StarWatch: Moravian University Astronomy

StarWatch for the greater Lehigh Valley

OCTOBER 2023

OCTOBER STAR MAP | MOON PHASE CALENDAR | STARWATCH INDEX | NIGHT SKY NOTEBOOK

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1415 October 1, 2023: Thank You, George: I had known about Dr. George F. Reed's interests in planetarium education ever since 1972 when I began to work in the Allentown School District Planetarium. He was a prolific writer, penning articles about planetarium education and lessons designed explicitly for under-the-dome instruction from West Chester University where he taught. He also had a side gig selling planetariums for Spitz, Inc., one of the world's leading designers of star theaters, which meant that his home facility, the Mather Planetarium at WCU, was state-of-the-art. * I had also heard George speak at various gatherings of planetarium educators. At one of these meetings sponsored by the PA Department of Education in the late 70's, we expressed our viewpoints about where planetarium education should be headed. His philosophy fit well with mine, that planetariums were unique spaces where astronomy education could be conducted more effectively than in a regular classroom. We were also convinced that live programming with audience participation was the best way to learn under the dome. * At another meeting several years later, George asked if I would consider coming to West Chester as his graduate assistant during the 1982-83 academic year. Free tuition, free books, and a $200 weekly stipend would lead to a Master of Arts degree in Astronomy and Geology to boot—YES, I said almost reflexively. Most of all, the opportunity to work with an internationally respected planetarian was preeminent once the dust settled from the initial mental daze that he had induced. * George Reed did not tell his TA, "That's how it should be done." His leadership stemmed from his desire to influence by example, not decree. George was tireless in his efforts to succeed, but his success did not originate from the trampling of others. My wife called him a Roman, lean and wiry with a quick smile and a no-quit attitude. He thanked you if you caught him making a mistake, and he listened intently to what you had to say. This model of dealing with people made for a wonderfully smooth relationship because I was treated as a colleague, not a subordinate. * That summer for my first course (1982), George took a small group of West Chester students abroad to study the history of British astronomy. My wife and I walked among the Sarsens of Stonehenge. I held Isaac Newton's telescope at London's Royal Society, tracing the life paths of Newton, Edmond Halley, William Herschel, and other famous contributors to astronomy across Great Britain. He showed how profoundly meaningful educational travel could be for students. As a result, I went on to take enthusiasts to distant places to observe Halley's Comet and four central solar eclipses. Still, the most impactful field experiences that I designed were with urban high school students from Allentown, introducing them to the Southwest's dark skies and the astronomy of the Ancestral Puebloans. Thank you, George. * George Reed also authored several engaging books, Naked i Astronomy and The Astronomy of One Constellation, including a weekly astronomy column in the Daily Local News, West Chester. George's articles were illustrated with his homespun cartoons. That inspired me to write Becker's Astronomy Survival Notebook for my students when the ASD withdrew funding for a textbook from the planetarium budget. I embellished the book with his cartooning. I also began writing this StarWatch column in 1996, initially for the Morning Call and then Access Weather. It continues to this day for the Moravian University community and friends, substituting George's cartooning for my photography and an Internet presence with my website, www.astronomy.org. Thank you, George, again for influencing me. * I discovered several weeks ago that George Reed had passed away in early August of 2016. His fine, inquisitive mind had been succumbing to the ravishes of Alzheimer's disease starting in 2012. He had taken an early retirement from West Chester University in 1995 and moved to Incline Village, Nevada, to be closer to his children and grandchildren. We had lost touch. That weekend, his death got me thinking about how subtly George Reed had influenced my life, leading to this article. Subtly, no hype—no badgering, is the best way a teacher can educate his students about the experiences and opportunities that life has to offer. Thank you, George, again. Photos of George F. Reed are below. Ad Astra!

