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Once again the seasons turn and Analemma Society held a noontime celebration of the 2021 Summer Solstice on June 20th at Turn Farm Observatory Park. The photo below shows visitors standing around the new analemmatic sundial created by scout Kenny Dieffenderfer & Scout Toop 1547 just days before the Solstice event.
photo by Dr. Jeff Kretsch
A wide variety of events were held, including understanding the distance between planets, cutting out paper sundials (below left), and seeing celestial visitors that have landed on earth (below right)...no not aliens, but meteorites. Alan Figgatt, Nathan Offenbacher and Jeff Kretsch worked the telescopes inside the Roll-Top Observatory. The Jamestown and Analemmatic Sundials were used. Cal Powell had the meteorite display table. Mary Blessing did a solar system exercise, and Robert Anderson did the sundial cutout table and helped with the sunspotters. Fiston Keita with NOVAC brought his H-alpha scope for direct observng of the sun. Mo from Riverbend handled attendance and assisted with setup and cleanup.
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 photo by Thomas Trostel18 x 300 second exposures,Celestron AVX and Cannon EOS-R
Using Baader Moon & Skyglow Filter
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Many sky enthusiasts such as Thomas Trostel love phtographing the heavens. Shown here is the nebulosity around Gamma Cygni (IC1318) taken near his home in Reston. But light pollution is making it increasingly difficult to find a dark sky.
Turner Farm Observatory Park is one of the best places to observe and photograph the night sky and recognition with the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) is underway by the Fairfax County Park Authority.
The Analemma Society has made public observing an important resource at Turn Farm Park with a collection of telescopes in the Roll-Top Observatory now available to the public every Friday night, weather permitting. Equipment was made available through Mastenbrook Grants and the generous donation by Jean and Ric Edelman.
Efforts are underway led by by Andrew Hayes to purchase a new telescope with CCD imager and filters for remote control in the Remote Astronomical Telescope Observatory (RATO) next to the Roll Top Observatory and Class Room. This will expand capabilities for public imaging of the universe. Details of how this will come about is still in the planning stages. But remote views of the deep heavens is coming to a computer near you.
And more to come. Radio Jove and the One Square Meter Radio Telescope are being establishing to monitor the sun (solar flares), planets (Jupiter and its moon Io), and our Milky Way Galaxy (observing the 21cm radio transmission of hydrogen as a tracer of the spiral arms). Stay tuned for participating in these exciting observations.
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| Bill Burton Photo using an iPhone 12 through a Celestron C90 Maksutov with a Thousand Oak Solar Filter-June10, 2021 |
Before sunrise on June 10th, Analemma Society volunteers Alan Figgat, Dan Ward and wife Donna, Mary Blessing, Bill Burton and wife Laurel Wanrow, and Daniel Vrolijk prepared the Turner Farm Park Observatory's coronograph to view the eclipse and their own telescopes with protective filters. In Virginia the sun rose at 5:45am EDT with eclipse maximum at 5:48am and the last moon contact was 6:29am. Despite the overall poor weather forecasts, the final forecasts did predict breaks in the clouds around sunrise. That is exactly what happened.
There was a light public turnout, probably due to the poor weather forecasts and the early morning hour. However, several parents with children came at the early hour to oberve the celestical event of the moon blocking about 65% of the sun. Clouds blocked the eclipsed sun for a few minutes as it cleared the treeline, then gaps and clearing of the clouds provided dramatic views of the partially eclipsed sun with clouds passing in front. With the return of public access to the Roll-Top building, Analemma Society volunteers showed visitors telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn before and after sunrise.
Meanwhile Bob Kellogg was in upstate New York and had the same weather of hazy clouds with 80% of the sun blocked. However, just before sunrise there was a spectacular sun dog making an almost complete Jacob's Ladder. (sun pillar).
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Who let the dogs out? This is a springtime phenomenon of "mock suns" called sun dogs created by ice crystals highin the atmosphere. If you look closely at Dr. Jeff Kretsch's photo of the RATO tower and just over the roof of the Roll-Top Observatory is a bright spot. That's a sun dog. Usually they come in pairs to the left and right of the sun at an angle of 22 degrees and if you look carefully over the trees at right, youll see a faint second sun dog. Sometimes a halo or partial halo can be seen around the sun as well. This photo was taken on March 30, 2021. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog
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The "Great Conjunction" of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21st means that these two planets will appear in the sky very close together...so close that you will be able to see both in a view through a small telescope. The last time these planets appeared this close was in 1623, but the sun was in the way. So the last time these planets were actually seen this close was in 1226. Yes, this is a rare event, and hence the prefix "Great" in front of the word conjunction. It has been called "The Christmas Star" by news reports, and is certainly not the star of Bethlehem (remember that Harod couldn't see the star...everyone can watch Jupiter and Saturn). Don't panic if it is cloudy on the 21st. Go out a couple of days before the 21st and watch each clear night. Use binoculars or a small telescope for a great view.
While calibrating telescopes at the Roll-Top Observatory at Turner Farm Observatory Park, Jeff Kretsch took the following photo at right:
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