Cincinnati Observatory’s A-2-Z Astronomy Begins Tonight
February 21st, 2010Astronomy Outreach, Cool Stuff Comments OffDo you regret not taking that astronomy course in college? Starting tonight, the Cincinnati Observatory is offering an weekly introductory course called A-2-Z Astronomy taught by University of Cincinnati Professor Dave Bosse. The course will cover everything from the Moon to our Solar and Galactic systems. The course is free to Observatory members in the $50 range and higher. Reservations are required as space is very limited. Contact the Observatory at 513-321-5186 to register.
As the blizzard of the century continues to pound on my front door I felt inspired to write an entry about another icy world in our solar system that has astronomers’ horns locked in a “heated” debate over ice volcanoes, underground oceans, and the growing religious status of Lime Diet Coke. Ok…so not so much the Diet Coke thing, but Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, is a really cool (no pun intended) place that has baffled astronomers for years and now a general consensus has been reached that there is an ocean of liquid water beneath the planet’s surface. This makes Enceladus one of two places in the solar system that scientists suspect of harboring a subterranean ocean; the other is Europa, the legendary Jupiter moon that is science fiction home of the monolith race from 2001: A Space Odyssey. While the debate over the presence of liquid water raged in science labs and UFC octagons across the world, the Cassini probe silently performed a series of flybys in 2008 to search for the presence of negative ions. 
If you are lucky enough to have clear skies then you should step outside tonight and see Mars (magnitude -1.23) in its most brilliant display of the year as it moves quickly toward its opposition, the point when our planet, Mars, and the Sun are lined up, on January 29. Mars rises in the Eastern sky at 1828hrs EST and is best visible around midnight. Click 
The stress of my real job and my proclivity for forgetting basic information and tasks requires that I carry a device that will remind me of the mundane meetings and endless tasks that have to be completed throughout the day. Since I have always had an aversion to carrying my cell phone with me except for emergency purposes, I have always used a personal data assistant to keep track of my work and my life. Until a couple of months ago, I used an HP iPaq 110 handheld running Windows Mobile 6. However, I recently joined the twenty first century and transitioned to a third generation Apple iPod Touch with which I immediately fell in love. While the app store has a wide variety of applications that can turn an iPhone or iPod into a powerful astronomical tool, I have found a nice selection of free apps that can get an amateur astronomer working in the field in a matter of minutes. In no particular order, here are the four recommended free astronomy applications from Apple’s Store.
A long time ago in galaxy far, far away…I hated the winter. The cold temperatures and biting winds were enough to keep me depressed for six straight months. I was going to write about how I missed the turning of the leaves, but I remembered that I have spent the last nine years of my life living in New Mexico and Texas where there are very few trees and no change in their appearance for the cold season. A man can go crazy living in an environment like that! I would wake up one morning and the trees would be bare! It was as if those monsters from Stephen King’s The Langoliers had descended on our little Texas town and devoured all of the leaves during the night. This was all before I fell in love with astronomy and began taking my telescope outside on a regular basis. It seems, as I recall, that my obsession with astronomy began during the winter months. I remember a distinct, stinging sensation in my hands as I tried to set up my cheapo 3” Newtonian Reflector telescope outside my apartment in New Mexico in 12 degrees F with a 10mph wind in my face. That pain, as almost any amateur astronomer will tell you, is well worth the crystal clear views that you can get from your telescope during the winter months. I spoke a little about the virtues of winter observation to the Clovis News Journal a few years ago during the Clovis Astronomy Club’s annual Astronomy Day at the Library outreach event. It was true in New Mexico and it is true today in Dayton. Winter is also great because, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful night sky targets are prominent in the early evening during the winter months: 1) Orion, including The Great Nebula and The Horse Head Nebula, 2) Lyra, featuring Vega and The Ring Nebula, 3) Cassiopeia with her double star cluster, and 4) Andromeda, with its crown jewel The Great Galaxy in Andromeda. Many of those targets stay up for the entire year, but you have to be willing to up late or get up early to see them.
Following the winter romance with my first reflector telescope, I was excited about the prospect of going outside and using it without a scarf, jacket, gloves, and a campfire. Unfortunately, I found that summer sessions can be, at times, more annoying than a winter session. There is a significant amount of heat that rises from the Earth’s surface during the spring and summer months. The same phenomenon that causes visual distortions on hot highways (i.e. the water mirage) can wreak havoc with an observation session. Heat rising into the atmosphere can cause noticeable distortions and make it very difficult or impossible to collimate scopes or bring some targets into focus. Depressed yet? That is just the beginning! There is another menace that can turn your session into a fight for survival: mosquitoes. I am firm believer that they are the hell-spawn reincarnations of those crusty, pissed-off amateur astronomers that huddle in their own corners at star parties and refuse to share their knowledge with anyone else. They will descend upon your observing session without mercy; they take no prisoners, and they do not care about your citronella candle. Those first few sessions were quite a battle, and it left me with many war wounds before I was smart enough to bring candles and plenty of bug spray. Somehow I wish that I had read a book before just diving into this hobby all those years ago. Not too long ago, a friend named Jeff Barton at Comanche Springs Observatory showed me a mosquito-repellant polo shirt that kept him from having to douse himself in bug spray every thirty minutes. It was pretty cool, but it can cost as much as an intermediate telescope like my 3” refractor (around $400).
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