Robb Walker: One Dark Sky

OneDarkSky is proud to participate in ALCon2012 by providing public outreach services. The evening of July 4, the Marriott Lincolnshire will host fireworks and a star party in honor of ALCon2012. The event is free and open to the public. OneDarkSky’s Robb Walker will be at your service to highlight the celestial wonders of our night sky.
Though the event officially begins at 8:30 pm, I will arrive and set up around 7:00pm for a bit of solar observing before the main event. So, arrive early if you’d like to take a look at our neighborhood star and see how it’s gearing up for its Solar Maximum in 2013. Once the sun sets and the stars come out, we will begin a celestial tour of the night sky to include (but not limited to):

Saturn
Mars
The Moon
Double and Multi-star Systems
Globular Star Clusters

After an intermission for a wonderful fireworks display, we will continue the “Oohs” and “Ahs” as we peruse the jewels of the night sky. If the weather cooperates and the sky is nice and calm, we’ll try peering a little deeper and see if we can check off some of the objects on the ALCon 2012 Observer’s Challenge list. In addition to telescope observing, we will also enjoy wide-field views with our naked eyes as we trace out constellations and asterisms and simply enjoy the majestic views of our greatest natural resource, the Dark Night Sky!

The astronomy world’s own rock ‘n’ roll and blues band, consisting of members from the staff of Astronomy magazine and its publisher, is set to play as entertainment for ALCon 2012. On Saturday, July 7, the band will rock it out for attendees of the annual meeting of the Astronomical League at the Lincolnshire Marriott in Lincolnshire, Illinois, some 32 miles northwest of Chicago City Center.

Fronting the band are Wisconsin musicians Megan Bobo, seen by millions on American Idol, and Steve Kryscio, who sings and plays saxophone. The backing band consists of Keith Bauer and Jeff Felbab on guitars, Mike Soliday on bass, and Dave Eicher on drums.

The band’s repertoire includes classic rock such as timeless material from The Band, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Queen, and The Who. The band also plays blues from the playlists of the Allman Brothers Band, Jeff Beck, Howlin’ Wolf, Bonnie Raitt, Koko Taylor, Susan Tedeschi, and Muddy Waters.

Mars

Mars will be at opposition at 20:35 03 March 2012 UT. Mars will have a visual magnitude of -1.23, a size of about 13.9 arcseconds and be about 0.67 AU away from Earth in the constellation of Leo. Mars will appear as a bright red-orange object that should rise at about the same time the sun sets.

Sounds good so far right, easy target! Well the answer is yes and no. In a modest 3″ – 4″ backyard reflector Mars will appear as a bright reddish orange disk with some detail here and there depending on the sky conditions at that time. Under high magnification and good seeing you can tease out a polar cap and some surface detail when the conditions are right. Follow these steps to ensure your best viewing.

• Choose a calm night with good seeing conditions. So long as the stars aren’t twinkling too much your chances of decent seeing even under a little haze are good.
• Stay up late! Mars doesn’t rise high in the sky until later in the evening. Make sure Mars rises up past the atmospheric muck and skyglow for best results.
• Use the highest magnification allowed by your scope. I would begin with magnification around 90x and work my way up until things get blurry then step back a bit.
• Make sure your scopes mirror has become acclimated to the outside temperature. Once temperature has become steady on the mirror and tube your results will get better
• Switch out some filters if you have them. Colors of yellow, orange, red, green and blue can tease out certain features such as Deserts, polar cap boundaries, cloud bands, etc… Your mileage may vary between filters but go for it!
• Stay with it! Keep your eye on the planet and watch as conditions change on Mars and Earth. You may get glimpses of great clarity and the details will pop out at you. Stick with it for best results
• Keep in mind that Mars is only twice as big as our moon, but as much as 200 times farther away during opposition.

If you can get a picture and send it to iskywatch.com so we can post it! We would love to hear your method of viewing mars as well. All posts are welcome…

If you are in the Chicagoland area try to stop by the Hickory Knolls Mars Madness party we are throwing that evening. Click here for details… Hickory Knolls

Clear Skies…

Rich Wagner

www.iskywatch.com

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