Observing Reports
From Michael Amato:
With the news of the sudden dimming of Betelgeuse, I would like to discuss my observations of both Antares and Betelgeuse over a period of several years. I was always intrigued by both of these stars being near to the end of their life. I used my naked eyes, binoculars, telescopes and my star spectroscope to see if I can guess which one of these stars would go supernova first. I first tried to determine which star was cooler temperature wise in order to determine which star was older. The color of Betelgeuse always seemed a darker orange than Antares which would mean it is temperature is cooler than Antares. The clincher was when I attached the Star Spectroscope to my telescope. The number of spectral lines I observed on Antares was two while the number of spectral lines I observed on Betelgeuse was four and that proved to me Betelgeuse would beat Antares in the race to go supernova. Right now, Betelgeuse seems to have dimmed to about 1.5 magnitude compared to its Orion shoulder partner which is about 1.6 magnitude. We’ll see what happens next.
From Pat Maturo:
The observing targets in Orion in the last newsletter reminded me of the night I saw my first deep sky object.
Way back in the mid-1970’s my brother and I bought our first real telescope, a Criterion RV-6, a 6” reflector on an equatorial mount, with a ** clock drive ** !!
We set up in the driveway, and we couldn’t find anything. I knew nothing, he knew a little, so he decided to try for M42. As he looked through the finder and moved the scope to find our target I was looking in the eyepiece to see when he was on it. The eyepieces in those days had really small eye lenses and nowhere near as easy or as comfortable to use as what’s available today.
Then I said, ‘Oops, there’s a smear on the eyepiece, I must’ve accidentally touched it!’. Then he took a look: ‘That’s not a smear, that’s it! That’s the Orion Nebula!!’
My first deep sky object, quite a thrill. We looked at it all night (we knew we’d never find anything else).
Good times. . . We could even pick out the Milky Way naked eye from the end of our driveway back then, which was nice and really made you feel in touch with the night sky.
From Ray Kaville:
This new website, which began on January 1, 2020, displays a different superb amateur astrophoto each day:
Amateur Astronomy Picture of the Day
Also, here is a good place to find information about Comet ATLAS and other comets currents visible in our skies:
From Dave Noble:
If you would like to observe or image the International Space Station cross in front of the Sun or the Moon, the website below gives predictions about when and where these events will occur. If you find a transit in your area, be sure to recheck the details as the time of the transit draws near, because forecasts of the ISS location can change over time: