The forecast stated that cloudy skies would clear by eight and so we opted to go for this star gazing night.  Unfortunately, the clouds stuck in there after eight, and families started filing out, happy to have had time to run around, but without the extra benefits of viewing the skies through the scopes.

For those who stayed to the very end (8:30 pm), you were rewarded with among the best skies for stargazing that I can remember, even if we had a mere half hour before the clouds covered the view again. A short, but great window into the night sky!

Once the clouds opened up, and as I was pointing out the winter constellations to people who remained, it became apparent that the conditions had been worth the wait. Telescopes were pointed to several objects, including the famous Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, Double-Cluster, and the Pleiades.

One of the ways that you can tell how dark and transparent the skies are is by looking for and counting stars in constellations rich in stars, i.e. with lots of stars in them. The constellation

Constellation Orion

Orion is one of these rich constellations and it is often used to determine how dark and transparent a sky is for observing. The most recognizable parts are the hourglass arrangement of stars that form the shoulders, knees, and belt of Orion. However, there are other parts to Orion, as well – the sword hilt hanging off the belt, the head, the raised arm usually depicted holding a spear, and the shield. The arm and shield are particularly faint – not usually visible in urban or suburban skies, but they stood out on this night.
On the next clear night, find Orion where you are – one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky. What do you see?

After the January cloudy evening, Moose Hill has been watching the skies for the February 24 Star Gazing Night and the forecast has not been good – that evening has been cancelled! But, join us for the next night, April 21– we can’t wait to share the stars with you!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. Moose Hill is grateful to everyone who volunteers their time to share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

More than a dozen people came to the December Star Night, meeting with a dozen astronomers who had binoculars and telescopes. Clouds overhead partially obscured the view, but where the clouds broke, people were able to see several winter sky objects. Here are some highlights.

The Pleiades (M45 as designated in Messier’s Catalog) is an open cluster (a loose, irregular grouping of stars that usually have a common origin) in the constellation Taurus.  The stars in the Pleiades are in a shape like a small pan. In mythology, the Pleiades are known as the “Seven Sisters,” nymphs who were the daughters of Atlas. Orion pursues them, even to this day in the night sky, but Zeus, in the form of Taurus the Bull, blocks and protects the nymphs from Orion.

image from Wikimedia Commons

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is a spiral galaxy very similar to the one that our sun resides in, the Milky Way. It was difficult to see with the naked eye that night, but thankfully we had binoculars and telescopes on-hand to aid our viewing.

Andromeda Galaxy as seen by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

The Orion Nebula (M42 and M43) is a cloud-like fan-shaped object that is made of dust clouds in our galaxy. It is visible with binoculars as a small, fuzzy cloud. Most telescopes also resolve the four stars (referred to as “The Trapezium”) within it.

image from Wikimedia Commons

Recently, I heard on Science Friday on National Public Radio (NPR) a list of science-related books. The Glass Universe, by Dava Sobel, is a book about women who, as human “computers”, i.e. math whizzes, devoted stargazers, aided Harvard Observatory in Cambridge, MA. They made significant contributions, including the creation of a system to classify stars that is still used today. Also, the movie, Hidden Figures, about minority women “computers” at NASA, was just released. If anyone has read the book or seen the movie, drop a line to Moose Hill and give your review!

Finally, ever curious, I decided to take apart the eyepiece assembly and telescope mounts on one of my scopes to understand how they fit together. The telescope itself was not touched – this should only be done by those who know what they are doing (I don’t!).  The photo below are the unassembled components. Now I just need to put it all back together in time for the next Star Gazing Night….

…which is January 27 at Moose Hill. This free program is cancelled if sky conditions are cloudy/milky or in the event of deep snow/extreme cold; call Patti at 781-784-5691 x8103 after 6pm the night of the event for a recorded message concerning the status of the program prior to attending. We look forward to, hopefully, clear skies and to seeing you there – dress warmly!

Please note that some information was taken from A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, by Mentzel & Pasachoff.

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

Recently Moose Hill had the pleasure of seeing a presentation from a local FIRST Lego League group – Robo Rampage. This group of six students attend middle schools in both the Sharon and Canton Public Schools and part of preparing for competition during this tournament season is to present their challenge project to various professional groups in order to practice their presentation, ask questions, and listen to our thoughts or questions to help improve their overall project.

When Pooja, Soumil, Arun, Daniel, Thanh, and Arjun arrived to present their project, you could see just how much this team is a team. This is their 5th year working together, a few members have left and a few new members have joined, but you would never know that from the interactions we saw, and they have done well as a team at competition. They were excited about this year’s project and had lots of questions for us – and we had a lot of questions for them, too.

