Tag: astronomy (Page 1 of 2)

I thought I’d take a gander at the Venus-Pleiades conjunction the next night (Apr. 4) and the viewing was a little bit better than on the 3rd. Venus was sitting above the Pleiades and I could make out the two fainter stars, one just to the right of the star immediately below Venus and the other between the bottom two stars in Pleiades. I couldn’t see these on the third. The air seems very clear today, so I’ll take another look this evening. Again, here’s last night’s rendition from the Stellarium software.

There was a nice astronomical conjunction last night, April 3, after sunset. Venus sat right next to the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation Taurus, the Bull. We had clear skies, meaning no clouds, but the pollution these days from brushfires nearby and from farmers burning the stubble off their fields in preparation for monsoon season planting, makes sky viewing very difficult. I could see the event OK, but the spectacle was dimmed quite a bit due to the pollution.

When I’m looking at the skies through my binoculars, I sometimes think how nice it would be to have a telescope again, but then I come to my senses and realize that having one here would be a lost cause, so to speak. About the only time of year that the skies are transparent are in December and January. Every other time the viewing is ruined by air pollution or monsoon season clouds. Anything that might be low on the horizon would be washed out by the lights from Vientiane to the west, though higher up objects are viewable. That’s about the only direction viewable to me from the house because I’m surrounded by trees or bright street lights ruin the view. Anyway, here’s a decent semblance of what I saw last night as captured from my Stellarium planetarium software (it’s open source and free–give it a try).

I was able to find Uranus this past Saturday evening because the sky wasn’t as hazy as it had been. I keep daydreaming about buying a Celestron telescope the next time I’m down in Bangkok, possibly a six-incher, the popular NexStar 6SE. But, then I start thinking about how often I would use it: probably not much.

At this time of year the skies are at their clearest, but even now there’s a large amount of haze from pollution that destroys the possibility of seeing faint objects. Later, the rainy season sets in and most nights are very cloudy or overcast. I don’t think I’d get much use of a telescope. For now I’ll stay with my binocs (but, you never know).

Saturday night, the sky was fairly transparent, so I was able to see 6th magnitude Uranus with the binoculars, even though I didn’t wait for my eyes to become dark-adapted. Right now, it’s above Venus in the evening sky and fairly easy to find by star-hopping from the brighter planet. Here’s the evening sky, using a screen capture from my planetarium software, Stellarium.

And here’s a closeup of the view in my binocs. The star at the bottom of the triangle, to the right of Uranus is 7th mag., and I was able to make it out also, so the clarity was pretty good.

Here’s hoping for more clear skies.

Usually at this time of year in Laos, the night sky is quite clear, making for some good star gazing. Lately, though, it’s been unusually cloudy, a ruinous situation for astronomy enthusiasts. Finally, the heavens cleared last Sunday night. I pulled out my trusty 10 x 50 Olympus binoculars and braved the outdoors, covering up to avoid the hordes of mosquitos which have been visiting lately.

The viewing was quite good, though there’s always some light pollution from Nong Khai, across the Mekong in Thailand. That wrecks the viewing of, about, the lower 15 degrees of the sky to the north and east. But, I was searching about 60-70 degrees up, looking for a small star cluster designated Stock 23, a.k.a. Pazmino’s Cluster, that I read about in Sky and Telescope magazine. To my delight, I found it right away. In the binocs, it appeared as a small gathering of four stars that I could only resolve with averted vision. (How I long for a medium-sized telescope. I could buy one in Bangkok, but it would be impractical to use up here because I’d have very few clear nights in which to use it.)

This is a screen capture from my planetarium program, Stellarium, showing Stock 23 (Pasmino’s Cluster). It’s the 4 stars right above the crosshairs. This is enlarged a bit from how it’s seen in 10 x 50 binoculars.

I took in a few other views before turning in. The Sword Belt in Orion was, as always, spectacular and the Double Cluster in Perseus showed up nicely. I browsed around the Milky Way, just enjoying all the stars rather than doing a search for particular objects. It was a very rewarding session, especially since I haven’t star-gazed in awhile.

I was reminded of some good times from 60 years ago! My cousins, the Balma family, and I would sit outside their house in Owosso, Michigan at dusk, waiting for the first star to appear. Whoever spotted it would get to make a wish that would (of course!) come true. I don’t remember what we wished for, but I can imagine that some of them became reality.

Every time I spend a few hours or minutes looking into space, I realize how infinite it is and how infinitesimal we are. This is not a depressing thought at all.

Another screen capture from Stellarium showing the famous Double Cluster in Perseus. It’s about the same view I get in 10 x 50 binocs, except the sky is not this clear in Laos!

The Sword of Orion, a great naked-eye object that almost everyone is familiar with. It looks even better in binoculars and it’s spectacular with a telescope. This is another Stellarium screen capture of almost what my binoculars show (except for the sky clarity.)