{"id":250,"date":"2006-05-06T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-06T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/05\/06\/astronomy_day_a\/"},"modified":"2006-05-06T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-06T22:00:00","slug":"astronomy_day_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/05\/06\/astronomy_day_a\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomy Day at Lowell Observatory – May 6, 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night, May 6th, was Astronomy Day. This synched up nicely with the CAS meeting at Lowell Observatory. I was scheduled to give a 10 minute presentation on Astro Imaging. I got a little ambitious with the presentation, and coupled with being last-guy-on-the-program, I had to really burn through it, auctioneer style. Afterward, I was revved up like Beavis on a Twinkie binge.
\nI also had the pleasure of meeting Eric Graff and Geoff Gaherty who were both coincidentally visiting Flagstaff on the same day. Eric is an unbelievably talented visual observer and sketcher whose work I’ve admired since I got started. (Check out his gallery of astro sketches<\/a>, if you haven’t already.) Geoff is a Canadian observer who specializes in observing and recording variable star data with the AAVSO<\/a>. He gave a motivating presentation on how to get started in variable star observing and how to submit observations.
\n<\/a>
\nLeft to Right: Eric Graff, Bill Ferris, Geoff Gaherty, Yours Truly<\/i>
\nAfter the CAS meeting, we set up telescopes in front of the rotunda for public viewing. Because it was Astronomy Day, and Lowell was raffling off some nice prizes, the place was packed. There were 7 or 8 of us with telescopes\/large binoculars, including Eric who was a real champ and brought his 6″ Parks Astrolight cross-country. I decided to be a cheater and pulled up Saturn in my scope. You just can’t go wrong with Saturn–it’s an undeniable crowd pleaser. Listening to people exclaim over it and call their friends over is an infectious sort of excitement…particularly when they say the view through my scope looked even better than the 10″ scope that was trained on it up the hill \ud83d\ude00 (the atmosphere was pretty cantankerous and churned-up that evening, so my smaller aperture was a bonus).
\nSome photos are below. Click on any for a larger version. (In case you’re wondering, these are long exposures, so that’s why the people are blurry.)
\n<\/a>
\nA rare and beautiful occasion where the Rotunda was open after dark<\/i>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\nForeground to Background: Eric Graff’s scope, my scope, Bill Ferris’ travel scope, and Padraig Houlahan’s binocs to the right<\/i>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\nThe line to view through Eric’s scope for a closer look at Mizar and Alcor<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20060506<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-observing-report"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/08\/01\/links\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":0},"title":"Links","author":"jperez1690","date":"August 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Links","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/11\/19\/eighteeninch_as\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":1},"title":"Eighteen-inch Astrograph Dome at Lowell Observatory","author":"jperez1690","date":"November 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Eighteen-inch Astrograph Dome at Lowell Observatory","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/11\/21\/november_19_200\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":2},"title":"November 19, 2005 – Don Machholz, Dinner, and the Clark Refractor","author":"jperez1690","date":"November 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"20051119","rel":"","context":"In "Observing Report"","block_context":{"text":"Observing Report","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/observing-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/01\/07\/january_7_updat\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":3},"title":"January 7 Update","author":"jperez1690","date":"January 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"As you've probably noticed, things haven't been very busy in the realm of astronomy around here lately. Over the past month, I did manage to make 1 minor planet and 3 DSO observations. I've added them as follows: M50 M29 Asteroid 3 Juno NGC 869 and NGC 884 (The Double\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/08\/01\/astronomical_sk\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":4},"title":"Astronomical Sketching Resources","author":"jperez1690","date":"August 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Astronomical Sketching Resources","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":239,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/03\/17\/iridium_flare_n\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":5},"title":"Iridium Flare Near Sirius – March 5, 2006","author":"jperez1690","date":"March 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple weeks ago, while at the SAC meeting at Lowell Observatory, Padraig Houlahan noted that an Iridium Satellite was going to flare up to -8 magnitude shortly after the meeting. I had never seen one of these reflective rascals before, so I made sure to set up the camera\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}