October 8, 2023: Safely View This Saturday's Eclipse

Weather permitting, the October 14 partial solar eclipse will be visible from the Lehigh Valley, but only if you have the proper equipment to ensure a safe view. The times above are for the Sky Deck at Moravian University; however, they will be very similar anywhere in SE Pennsylvania. * Here is how you want to avoid viewing it. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use sunglasses, multiple pairs of sunglasses, UV (ultraviolet) absorbing sunglasses, colored cellophane, colored filters, neutral density filters (from photo stores), polarizing filters, color or black and white negatives, or glass smoked with the soot of a candle flame to make filtered, direct observations of the sun. All of the above can cause retinal burns and vision loss. And NEVER use a dark absorbing filter attached to the eyepiece end of a telescope or binoculars. A telescope's main function is to gather light—to make objects appear brighter. Even small telescopes and binoculars gather the amount of light the eye normally receives dozens to hundreds of times greater. A telescope focuses the much brighter and hotter solar image near the position of the dark absorbing filter for inspection by the eyes. The absorbed light will cause the filter to become very hot and can lead to breakage and, almost certainly, permanent damage to the eye of an unsuspecting observer. * Solar observing glasses purchased from a reputable US dealer either recently or in the past (if they are in good repair) will work just fine. If you don't have any eclipse glasses, purchase a number 14 welder's shade from a welding supply store. These filters are additive, so two number sevens equal the density of a single number 14 shade. Remember that these shades are not made from optically perfect glass, so stacking too many shades together to create the necessary eye protection will degrade the sun's image. Less expensive welder shades show a safe green image of the sun. These filters can be acquired with an overcoating that will produce a yellow sun for a few dollars more. * If the local welding supply store is out of filters, try constructing a projection device. Take a box, preferably elongated, and cut a small hole at one end and a small rectangular slit on a side panel, so an observer can look inside the box, opposite where the original hole was cut. Cover the end opening with aluminum foil and perforate the aluminum with a pin. Attach white paper inside the box on the opposite side, and project the sun through the pinhole onto the white paper. The container remains dark, allowing the projected solar image to be viewed easily through the slit. The optimum ratio is 400 to 1. If the pinhole is 1 millimeter in diameter, the box length should be 400 mm, but this formula has a lot of give and take. If you plan to construct a pinhole device, I would observe near maximum partial eclipse, which for the Lehigh Valley is at 1:20 p.m. The moon will impinge upon the sun by only 39 percent. Pinhole projections are fuzzy in appearance, so you should make your observations near the time of maximum coverage. * Pictures below show other safe projection methods to view Saturday's eclipse. Much Success! Ad Astra!

1417 October 15, 2023: See Halley's Comet this Week: While the six-mile chunk of ice and dust known as Halley's Comet is very near to the far end of its orbital loop, its nucleus has been releasing for tens of thousands of years trails of dust and gas each time Halley rounds the sun and gets heated by its warmth. The gas gets ionized (electrically charged) by the ultraviolet radiation from the sun and is blown from the Solar System by the solar wind, but the dust remains in the comet's orbital path. Over the millennia, this dross has been spread relatively evenly across its track. * Twice yearly, once in the fall and once in the spring, our planet comes close enough to Halley's orbit to woo Earth's inhabitants with a meteor shower. If you're interested in seeing bits and pieces of Halley stream into the Earth's atmosphere at 41 miles per second, then put the mornings of Saturday, October 21, and Sunday, the 22nd, on your calendar. That is when the Orionid meteor shower will be on full display. These specks of space dust will radiate from a region of the sky near the elbow of the left arm of Orion the Hunter, above the reddish, supergiant star, Betelgeuse. That is the Hunter's left shoulder as we view him in the sky. See a locator map below. * Shooting stars diverge from a near point-like source because Halley's dust particles are traveling parallel to each other as they orbit the sun. The condition is analogous to standing on a long, straight section of a railroad track. The parallel rails diverge from a distant vanishing point called the radiant, and travel past the observer on either side. Tracing the meteor's path back to a location above Betelgeuse will ensure that you have witnessed an Orionid meteor, a piece of Halley's debris. * Observers should face the southeast from midnight to 3 a.m., then shift to the south for the rest of the morning. Look directly overhead, where the sky is typically the darkest, to maximize rates. Allowing the radiant to gain altitude is usually good advice because meteors streaming from below and above the radiant position can be witnessed. That begins to happen after 1 a.m. * Do not worry about moonlight providing interference during this year's Orionid display. Luna's phase is at first quarter on October 21 and sets before midnight on both the 21st and the 22nd. * Whether it is frost, dew, or wind, a Halloween chill is the all-pervasive downer that normally drives most people indoors after a few hours of observing. To avoid this challenge, consider using a small electric blanket in your sleeping bag to aid in driving out the cold, cushioned by an air mattress, and a pillow or two for your head. With all those creature comforts, you might just doze off in an hour, so don't forget a thermos containing hot, caffeinated coffee to keep you awake. * I wish everyone much success observing bits and pieces of Halley's Comet masquerading as Orionid meteors on the morning of October 21. Ad Astra!

