Observing Reports
By Michael Amato
On Thursday evening, October10, a group of us went to Fort Hale to try to see the comet. After failing completely, my brother Anthony and our friend Joe returned to Joe’s house to hang around outside. My friend Rose and her friends also returned to their homes. While Anthony, Joe and I yacked in the yard, Anthony yelled out “It’s the aurora”! I franticly called Rose that the aurora was out and she was able to contact her daughter Jenn and her friends. All of us were able to enjoy this great aurora. In less than half an hour it was all over. My brother was able to image the Big Dipper embedded within the aurora, and it’s in the image below. What started out as a failure for all of us turned out to be the second greatest aurora I ever saw. Of course, we all know the best one was at the CSP several years ago. Now, onto the comet.
On Monday, October 14, Anthony imaged Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS with his digital camera while he, Joe and I observed the comet. In our 10×50 binoculars, the tail extended a long way from the comet’s head and to our surprise, the comet’s anti-tail was glimpsed in our binoculars and in our image of the comet. The comet also was an easy naked eye object with its long tail easily seen. In a one-week period the three of us were treated to a great aurora and a great comet. Isn’t astronomy wonderful?
In the first week of November, I was observing the Sun with my Sunspotter Solar Telescope. There were numerous spots on the Sun including a huge spot crossing the Sun’s face. On November 7, Anthony imaged the Sun with his digital camera and it came out great. What a year of astronomy we’ve had so far this year.
On November 20, a 2.3 magnitude earthquake rocked Moodus for the third time this year. Each of the first two quakes knocked one ball out of six on my seismic wave detector. This time no balls dropped off its stem. The day before, Stamford CT had a 1.3 magnitude earthquake accompanied by loud booming noises heard in Stamford. Also, on the same day Lunenburg MA had a 1.5 magnitude quake. This time two out of six balls dropped off my detector. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why some quakes affect my detector and some of them don’t. I also have a P-Wave detector but it won’t go off unless there is a major earthquake of firth magnitude or better. I also have a lightning detector which can pick up radio noise from a tornado. I love this type of radio astronomy even though the information can be confusing.
The Lunar Standstill. On December 14, the full Moon reached as high in the sky as it ever does. This won’t happen again until 2043. Also, the Moon rose farthest left in the eastern sky and that won’t happen again in 2043. When the Moon was at its highest last night, I had to look over the deck railing before I could crane my neck to see it. As for the Lunar Standstill, this is when this high up full Moon appears to stop moving for about five minutes. Of course, this illusion is almost if not impossible to notice. Jupiter was next to the Moon all night when all this was happening. The lunar image was taken by Anthony while we watched it.
