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).

120px-Moon_phase_3.svg

Farewell and Hello

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The UPEI Physics is saying “Farewell”, potentially forever, to our Meade 14″ RCX 400. It’s always had electronic issues during cold weather, but now it’s having electronics issues with it’s focusing.  As the people who attended our last monthly viewing can attest, a telescope that’s meant to be focus controlled electronically is very hard to use when that’s not working.

RCX400

We’ll be taking apart the telescope to see if we can fix it. It’s not supported by Meade anymore (legacy product).  If it can be fixed, we’ll bring it back up to the dome.

In the meantime, we’d like to say “Hello” to our new Meade LX80 Multi-Mount with 8″ f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.  Received as a kind donation from Pat Sinnott, it’s smaller so we’ll have more room to maneuver in the dome, has a manual focus.  As it’s more portable, we’ll have the potential to take it out in the field or set up daytime solar viewings when we get the necessary safety filters. With the right optics, we should be able to see almost everything we saw with our 14″ RCX400 and potentially be able to add more features such as astrophotography. It’s set up right now and we’re doing preliminary testing. We hope to have it up and running by our July 20th Saturday viewing.

We’re also saying “Hello” to our new WordPress hosted website.  We’ve got some ideas on promoting astronomy in general and astronomy at UPEI.  In cooperation with the Charlottetown RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada), we’re planning changes for our public viewing structure for the fall of 2013.  More news posted as it’s confirmed. We hope you enjoy the new site and that we are able to showcase the UPEI astronomy events.