Eyes Full Of Stars

With Halloween coming on Saturday, spooky times are right around the corner. Let’s direct our gaze toward an eerie variable star named Algol. Located in the constellation Perseus, the hero, Algol displays such a regular cycle of dimming and brightening that it caught the attention of the ancients long ago. Some regarded the star as being demonic or possessed due to its odd behavior.

Friday night my son and I made a trip to New Mexico Tech in Soccoro and the Enchanted Skies Star Party (ESSP) to attend a presentation by NASA astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld. I had been trying to get to the ESSP for a number of years and seeing this opportunity on the calendar made the evening a ‘must do’ event.

The ESSP is organized by New Mexico Tech Astronomy Club and a hard-working crew including current and former staff members of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The ESSP offers a comprehensive schedule of field trips, observing opportunities and educational lectures to afford all astronomers from novice to expert a quality experience.

Talk about all dressed-up with no place to go. I planned to record the impact of the LCROSS mission from the driveway in front of my house. I lugged out and set-up my Meade LX200 10″ telescope, firewire camera and laptop. Impact was scheduled for 5:31AM local time.

While setting up, I caught sight of a massive fireball to the northwest. I estimate it was -7 magnitude. It left a luminous smear on my retina as it sparked with ablation towards the western horizon. Once I finished getting the gear ready, I covered it to protect it from what I sensed would be a heavy dew and went inside to get a nap.

Something really positive happened in the nation’s capital last night, President and Mrs. Obama hosted a star party. The event was held to promote science education and the International Year of Astronomy. From what I have seen so far, media coverage has been little to non-existent. I think that the folks who worked behind the scenes for the last 8 months to make this night a reality certainly deserve a lot of credit. Spearheading the project, along with a bunch of volunteers whose names I don’t yet know, were Chicago-based amateur astronomer Audrey Fischer along with Andrea Schweitzer and Stephen Pompea of U.S. IYA 2009. Way to go team! As far as I know, this was a first for stargazing with telescopes at the White House.