The clouds rolled away just in time for a perfect view last night. As the sun set, the sky was filled with red, orange and blue, which was awesome because it cast a rosy glow over everything in Boulder. By the time I reached home, I could also see a few long, dark clouds “lining” the sky that reminded me of the Milky Way. Just after dark, I saw Jupiter shining brightly to the south, and Antares (the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius) not far below and next to Lupus, slightly to the west. By about 21:15ish, Cassiopeia (one of my favorites) had cleared the horizon to the north, and Saturn was visible to the west. The star of the show, of course, was Venus, which shone brilliantly above Cancer, visible also to the west. It was a lovely night.
Archive for the 'astronomy' Category
New Moon
Ursa Major
On Saturday night I had a wonderful time star gazing! I made my way up as far as I could into the mountains without getting too “lost” (yes, I am still a city girl…) and was just amazed at the canopy of stars I saw once I cut the head lights off. So beautiful… I’d brought my laptop along to use the SkyGazer software that came with my astronomy textbook, and I found it easy to navigate through after a few minutes of playing around. While observing the Milky Way through my binoculars, I saw a shooting star! Wow. My photography bug is itching again…I’ve been looking on the web at lenses for night shooting.
For my class, I have a project that requires me to map out five constellations, one of which had to be Ursa Major (The Great Bear, whose seven brightest stars form the “Big Dipper”). Given the horizon I faced and the time of night, it was directly over my head, upside (cup-side) down and very bright. If I can find a good picture of it I’ll post it here. The nights are getting clear again, and I found a nice lookout point not too far from my house. I should get out again before the moon gets too full.
Saturday
It’s gorgeous outside–the sun is out shiny and bright, it’s a balmy 60 degrees and there isn’t a cloud (that I can see) in the sky. I woke up early and feeling tired this morning, but the thought of all the astronomy homework I have to get done this weekend snapped me out of bed pretty quickly 
To alleviate some of the foreboding gloom of doing school work on such a beautiful day, I decided I would treat myself to breakfast at the local tea house. Yummy.
After eating, I walked over to the library and reserved one of their study rooms–they’re gorgeous, have floor to ceiling windows that fill two walls, and are on the second floor (which means you can see most of downtown). The rooms are also sound-proof! The one I got this time also happens to face the train tracks, and it’s fun to watch the cars when they go by–lots of people gather around to see them. Unfortunately, despite the great view, the library’s wireless internet connection wasn’t working (grrrr) and I needed it to do some research. After muddling through limited or no connectivity for about an hour, I walked over to the librarian and told her about the problem. “Oh, yeah,” she said, “a few others have come to me about it in the last couple of days. I should probably report that to someone.” Huh?!?! I walked back to the room, gathered my things and went home.
Although we’ve got internet at home, the last thing I wanted to do was be in the house all day, so I considered other options. As it just so happens, days like this make me want to either open all of the windows and doors in the house and get to scrubbin’, or get under the hood and work on the car. Since I felt lazy this morning, I opted out of the cleaning bit and drove over to the nearest Auto Zone to check my fluid levels and buy a few things. I’m glad I did because the power steering fluid level was nearly bone dry (something I thought I could feel while out driving yesterday, so I checked it first). After topping that up and checking for leaks (there were none), I added a bit of washer fluid to the reservoir, checked the tire pressures and topped up on coolant. Everything else was in good shape. With a smile of mechanical satisfaction, I pulled off and headed to campus to get busy on astronomy.
Right now I’m working through a tutorial and a short essay on Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. I’ve been pretty surprised at how much I’m feelin’ this class. I always thought star-gazing was cool, but learning the deeper aspects of what we see when we look up at the sky has been very satisfying. Tonight I’ve work to begin on a constellation project, so I’m probably gonna head out after dark and find a mountain top somewhere. With the moon nearly new, it’ll be a perfect night for viewing.
