Skyward Feb. 2024- the CAC, by Dr. David Levy

Skyward for February 2024. .David H. Levy This month I have a story to tell. A few nights ago two close friends from Plattsburgh, Ed Guenther and Wendy Gordon, enjoyed a very pleasant wintertime visit with me. During that time another close friend, David Rossetter, drove us to the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex in southeastern Arizona. Although the weather was clear and cold when we left, dense clouds formed quickly and within a few minutes it began to rain heavily. There was thunder, lightning, and a giant tornado that lifted our car into the stratosphere and then gently set it down back on the highway. It was frightening and we thought the car was going to crash, but when it gently came back to the highway, we drove on. By the time we arrived at our dark site, The sky was beautifully dark. The stars hung like baseballs from the sky. But it was so cold that our observing pad was covered with tons of ice. Yard-long icicles hung from our telescopes and from us. We needed and used cigarette lighters to free our frozen hands whenever they touched the eyepieces. I discovered 47 comets that night but forgot to report any of them. Ed disproved the theory of relativity by recalling how time always slows down when you are with your relatives. We finally needed to call 911 so that they could free our frozen forms and place them into makeshift crematoria. Three hours later they opened the doors of the crematoria and found all of us happy as clams to have warmed up as much as we did. We thank them, treated them to a giant banquet meal, and then headed home. There was a 95-piece symphony orchestra on hand, but since we were approximately 95 pieces short, we just sang an aria or two. ( I think that line comes from Victor Borge.) Dear readers, if you believe a word of what I just wrote, I have a bridge that I could sell you. It is true that I have two very dear friends named Ed and Wendy. It is also true that I have two other dear friends, David and Pam Rossetter. And David did drive us, plus telescopes, to the dark site and back. And now for a few corrections: Although it was cold that evening, we did enjoy a beautiful night of observing. Our first object was Jupiter, long my favorite planet. Although Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 would make Jupiter an obvious choice for that, it is not why Jupiter is my favorite planet. On September 1,, 1960, my parents and I looked through my first telescope, Echo. I wanted to look at the brightest thing in. the sky that evening. It was hanging in the south. When I finally found it, I was looking at Jupiter. I saw the disk of the planet, his four bright moons, and darker bands across the disk. I have never forgotten that night, and that is why Jupiter is my favorite planet. We then caught a good glimpse of Saturn’s exquisite rings. As I began a two hour visual comet search in the cold and lovely sky, the others enjoyed views of some lovely deep sky splendors. At last, I stumbled across Messier 15, that absolutely gorgeous globular cluster I now call Wendee’s cluster. As we warmed up on our way home, we placed into our memories a sparkling night none of us will soon forget. We had a clear sky, star-filled views, beautiful deep sky objects, and enough sky treasures to gladden our hearts and minds. Despite my continuing deep sense of loss, the exquisite night sky always warms my soul.

The Solstice Dec 2023 and Skyward January 2024 with Dr. David Levy

/Below is our monthly guest post from Dr. David Levy, a timely post for the Solstice. Blessed be. Solstice 2023 Lightness Unfolds Light descends to its lowest spark. Every shadow grows, an individual with its own personality. Tonight Hecate takes a final bow, At sunrise, Apollow takes over. His chariot rides, And as it goes, Another petal of light unfolds. 3 months to spring

