The skies are going to be clear and dark, so we're going to take the opportunity to look at the mid-Autumn skies on Friday, October 20, starting at 7:30 PM at NSO.  This may be the last star party of the season, so please join us!

(International Observe the Moon Night is the following weekend, but the weather is not looking great for the next week.)

The newly revitalized astronomy club will gather at 7 PM at NSO! If you're interested, come join us!

​Clear Skies!

The skies look clear! So join NKAF at the Northern Skies Observatory at 8 PM on Monday, September 25.  Remember to bring a warm coat and park down in the school lot. Check here for late news!

Also, for anyone interested in starting an astronomy club - there will be an organizational meeting at 7 PM on Monday, September 25, before the star party! For people of all ages and levels of experience - the only requirement is that you have an interest in astronomy! We'll talk about possible activities, trips, speakers and more! Contact [email protected] if you have questions.

A recent YouTube post by John Blackwell alerted me to some processing techniques for bringing out the detail in the corona. Since I don't have Photoshop, I played around a bit in ImageJ and Pixelmator, using a slightly different technique, and came up with a pretty pleasing result, with lots of striation and the prominences visible.  In addition, I adjusted my sequence image, using the processed totality image and adjusting the path through the sky... Lots of fun!
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To go along with the sequence that enlarged the sun 3 times more than normal (shown below), this one enlarges the sun four times normal. Along the lines of the previous comments, many would aver that the sun in this image "looks right" compared to its path, especially when compared to the picture that shows the sun at its actual size.

Indeed, when people are asked to imagine placing their little fingers, held at arm's length, next to the moon in the sky, they typically guess that the moon (about the same apparent size as the sun, hence the ability to cause total eclipses!) is twice as big as the little finger, and even larger if the moon is near the horizon. In fact, the moon is about 1/2 the size of the little finger (try it! My mind rebels at this, too!). The guessed apparent size is four times the actual apparent size. Thus, we tend to prefer images with larger-than-life suns.
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The experience of the eclipse remains vivid, and drives me to attempt to revisit the experience, using the images that I took in Corvallis. Here are several attempts to capture the process of the eclipse, from first contact, through totality, to final contact.

The first shows images taken at ten-minute intervals, spaced equally from left (first contact) to right (fourth contact).  The result strikes me as quite pleasing; yet, though the individual images are faithful renderings of what I saw, the progress of the eclipse didn't follow this type of path.

This led me to my next attempt, to use the same images, but to have them track through the sky in positions that matched the actual progression of the sun's position in the sky, with the sun images at the correct scale.  The sun travels about 2.5 degrees in ten minutes, which is about five sun diameters, and during the total duration of the eclipse the sun travelled over 40 degrees. The resulting image, though an accurate representation of the sun as it moved through the sky, strikes the viewer (me!) as unsatisfactory because the sun is so darn small!  Our brains are quite insistent that the sun is larger in the sky than it really is! This mental bias persists so strongly that in planetariums (such as at the Fairbanks Museum, in St. Johnsbury), the sun is usually projected larger than life-size so that it seems more life-like! (The popular planetarium software Stellarium has this option.)

Thus, in order to satisfy the yearnings of my brain, I increased the size of the sun by a factor of three, following the same path in the sky, to yield the final image. Though not scientifically accurate, it feels better.  Go figure.

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You've seen the eclipse, now come and see the stars on Saturday, August 26, starting at 8:30 PM. We're located behind the Peacham elementary school. Park in the school lot, dress for a temperature about 20 degrees cooler than the thermometer reads and preserve our night vision by not bringing a flashlight - unless it's covered with red plastic.
Be sure to check our Facebook page for late-breaking weather news.
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I find it difficult to put into words the magic of a total solar eclipse. As mentioned before, I traveled out to Corvallis, Oregon to stay with some friends. This turned out to be fortuitous in many ways. First, the traffic was surprisingly light - I presume that folks who traveled to the path of totality ended up near Madras, near the center-line of totality and a surer bet for clear skies. Being in Corvallis meant a few seconds less of totality, but the weather cooperated by producing clear, blue skies. I traveled to Oregon with a small 400 mm f.l. guiding scope, a small, manually operated equatorial mount, and my DSLR.  Slight tweaks on the RA knob sufficed to keep the sun centered in the viewfinder of the camera, so I had plenty of time to look around me at the people and surroundings, as well as the eclipse itself.

As the moon bit into the sun, various people in the small park that we were in dropped by to take a look and take a peak through the viewfinder. Without exception, all throughout the eclipse this elicited an "ah!" or "incredible!" or "amazing!"  I met a variety of people with a wide range of astronomy experience, including a planetary scientist at Cal Tech. What struck me was how hungry people seemed for the sense of awe and wonder typical of the study of astronomy, though admittedly, a total solar eclipse is about as good as it gets. 

I had practiced my photography in the weeks leading up to the eclipse, though, of course, totality was a completely new experience, so I was unsure how things would turn out. As the eclipse progressed, I took a series of images at 1/125 of a second exposures, at approximate 5 minute intervals. When totality occurred I continued with 1/125 exposures (without the solar filter, of course!) at 5 to 10 second intervals, with one 1/2000 sec exposure near the middle. Because the scope was aligned well, I had plenty of time to look around and see the magical changes around me and up in the sky, and the reactions of the people.  To relive the experience, I suggest you go to YouTube and search "Veritasium" and "solar eclipse".  Derek Muller does a wonderful job capturing the anticipation and joy of the experience.

My video consisting of a time lapse series of the images is available below; the individual images can be found here: goo.gl/photos/PxBdrJiwVxhQmJUd9

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A truly wonderful event that I got to spend with friends in Corvallis, Oregon. This is just the first of many pictures taken during the totality. More to come!
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The August 21st solar eclipse is bound to be spectacular, and did you know that Vermont will experience a sixty percent eclipse? To celebrate the event, the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium, in partnership with the Northeast Kingdom Astronomy Foundation (NKAF) and The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, is hosting its own partial eclipse viewing event. Come join our world class planetarium presenters and scientists for a fun, family friendly afternoon full of activities that’ll be sure to get you excited for this rare opportunity!
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Outside in front of the Museum, from 1pm to 4pm on Monday, August 21st, we will teach you how to build your own solar observing pinhole projector, decorate a shoebox solar viewer, or you can take a peek through one of our specially made solar telescopes. Inside we will be broadcasting live coverage of the path of totality and offering free planetarium shows. In addition, we will be demonstrating hands-on activities for young ones that will help them understand solar eclipses, provided by the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE).
Refreshments will be provided. Solar eclipse viewing glass will be for sale in the Nature Gift Shop. Hosted by Bobby Farlice-Rubio (Planetarium Educator), Brad Vietje (President NKAF), and Adele West-Fisher (Saint Johnsbury Atheneum).

Be sure to check http://www.fairbanksmuseum.org/planetarium/solar-eclipse for the latest news!

This event is weather dependent. Looking at the sun without proper equipment will cause blindness.

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