Category Archives: Public viewing

Aug 24th, 2013: Ring Nebula

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One of the main viewing objects of the August 24th session was the Ring Nebula.  It’s an object that can’t be resolved with binoculars and is almost directly overhead in our Northern summer skies.

Nebulae and other deep sky objects benefit from having a larger telescope to collect faint light, having a calm atmosphere (Saturday was “average”), and having little to no light pollution.  The best case, as in the Hubble telescope pictures, is to be above the Earth’s atmosphere completely, but that’s not something easily arranged. The pictures in the Wikipedia article linked above are very nice examples, some digitally enhanced. We pushed the edge of a couple of those categories, but most people were able to see the “ring” aspect of the nebulae (this link leads to a picture closer to what we saw).

Upcoming viewings for August 2013 to March 2014

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An issue we’ve had with our Saturday viewings is there seems to be many occasions when the weather is overcast/raining/storming/etcetera on Saturday while Sunday is clear.  We recognize that Saturday evening would still be a better night for many people, especially those with children still in elementary school, so we’re enacting a scheduling format change.

The new policy, starting in September, will be to schedule viewings on the SECOND Saturday of the month (instead of the 3rd) and then to have Sunday evening as a “rain-date” if the Saturday is cancelled.  We could still have overcast skies both evenings, but there’s a greater chance that one of the viewings will run.  We will focus on setting up viewings in September – April and then only run viewings in the summer if there is a particular event or a group-organized viewing.

The August viewing with be slightly anomalous as due to a scheduling issue, we are offering it on August 24th instead of August 17th.

Viewings August 2013 to April 2014 (Dates in red corrected August 21, 2013)

Month, Year Saturday Sunday(only possible if Saturday cancelled) Start to End Time
August, 2013 24 N/A 8:30-10:30pm
September, 2013 14 15 7:45-9:45pm
October, 2013 12 13 7:00-9:00pm
November, 2013 9 10 7:00-9:00pm
January, 2014 11 12 7:00-9:00pm
February, 2014 8 9 7:00-9:00pm
March, 2014 8 9 7:45-9:45pm

 

Public Telescope Viewing: Sat July 20th, 9:30-11pm: CANCELED

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Update as of 6:30pm July 20th: We’ve got clouds and the Charlottetown clear sky clock has us as either “too cloudy to forecast” to “poor” plus the added risk of a thunderstorm, means we’ll be canceling tonight’s session. There’s the possibility of an extra session before the August 17th one, and if it goes ahead, I’ll post more information.  Better safe than electrocuted.

Update as of July 17th:  New telescope up and running, but we’re all still getting used to it so please be patient if there’s any issues. Note that on Saturday we’ll be checking out the moon and trying to get a good glimpse of Saturn.  Saturn may dip below the level our telescope can focus on later in the evening, so if you want to see it — the tilt of the rings is beautiful right now — earlier but full dark would be best.

Weather forecast for Saturday as of July 17th is not good (thunderstorms).  Any cancellation notice will be put up as soon as possible (latest 6:30pm on Saturday).

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Our next regularly scheduled public viewing will be on Saturday July 20th, from 9:30-11pm. Any changes, news updates or cancellation due to inclement weather will occur within this post.

The moon will be 88% full (close to full, full moon July 22-24).

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