Stargazing Nights
- Where:
- Frosty Drew Observatory
- When:
- Friday January 25 2019 at 7:00 p.m
- Cost:
- $5 Suggested Donation per person 5 years and older
Tonight is Stargazing Night at Frosty Drew Observatory and clear skies rock! Forecasts are calling for clear skies all night long. We also have no Moon present until the 74% waning gibbous Moon rises at 10:33 pm. The only issue we are seeing for tonight is the wind, with gusts foretasted to potential reach into the low 30 mph range. If wind gusts are severe, we may be limited to one side of the sky, though we will work with what we have and celebrate the clear skies.
We will open the Observatory and Sky Theatre at 7:00 pm tonight. In the Observatory, telescopes will focus on all the fabulous deep sky objects that are only visible under super dark skies. On tonight’s list is the fabulous Orion Nebula, the beautiful Messier 46 open star cluster, the Eskimo Nebula, the Cetus A galaxy, the Flame Nebula, R Lepus, and as many nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies that we can fit in. In the Sky Theatre, temps will be warm, offering a break from the cold. On screen we will either show our regular feature of celestial objects photographed at Frosty Drew Observatory, or possibly host a live stargazing session from one of our remote telescopes. We will stay open until 11:00 pm.
Overall, tonight looks fantastic. Clear skies and no Moon present for most of our session, will make for amazing views. The only questionable item is the intensity of wind gusts at our location. If making the long drive, tonight could be your night to catch fabulous views of the winter starscape. It will be cold, not as bad as it has been, but temps will drop through the 30’s during our session, eventually into the low 20’s by morning. If wind is present, the wind chills can be quite unrelenting, so dressing properly will make all the difference. We just happen to have an article written to help you with this important step, check it out. Now gear up and set out for stunning dark skies and amazing starscapes on the heels of a fabulous lunar eclipse, and show off your geek cred at Frosty Drew Observatory tonight!
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Weekly Happenings
Scott MacNeill
On January 20-21, 2019, a fabulous total lunar eclipse happened over the US, with best viewing locations found along the East Coast. Timings of the lunar eclipse and the intense winter storm that hammered a large swath of central and eastern US, made for a lot of uncertainty, both in the forecast and in travel conditions. At Frosty Drew Observatory, our risk assessment valued the eclipse as too perfectly placed, celestially, to miss out on. The decision was made, and we safely set out for a night at at the Observatory. It’s important to note that we utilize a weather forecasting tool at Frosty Drew that we developed. The tool applies a Bayesian algorithm to numerous weather forecasting sources, allowing us to build a high probability prediction. Our model predicted clear skies for the entire eclipse. As it happened, we are glad we took a chance! Upon arriving in Ninigret Park (home to Frosty Drew Observatory) at 8:30 pm, the skies were clearing out rapidly and became crystal clear by 9:00 pm. Travel conditions (from the Providence, RI area) were no worse than usual, with most roadways south of Narragansett being dry. We setup our equipment to archive the eclipse, and captured 884 images over the entire eclipse, with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was an amazing night! The eclipse cast a more noticeable red hue during the total eclipse period than the last total lunar eclipse in September 2015, and the placement of the Moon made for a fabulous silhouette of the red Moon alongside the Milky Way and thousands of stars. Though the views were amazing, the temps were brutal! The eclipse ended about 2:48 am and it took about an hour to pack everything up. When we left at 4:00 am, temps on site were 3°F with wind chills nearing -20°F. We had about 50 visitors come out that night and we captured a full data set of the eclipse. We are still processing a lot of the captured images, and we are posting them to our Wolf Moon Eclipse 2019 gallery on our website as they become available. Check out the gallery to get an idea of the fabulous view that we were seeing. Though we are still posting, the gallery should be complete by the end of this coming week. Note that we are not putting 884 images into the gallery, only the highlights. When everybody was predicting doom for eclipse viewing, we took a chance, and scored a fabulous night that we will not soon forget!
Winter happens in New England. This is a statement that I find myself saying nearly everyday to someone who seems to think that winter happening in this area is an anomaly. On Friday nights at Frosty Drew Observatory, and special events, during the winter months, it is cold. Intensely cold at times! We can’t say this enough. Frosty Drew Observatory is situated in Ninigret Park, which is comprised of 272 acres of pretty much wide open, flat land (it was an airport at one time). Immediately south of Frosty Drew Observatory (about 150 feet distant) is the border of the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, which spans about one mile south to the ocean. For Southern New England standards, this is the wilderness, and the cold coupled with the wind is unrelenting. It’s not only about dressing properly, it’s about respecting these types of elements. Visitors often show up in spring jackets - unzipped, wearing dress shoes, and no hat. If you think you are tough enough to handle the cold at Frosty Drew Observatory in your varsity jacket with your fancy wingtips, then let us be the ones to tell you that you aren’t. Additionally, dressing frivolously has a significant impact on the view that you and everybody else gets in the telescope. Any heat radiating from inside the dome will escape through the opening in the roof, the same opening that the telescope is looking out of. The heat rising from the exposed head or open jacket of poorly dressed visitor will change the density of the air in front of the telescope, distorting the refractive angle of light, which will render the telescope unable to maintain focus.
We do have an option for visitors that are dressed inadequately, and that is the Sky Theatre, which is indoors, heated, and provides sufficient shelter from the elements. Now that the Holidays and numerous celestial events of late have passed, we are in the long cold of winter. Starting next month, we will be moving the Stargazing program into the Sky Theatre on Friday nights, with the option of having a program in the Observatory as well. Using a telescope setup with a camera on our campus, we will remotely control the telescope from inside the Sky Theatre and project the live image on screen. This will allow for easier escapes from the cold, as well as better group discussions about what we are observing. We will post additional information about this stargazing change over the next couple of weeks. Until then, dress respectfully, and stay warm!
Over the past week, The International Space Station (ISS) has been making daily appearances overhead in our nighttime sky, passes which will continue through this week, showing off fabulous views nearly every night. Here are a couple of notable passes in the coming days:
Fri, Jan 25 starting at 6:43 pm in the W, rising to 27°, heading towards the NNW
Sat, Jan 26 starting at 5:51 pm in the W, rising to 40°, heading towards the NE
Sun, Jan 27 starting at 6:38 pm in the WNW, rising to 18°, heading towards the N
Mon, Jan 28 starting at 5:46 pm in the WNW, rising to 23°, heading towards the NE
Wed, Jan 30 starting at 5:40 pm in the NW, rising to 17°, heading towards the NNE
These times are applicable for Southern New England and generally acceptable for the Northeast. For pass times specific to your location, visit NASAs Spot the Station. Passes will continue almost every night until February 12, 2019. So get out and see the ISS blaze the sky, before the station orbits out of our region for a while.
-Scott