1418 October 22, 2023: Blinded by the Fear of Science: One of the aspects that I have discovered about teaching at Moravian University is that many of my students have a profound anxiety about taking a science course, even at the 100 level. They come into my class having dealt with bad high school experiences that resulted in low grades. Having languished in these classes, most students are also anxious about math courses. I cannot say that I loved math either, but I realized that it was a means to an end, and when I completed lengthy, practical problems in my astronomy classes, there was a real sense of satisfaction. * I believe that attitude is the greatest hindrance to a meaningful experience in my course. If pupils discover they can be successful, stress levels are reduced, and learning will come more naturally. Reducing stress is one of my primary goals when I teach PHYS-108 Astronomy. * To that extent, I'd like to give A.J. Minnich, a Junior English major and Comenian editor, the opportunity to explain how he approached my class. This was in response to an opening assignment where he responded to a YouTube interview with Neil de Grasse Tyson, (the Hayden Planetarium's Frederick P. Rose director in New York City), conducted by Late Show host, Stephen Colbert. Minnich had been stressing over my course all summer, but listening to Tyson helped to relieve some of his angst. * A.J. Minnich: "In my mind, I always thought that science was a whole lot of facts and memorizing, while subjects like English and political science were more about investigating different questions, concepts, and ideas. In retrospect, this belief was silly and woefully misinformed because it entirely wrote off whole schools of thought despite them not being completely different from ones I was already familiar with, even on a fundamental level. I especially liked the portion where Tyson tried to differentiate between someone who is able to memorize, and someone who can adapt to new problems and questions and try to answer them. Intelligence isn't just a show of knowledge but a skill that helps you to solve problems and interpret the world around you. * After watching this, I also happened to talk with a friend who is a biology major. She believes that basic biology should be a requirement for all students because being equipped with the knowledge and understanding of how the body works can help people understand their bodies and be able to help other people become better informed. This basic knowledge would help reduce the spread of vaccine misinformation because students would understand how they actually work and be able to explain them to others. Science 'is a way of equipping yourself to interpret what happens in front of you,' and that first requires you to inquire. My previous train of thought was, as Tyson says, lazy. I had terrible experiences in high school, so I stopped inquiring about a huge chunk of the world around me. Tyson states, 'If you start wielding a hammer, then all of a sudden your problems look like nails,' and that's precisely what happened to me. I was not equipping myself well enough to inquire honestly about the world around me. * Not every person should be a science or English major, but everyone should at least have the tools necessary to understand what is in front of them, even on a fundamental level. Knowledge, no matter its form, is a vanguard to protect you from the 'charlatans of the world.'" Wonderfully said, A. J. Tyson's interview is here. Ad Astra!

1419 October 29, 2023: Eclipse Success: When Wyatt Ponikera sent me a friendly email, hoping that my vacation in Utah was going well and that I had seen the eclipse, I had to smile. As a successful track and field athlete who just got the nod to race for Moravian's cross-country Landmark Conference Team, I'm sure Wyatt knows a lot about preparation and some of the stress that goes along with it. That's what it is like to arrange and to record an eclipse successfully. * No, I realize this is not like Robert Scott or Roald Amundsen trekking to the South Pole. Still, weeks and sometimes months of preparation and practice go into even a domestic eclipse journey like the one my friends and I have just completed in Utah. Luckily, my act was pretty much together from the successful Australian total solar eclipse I had witnessed shipboard on the Indian Ocean not quite six months earlier. With the next US total solar eclipse less than six months away in April 2024, I will be keeping most of my gear together and ready to travel again. * One of the many things I have learned about eclipse chasing is that you can only get some of the phenomena. In Australia, my goal was to capture the ingress and egress diamond ring, which starts occurring about 10 seconds immediately before and after totality. The diamond ring transpires when the corona, the crown of the sun's outermost atmosphere, becomes visible, creating the ring that surrounds the moon with the smallest amount of sunlight still visible, which fashions the diamond effect. The ingress diamond occurs in synchronization with so many other lighting changes as the last glimmer of sunlight disappears, in addition to the screams and shouts of spectators. Because of the excitement the ingress diamond ring has for me always remained ephemeral, difficult to capture on camera. I get lost in the moment and the exhilaration. * The best example I can give is Nick Foles' trick play that helped clinch the 2018 Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles. I know almost nothing about football. Until then, I had never watched a Super Bowl game, yet there I was, jumping up and down in my living room, screaming at my flat screen. My wife thought I was nuts. At that moment, I probably was. That's what a total solar eclipse can be like to the uninitiated and still is to me. * The solar eclipse of October 14 was annular, a ringed event where the moon was too far from the Earth and too small to cover the sun completely. There was no corona, no diamond ring, just a dimming of the landscape as annularity approached. What would be visible was Baily's beads, a phenomenon first seen by the nineteenth-century English astronomer, Francis Baily, during an annular eclipse in 1836. * As the limb (edge) of the moon approaches or retreats from the sun's limb, mountains projecting outward along the lunar circumference block the sun's light while allowing it to shine through the moon's lunar valleys, creating the beading effect. It lasts for just a few seconds, but with programs available on the Internet, it is possible to predict the precise moment when Baily's beads will occur for any location along the path where an eclipse is total or annular. I was successful. Check out my Baily's beads' photos below, but more importantly, view my friend Jesse Leayman's video, which blew it out of the park, a definite Nick Foles play. Ad Astra!

[October Star Map]

[October Moon Phase Calendar]