So what is this year’s challenge? Animal Allies – identify a problem when people and animals interact; design a solution that makes the interaction better for animals, people or both; and share your problem and solution with others. Team Robo Rampage set their minds to the task and each team member brought at least one project idea to the table. After presenting their ideas to each other, a vote was done to determine the winning project.

The winning project? To build a thermal detector for cars that would help drivers to know of an animal that might be crossing the street – say a deer – and would then help the driver to brake the car to avoid any collisions. I think we all realize how useful this could be, especially on those back roads, late at night, or at dusk when it can be hardest to see what animals might lay ahead.

So what happens at competition? The audience mostly sees teams playing the Robot Game, but the teams are actually judged on a few things: Core Values, Project, and Robot Design.

We wish Team Robo Rampage the best of luck at the competition on Saturday and we cannot wait to hear how you did! Thanks for visiting and sharing your project – it’s awesome!

To quote just a little of Ray Stevens, a singer, songwriter, and comedian, is a great way to sum up the evening in the skies – “Yes, they call [it] the Streak…lookatthat-lookatthat”.

No doubt that since this night was the peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers we had over 40 people in attendance with a dozen astronomers, but having Mars and Saturn also present made for an evening full of things to observe – even the International Space Station made a brief appearance!

while not our picture, we did have several sightings of meteors such as this during the evening.

Clearly the top event of the night was the Perseid meteors. The best time to see them is past midnight to dawn, when the skies are darkest and constellation Perseus, the locus or focal point of the shower is high in the sky. But, we were treated with some really nice, bright, and some times long-lasting, streaks. Of course, you have to be looking up at the moment that they appear, for they appear for only a moment and then disappear.  You have to be patiently scanning the sky to have a good chance at seeing one. Many a person was just leaving the field for the evening when they would hear “lookatthat…lookatthat”, only to turn around and miss the meteor.

the Moon – Saturn and Mars can just barely be seen above the tree tops

We had a good mix of telescopes, this time. I was able to set up two of them:  a 2.5 inch diameter refractor (spyglass type where you look through lenses) and a 6 inch diameter Newtonian reflector.  I was hoping to bounce back and forth between them to have people view through both and compare what they saw, but we had so many people come through that at times I had to abandon the refractor scope or have it fixed on the moon, which was near first quarter that night.  Saturn, Mars, and the star, Antares, in Scorpio, formed a near right triangle in the sky. The name, “Antares,”  is a contraction of the phrase “Anti-Ares.”  Ares, in this case, is the Greek name for the god of War.  The Roman equivalent is “Mars.” So when the star was named, it was referring to the red planet, Mars, because Antares has almost the same orange-red color and is similar in brightness. This was a great time to compare them side by side!  All month, Mars, Saturn, and Antares are together in that triangle formation.

The night was not great for faint objects like galaxies and globular clusters due to the moon being in the sky and the sky itself wasn’t that transparent – a term to describe how well can you see through the atmosphere – like seeing through a dirty versus a clear glass window.

The next scheduled star-gazing night is on Friday, September 23 – the first full day of fall!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

Night sky

It was another day where the weather at the start of the day was very different from the weather by the time the star gazing night event began.  In the morning, it was showering, but by mid-afternoon, the clouds were disappearing.  We had a few clouds at the start that partially blocked the sky, but by dark, the viewing was actually pretty good.  Eight amateur astronomers and 22 people came to the event.

For me the night was especially great – I acquired a new telescope!  One of the astronomers had a reflector that he owned but didn’t use since he had larger scopes to use, I’ll call it the ‘Meade’ scope, here.  So, I bought it, to try out a respectable entry-level scope and from time to time report what I see with it. I’ll compare this scope with another scope that Moose Hill has in a later blog.

We started the night as the International Space Station flew almost overhead.  Several of us also saw a ‘shooting star’ or two – possibly from the Delta Aquarids.

Scorpius Constellation

That night, Mars and Saturn were out forming a bright triangle with Antares, the bright orange star that forms the heart of the constellation, Scorpius.  It’s hard to see a lot of detail on Mars with the typical instruments available.  The Meade scope showed the disk, and I believe I saw a white polar cap.  The Meade scope defined Saturn and its rings easily, and I could see darker portions closer to the disk that make it look like Saturn had handles.  Larger scopes showed more details such as the ring divisions, as well as perhaps three of its moons that were just too small for the Meade scope.  Throughout August, these planets and Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury at the western horizon will be forming tight formations.  Check out this website, Sky and Telescope for more information,

I tried a few other common sights.  I couldn’t find the ring nebula in Lyra, which looks like a smoke ring in the larger telescopes – I will try again with charts this time.  I did manage to see the pair of stars in B Cygnus, “Aricebo” a favorite because one is blue and one is orange.  I found M1, the globular cluster in Hercules, which looked like a lumpy cloud compared to the image in larger telescopes that are able to resolve individual stars.

