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Additional Information for Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard
by Dave Gary 16 Oct '21

16 Oct '21

I forgot to add in the last post that if you hit the “info” icon below the photograph there is additional information regarding this comet and how comet magnitudes are estimated. Dave

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Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard
by Dave Gary 16 Oct '21

16 Oct '21

I caught an image of this comet at approximately 06:30 this morning from the Driveway Observatory in St. George. Read a “Weekly Update” piece from S&T and decided to take a look. > https://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/51594503492/in/dateposted-public/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/51594503492/in/dateposted-public/>

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Lakeride Jr High (Orem) science classes star party postponed
by John M. Craig 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

Hi Folks, The science teachers at Lakeridge are looking at dates in the week of the 18th-22nd. Wednesday the 13th is definitely off. Will let you know when have a date for next week (or whenever). John

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Lakeridge (Orem) star party on Oct 13th looking unlikely
by John M. Craig 05 Oct '21

05 Oct '21

Hi Folks, Weather for next week isn't looking promising; predicting more than about 5 days out is not terribly reliable, but at the moment, the forecast for Wednesday the 13th is for mostly cloudy in the evening (after rain and snow showers earlier in the day). I'll let the usual suspects know directly as we get closer. Thanks! John

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Some pictures of the not-as-spectacular prominence
by John M. Craig 02 Oct '21

02 Oct '21

Hi Folks, Well, by the time I was able to get a chance to take pictures, the prominence wasn't nearly as dramatic. The prominence on the left in these pics (reversed left to right from actual) was nearly a complete arch upward about 3 times the length of the brightest part you see if my photos. My photo technique consists of holding the camera lens against the eyepiece and then some very minor processing to improve the contrast. Getting a decent exposure that pics up the face of the sun and doesn't wash the details out of the proms is a bit of a trick. Hope you might find 'em interesting. I'm aware that more could be done with them if I were interested in spending the time. (There's undoubtedly better pictures of the amazing prominence that were taken earlier in the day posted on the CloudyNights Solar forum.) http://user.xmission.com/~johncraig/astro/solarpics/2021-10-02/ John

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Awesome solar prominence!
by John M. Craig 02 Oct '21

02 Oct '21

If you have H-alpha gear, don't miss getting a view today--even though it's later in the day. I've perhaps seen only one prominence that was larger. If you can't get a look today, it may persist long enough to get a look tomorrow. Sunny skies! John

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Morning Comets: 6 September 2021
by Dave Gary 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

I got up early on the 6th of September to image these comets. It was a very nice early morning at the Driveway Observatory in St. George. I added a couple of other images just for fun. https://flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/sets/72157719787878051 Dave

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Less was more!
by John M. Craig 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Hi Folks, So, last Saturday, I determined to go to a darker-than-at-home site to do some observing and invited a whole bunch of people to come if they were so inclined. Seemed like I'd ultimately get 4 or 5 people to come. I made what I thought was a crystal clear map of how to find the dirt "park" just a couple of dozen yards down Provo South Fork Road from the Trefoil Ranch gate. The I uploaded the map to a web site and sent out the link--and then I promptly changed the name of the spot where I'd put it so the link wouldn't work. Sheesh. Got that fixed and only had one person tell me the link didn't work. One of the excuses for going was to see some action with Jupiter's moons between 11 and midnight. So, since I figured there might be a number of folks, I decided to set up my Celestron 4" achromat as well as my 6" ED APO. I set up the 4" on the mount and was about to put an eyepiece in when I realized the screw hole for the tension screw to hold the eyepiece in place was empty. Looked for the screw in the car and on the ground. No luck. Took down the 4" and the mount. Set up the 6" (always handy to have another pair of hands for that, but I've done it by myself plenty of times; just takes longer). Fussed with getting the electronic mount polar aligned. OK. Made it; no one had to stand around waiting for me to get set up. Well the seeing was not good at all (that spot has generally had decent seeing). Jupiter and Saturn were at a medium boil. There's no cell service from there so I couldn't let anyone know not to bother to come. One of the people was expected at around 10. Well, it turned out they and one other person actually drove up (as far as I know). Neither found me! So, I mostly waited around (not knowing it was to be a lone-man evening). I checked out a few DSOs but the sky was brighter than I expected along with the poor seeing. Double sheesh. Mount wasn't holding alignment well at all. Had to redo alignment multiple times. Frustrating. It got to be enough later than 10 pm and the only cars I'd seen that hadn't turned into the parking area where I was set up just went up to the Trefoil Ranch gate and turned around--not really practical to go stand in the road, wave them down, and ask if they happened to be friends. But it got close to 11 so I waited for the reappearance of the moon from eclipse (or so I thought). Turned out I'd remembered the event incorrectly. It was reappearance from occultation--and with the limb of Jupiter being so fuzzy from the poor seeing, it was several minutes after the predicted time that I could finally see the moon separate from the disk; not a gradual appearance that I might have seen with good seeing. Ho hum. So, that night was pretty much a bust. A couple of nights later, having equipped the 4" scope's diagonal with a screw from Lowe's (not ideal, but a stopgap while I waited for the McMaster order to come), I decided I'd just have a look from the front yard (acorn streetlight kitty-corner across the street and all). Set up the manual mount (no fussing with alignment) and popped the scope on. Seeing was pretty darn good! There was Callisto just having finished a transit and its shadow clearly visible on Jupiter. Called a couple of folks who live nearby and 2 friends plus one of their kids all had good views of Callisto's shadow right up until the point it disappeared from the limb and enjoyed some decent views of Saturn too. All my great plans came to nothing and just a grab-and-go view was great. What a hobby! Clear (and steady) skies, Friends! John

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Lakeridge Jr High School star party Oct 13th
by John M. Craig 23 Sep '21

23 Sep '21

Hi Folks, Got my annual request from the science teacher at Lakeridge and we've fixed on Wednesday October 13th as the target date. It turns out the kids don't have school the following day (end of term or something--never had those when I was that age). As we get close enough to follow the weather we may shift it around a bit. The moon will be at 1st Quarter but with Jupiter and Saturn and the odd star cluster, we should be able to show some things that'll be of interest. This is an informal event and if you'd like to participate, just email me directly or, if we've texted before, you can send me a text. You're also welcome to just show up. As we get closer to Oct 13th, I'll be in contact with those who have told me they are planning to be there. And perhaps one more general announcement. Just BTW, I'd be happy to help with a star or sun party for any school in Utah County or fairly nearby if you know of a school that might be interested you can have them contact me or if you have something planned, let me know and I'd be pleased to help if I can. Clear (and dark) Skies, John

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Lots of solar activity
by John M. Craig 23 Sep '21

23 Sep '21

Hi Folks, Lots of activity on the sun today and likely to continue for the next few days. I haven't checked out a white-light view (have to do that over the weekend), but I'm sure 2872 near the center of the sun and 2871 in the south would both be quite impressive. Best h-alpha views I've had this cycle. 2871 has apparently produced some flares in the past 48 hours. 2 more active regions should rotate around to the near side in the next couple of days. That'd be the most active regions on the near side I've been aware of this cycle. If you have the gear for solar observing, looks like a great few days. John

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