Tuesday, May 8 was a partly cloudy night. Although we were able to see the stars in most of the constellations we observed outdoors, the clouds made it difficult for Bill Ziegler to find some of the objects in the telescope.
the moon was at first quarter, which made the sky bright for the evening and the stars appear dim. In this observing session we saw stars in nine constellations outdoors and three objects through the telescope.
The first object we observed was the Big Dipper. An asterism in the circumpolar constellation Ursa Major, or the "Big Bear," the Big Dipper is made up of three stars in its handle and four in its cup. The middle star in the handle is a double star and the two stars making the outer edge of the cu~ are called "pointer stars,~ because following four times their distance apart in the night sky north we find the ~north star," Polaris. Appropriately, Polaris was the next object we observed. It marks the location in the sky which is nearly due north. The next object we observed was the Little Dipper, an asterism in the constellation Ursa Minor, or ~Little Bear.~ Located about halfway between Polaris and the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper is circumpolar.
Bootes, a constellation which looks like a big ice cream cone, was the third constellation we observed. Arcturus, which is the brightest bright star in our night sky, is one star in this constellation. Corona Borealis, right next to Bootes, was the fourth constellation we looked at. Its 7 stars are configured in the shape of a crown, with one brighter star as the crown's jewel. About 20¡ up in the night sky we observed the bright star Vega. Thls star is part of the constellation Lyra, the fifth constellation in our outdoor observation. The summer triangle, we were told, is made up of Veqa and two other stars.
Virgo, containing the bright star Spica, was the siXth constellation we observed. One of the constellations of the zodiac, Virgo lies along the ecliptic, which is also the path of the other constellations which make up the signs of the zodiac. The moon was the next object we observed. In its first quarter, as previously mentioned, the moon was located low in the constellation Leo. In Leo we also observed the bright star Regulus, located just above tke moon in the l'sickle" part of Leo. About 10¡ above Regulus we saw the planet Mars. This red planet moves, as do all other planets, in a path close to the ecliptic.
Castor and Pollux were two stars in the eighth con~tellstion we observed, Gemini. Called the twins, Castor was the star on the right as we observed the night sky and Pollux was on the left. Gemini is another constellation of the zodiac. Finally, the ninth constellation we observed Monday night was the constellation Auriga. A large pentagon in the night sky, Auriga~contains the last bright star we observed, Capella.
We next moved on to making observations through the tele~cope. As there were so many people at Monday night~s observing session, we were given the information about each object outside, then we filed through the telescope to make the observation. Once through, we again waited out~ide while Bill Ziegler made the adjustments for the next object.
The first object we looked at was M5, a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens. M5 had a right ascension of 15 hours 19 minutes, a declination of +2¡ 5 minutes, a magnitude of 6 and a diameter of 17 arcminutes. Through the telescope Ms resembled a little wisp of cotton ball stuck onto the night sky. 54 Leo was the second object we saw. An optical double star, 54 Leo had a right ascension of 10 hours 55.6 minutes and a declination of +24¡ 45 minutes. The magnitudes of the two stars were 4.5 and 6.4, and their angular separation was 6.5 arcseconds.
The third and last object we saw in our telescopic observation was the moon. Focused on the terminator of the moon so that several craters on the surface, particularly one larger one in the middle, were visible, the telescope also had a green filter in it which gave the moon a ghostly greenish cast.
The moon was illuminated on the right side in the night sky, but appeared (of course) illuminated on the left and inverted through the telescope. We were told to look only through the high power lens because of the green filter as through the low power lens and the spotter scope it would have been too bright. The moon was a beautiful object with which to end the final observation of the last observation session.
Pictures available:
Picture One
Picture Two
