That sounds like a fantastic night! Thanks for sharing. I had no idea that Omega Centauri could be seen from Bryce. Sure wish I could come to the astro fest... I wish you all clear skies! ~Kelly
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Message: 4 Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2013 07:33:19 -0600 From: "Kim Hyatt" <kimharch@cut.net> To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: "'Brian D. Ottum, Ph.D.'" <bottum238824MI@comcast.net> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Report Message-ID: <E1UilvS-0002NU-GL@mx02.mta.xmission.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Thought I'd share last night's observing experience with y'all:
Brian Ottum arrived here (Bryce Canyon NP) on Thursday as a volunteer for awhile and for the astronomy festival. Last night we went to Paria View at about sunset for an impromptu observing session. We especially wanted to find 1998 QE2. Once it was dark enough the asteroid was easy in my 10-inch f5 Newtonian but moving more slowly than I expected. It took a few minutes to confirm motion and that we were indeed seeing the asteroid. Next we decided to look for Omega Centauri. The air was so clear and the sky so dark that it was an easy visual target even though it was only a couple of degrees above the horizon. And, it was a glorious sight! With the clear air stars were easily resolved all across the face of the object. I've only seen it a couple of times anyway, but last night it was spectacular. Centaurus A is an easy hop away and we saw it, too, with more detail than I've seen before.
A couple of visitors stopped by to do their own star gazing and we were able to share a handful of deep sky objects with them. The seeing wasn't great, but they were duly impressed with Saturn. Another visitor with his new Canon (I forgot the model) came by to do his own photography. He asked us about a deep red glow in the north that showed up in photos that he took from Sunrise point earlier in the evening. I assumed that it was the light pollution from Ruby's Inn and told him as much. However, when we saw the same glow in Brian's photos it dawned on us that we were seeing an auroral display. At Paria View the northern horizon is a bit elevated but we could tell that the northern sky was brighter than usual, about as much as the Milky Way - no color, though. When I drove home to Tropic at around midnight I stopped my car north of Ruby's and watched the sky for a few minutes. By then I could detect a faint red glow with a few streamers. It wasn't the best display that I've seen but still worth the time. I'm glad that we saw.
Last night was a great teaser for next week's Astrofest. I look forward to seeing everyone here.
Kim