Toward the end of the evening, I was able to show someone the main constellations.  She knew a few and some of the stories behind them.  I was able to add a few more constellations and stories.  So many sites have information about constellations.  Constellations are as much about science as they are about our culture and imagination.  So, I recommend studying both. Windows to the Universe is a great site to get you started.

The next Star Gazing Night is tonight, August 11 – hope to see you there!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post and these pictures. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

There is a power line right-of-way (ROW) that cuts through Mass Audubon’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary and The Trustees Moose Hill Farm properties. A hike along the ROW is a wonderful exploration; there are a number of habitats and a variety of animals and insects to discover.

Recently Vin, one of our property staff and a nature enthusiast, headed out to look for insects along the ROW. He had a great day and provided us all with an update of what he found.

Dragonflies (Odonates):

• Ebony Jewelwing
• Eastern Red Damsel (probably new for Moose Hill)
  

  eastern red damsel

• Eastern Forktail
• Fragile Forktail
• Sphagnum Sprite
• Harlequin Darner
  

  harlequin darner

• Common Green Darner
• Delta-spotted Spiketail
• Common Baskettail
• Blue Dasher
  

  blue dasher

  

  blue dasher (female)

• Eastern Pondhawk
• Spangled Skimmer
• Chalk-fronted Corporal
• Common Whitetail
• Twelve-spotted Skimmer
• Widow Skimmer
• Painted Skimmer
• Meadowhawk sp.
• Dot-tailed Whiteface

Butterflies (Lepidoptera):

• Spicebush Swallowtail
• Great Spangled Fritillary
  

  great spangled fritillary

• Pearl Crescent
• Southern Cloudywing – a lifer for Vin, found at Trustees Moose Hill Farm, which abuts Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary
• Northern Cloudywing – at Trustees Moose Hill Farm
• Peck’s Skipper
• Dusted Skipper – a lifer for Vin and probably new for Moose Hill
  

  dusted skipper

So next time you want a little more adventure on your walk, take your binoculars, grab a camera, and discover the wonderful world of Dragonflies, Damselflies, Butterflies, and Moths!

Another Star Gazing Night was held earlier in June, and though it started a little milky, the conditions improved so that we had good views of the moon, several planets, and a few other objects.

We started when it was still twilight – which is pretty late in the day this time of year.  By the way, I recently found an excellent discussion about hours of daylight and what, technically, is the longest day of the year (it might surprise you) on David Epstein’s blog at Boston.com.

We had about a dozen telescope observers and another dozen people wanting to see through them. As the twilight gave way to the night, there were fireflies in the field, twinkling away – creating the illusion that the stars were coming down for a visit.

firefly, by Firefly.org

Our moon, which has the Latin name, “Luna,” (you may have heard of lunar tides, and lunar phases), was near first quarter phase and was the first target.  Nearby was bright Jupiter, which also was an early target.

Moon and Jupiter by C. Austin

The four ‘Gallilean’ moons of Jupiter, three of them slightly larger than our moon, and one slightly smaller, were easy to spot, though it takes looking at a chart to identify which is which.  This Wikipedia article compares the size between solar system objects, which is very interesting, albeit a bit to wade through and think about.

In the south was Mars, bright orange-red.  Mars just passed its closest approach to us in about three decades.  But despite being relatively close, I could only see general dark and light spots and maybe a polar cap.

Saturn was further east from mars.  Here, Saturn is at its most magnificent!  The rings are tilted about as much as possible, so it was easy to see them  against the round yellow globe.  One or two moons could be seen as well.

Saturn, taken by NASA’s Voyager 2

I was involved in several interesting discussions about Pluto:

One discussion was about how Pluto got its name. Was it a girl who named it? Was it named after Mickey Mouse’s dog? The truth involved both. All orbiting bodies of size are named after Greek/Roman dieties. The Romans adapted their dieties from Greek ones, so that, for example, Zeus, the great god of Greek mythology, is the same as Jupiter in Roman mythology. The name, Pluto, initially suggested by a little girl who was interested in Greek mythology, is the Roman equivalent to the Greek God, Hades – the god of the underworld. Pluto, the dog in Disney cartoons, appeared around the time Pluto, the (dwarf) planet was discovered and the dog was likely named after the planet. You can read more about this little girl naming Pluto in the Washington Post or the Smithsonian Magazine.

Pluto, image by New Horizons, an interplanetary space probe

Another discussion was about an object’s ‘status.’  Though I’m not going to try to put that whole discussion into words here, the Wikipedia article above on the size of objects provides one perspective of that discussion.  If we were to replace our moon with Pluto, Pluto would appear in the night sky about two thirds the diameter of our moon.  Just sayin.

The next Star Gazing Night is Friday, July 29- hope to see you there!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post and these pictures. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.