sure your flashlight is covered with red cellophane. Astronomers become weird in white light. I call it the Vampire Syndrome. Photos are online.

626 AUGUST 17, 2008: "Weather" to Observe: Mid-August through October is a superb time of the year to observe the night sky. Temperatures are cooler, but not cold, and that crisp Canadian air begins to filter into much of the US to bring us some of the clearest, haze-free, nights of the year. But unless you live in Albuquerque, NM or other sunny climes of the desert Southwest, reliable forecast products are necessary to insure that all of those preparations don’t go for naught. For me a truly dark sky is four hours away in Potter County, PA. Its location is in the cloud belt, a region stretching from central PA to upstate NY, where Lake Erie and Ontario greatly increase the chances of nighttime cloudiness. My weather page, www.astronomy.org/weather/Weather.html, has a number of useful links which help me decide whether I should or shouldn’t go observing. The page loads with a National Weather Service Watch/Warning map because I enjoy knowing the hotspots. Geomagnetic activity and the current lunar phase come next, as well as a number of Clear Sky Charts from my favorite locales which I like to scrutinize. Monitoring is a key factor in making a decision to observe because there are often local weather anomalies which are not taken into consideration in a general forecast. The charts provide information on cloud cover, transparency (clarity of the atmosphere), length of darkness, seeing (how calm the atmospheric layers are) wind, humidity, and temperature. This Canadian product has over 1900 different sites across North American and can be accessed at http://cleardarksky.com/csk/. If there are no Clear Sky Charts near your town, you can request one for your locality as long as it is more than 15 miles from another Clear Sky Chart. Instructions can be found on the website. More about “weather” or not to observe next week...

627 AUGUST 24, 2008: Getting a Handle on the Weather: There is nothing like getting all of your gear together for a night under the stars, only to be defeated by bad weather. Knowing what lies ahead can be just as critical as making the observations. Last week, I spoke about my weather page at www.astronomy.org/weather/Weather.html and the very versatile Clear Sky Charts specifically intended for astronomers found at http://cleardarksky.com/csk/. The National Weather Service is also experimenting with a product which allows sky watchers to gain a much better foothold about short term weather conditions. Go to www.weather.gov/. After the page loads in the upper left column, type the city or town in which you live. Click on the “Go” button for your local seven day forecast. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and you will see the National Digital Forecast Database to your left. Click on either of the maps. When the page loads, you can zoom in by clicking on your specific state or the area to be investigated. On the left will be significant factors regarding the weather forecast given in three hour intervals. My favorites are weather (basic forecast), temperature, dew point (atmospheric moisture), and sky cover (percentage of cloud cover). Air temperatures that are near dew point temperatures indicate a high relative humidity and equipment that will be covered with saturating dew. At the top of the column, you can move ahead by 12-hour increments for one week; however, don’t get too excited about this feature since weather predicting is as much of an art as it is a science. I wouldn’t advance more than 48-hours because at two days, forecast accuracies drop to about 50 per cent. Still, it is fun to look. Weather conditions play a critical role in the enjoyment of astronomy. I know because as a kid I did a lot of sulking over clear days that turned into cloudy nights.

628 AUGUST 31, 2008: God and the Space Junky: I had been talking about the Ancestral Puebloans to my senior level astronomy class at Dieruff H. S. in Allentown. These Native Americans, who flourished between 850 and 1300 AD, inhabited the Four Corners region of the desert Southwest, where the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona join. In order to have achieved success in their harsh environment, these people needed to formulate an accurate and reliable calendrical system. That was where astronomy and observations entered into the discussions. Their calendar schemes were ingenious, using the interplay of light and shadow—created by the sun—on rock walls and masonry structures. Over time, these sky watchers who traced the cyclic nature of Sol became powerful, religious priests. They steeped their observations in rituals which demanded the participation of commoners as well as warlords to keep the heavenly vault in order. In front of me there is a waving hand. “Yes, Emily,” I respond. There is a pause as Emily Plessl connects with my eyes. “Do you believe in God,” she asks forcefully? “Absolutely,” is my almost immediate response. There is another pause. I gesture for Emily to expand on her query. Finally I verbalize, “Would you like to continue?” Emily, who I later find out is a devout Mormon, quietly says, “No.” Usually my discussions about God and the universe are a little bit lengthier, but they happen in every semester astronomy class that I teach. In fact, often these types of inquiries arise numerous times. They underscore a basic need in teens for someone—anyone to give them an honest evaluation or confirmation about God and spirituality. For me, a space junky, the answer to the age old question about the existence of God is as simple as going outdoors on any star-splashed night and looking up—YES!

[August Star Map--North]

[August Moon Phase Calendar]