Skyward for January 2024 By David H. Levy This month let us explore one of the seminal galaxies in the nigh sky, NGC 253, Caroline Herschel’s galaxy. It shines deep in the southern portion of the sky, south of the bright star Beta Ceti and southeast of the even brighter star Fomalhaut. This is one of my favorite galaxies, largely because of the beautiful story that is associated with its discovery. This galaxy, which I call Caroline Herschel’s Galaxy, is a starburst galaxy. It is so named because it is undergoing a burst of formation of new stars. This process was set off relatively recently, at lest in cosmic timekeeping. About two hundred million years ago, a smaller dwarf galaxy probably collided with this larger one, and it set off this cacophony of new stars being formed. That other galaxy was probably rich in gas, which provided the raw material for the births of the new stars. There is one thing that this galaxy does not share with other starburst galaxies, however; usually these galaxies exhibit frequent exploding stars or supernovae. This one, however, has only one recorded supernova, in 1940. This galaxy is aligned at almost right angles to our Milky Way. When you look at it, it appears as a thick pencil-like structure. While searching for comets during the year 1783, Caroline stumbled across this long, slender galaxy hanging above the southern horizon. Duly recorded in her log “the Bills and Rec.ds of my comets,” she also began and maintained a list or catalogue of the many objects she and her brother William had discovered, including beautiful drawings of most of them. As a young girl Caroline was close to her father, who brought her outdoors on a cold evening some winter constellations like Orion. It is possible that this was one of the special moments during which she began her love of the night sky. As much as Caroline enjoyed working with her brother William, there were some issues. On one night Caroline fell upon one of the large iron hooks that helped support the telescope on its mount. The accident left a large gush in her thigh. Her brother, not seing his telescope moving, yelled out “Make haste!” to which Caroline cried out, “I am hooked!” William immediately rushed over to help his sister, and she eventually recovered, with lots of rest and ointment. When William married Mary Pitt in 1788, there was an obvious increase in tension among the Herschels. She continued working with her brother, although the increased “family dynamics” did cause a problem. William very much wanted his sister to continue helping with his observing, and he was successful in arranging a royal stipend for her. In 1802 the Royal Society published the catalogue that Caroline had kept over many years. However, the publication in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society was credited to William, even though it was her catalogue. Over a long period of time, thanks to the work of later astronomers like John Louis Emil Dreyer, the almost 8000 objects now comprise the New General Catalogue. The woman who discovered the wonderful galaxy in Sculptor certainly enjoyed a remarkable life and career, living until she was almost 98 years old. In the 1980s Caroline’s eight comet discoveries were surpassed by Carolyn Shoemaker, in what was seen at the time as the highlight of Carolyn’s career. However exciting that achievement might have been, it was completely eclipsed by her discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in March of 1993. That comet gave humanity its first lesson in what happens when a comet strikes a planet, and by inference, how comet collisions can lead to the origin of life on a world. As I gaze upon Caroline Herschel’s galaxy on these winter nights, I imagine life forms there looking back, trying as we do, to share our cosmic heritage.

American Doll and Toy Museum: Skyward Dec 2023 with Dr. David Levy

American Doll and Toy Museum: Skyward Dec 2023 with Dr. David Levy: Skyward for December 2023 By David H. Levy On the fourteenth of October 2023, I witnessed my 99th eclipse. This tally includes everythi...

An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory: From Dr. David H. Levy, Skyward November 2023, our...

An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory: From Dr. David H. Levy, Skyward November 2023, our...: Here is Skyward for this month, by noted astronomer David Levy. It is Halloween again, up till today, nights are cold, dark and clear, and...

Fallen Leaves and Recycling

the leaves are turning, oak, gingko, maple. we have a new recycling bin thanks to our son

American Doll and Toy Museum: A History Of German Toy Making

American Doll and Toy Museum: A History Of German Toy Making

Skyward by Dr. David Levy; Meteors Scratch the Sky

Skyward August 2023 Meteors scratch the sky David H. Levy Despite what you read online, it is possible to think of meteor watching as one of the most boring things you can do with the night sky. No cosmic connection, no postulating about the origins of the Universe, no understanding of what dark matter might entail. When we look for meteors, we are in our own celestial backyard. We usually do not even use a telescope or binoculars; it’s just sitting on a comfortable lawn chair and looking up at the sky. Even if we spot a shooting star as bright as the brightest of stars, it is only a large speck of dust that is probably only a few dozen miles above our lawn chair. So why bother with watching meteors at all? Actually, it is because they are so close, so local, that makes this activity unique. A meteor may be a large speck of cosmic dust, but it strikes the Earth’s upper atmosphere at a velocity of 40 miles per second. And that is precisely what I saw, 44 times, on the beautiful night of August 12, 2023. That night began with the usual thickness of clouds, typical of the Arizona summer monsoon. But the clouds rapidly dissipated. Instead of clouds, stars began to appear. Well before midnight, I was out with Eureka, my 12-inch diameter telescope with which I would complete 2 hours of comet hunting before the night ended. One hour before midnight, another before dawn. In between, I counted my 44 meteors, one of which is in the accompanying picture. The Perseids of 2023 were a very good meteor shower, but not the best. In November of 2001, Wendee and I were in the Australian outback during the peak of that year’s Leonid meteor shower. We gathered on the shore of a dry lake bed and watched carefully as Leo the lion reared its handsome head above the eastern horizon. Then silently and swiftly, a bright shooting star appeared in the east, made its way across the sky, then slowly vanished in the west. One watcher said it all: “Tthis trip was worth it!” A few minutes later, a second meteor did almost the same thing. After that the meteors came thicker and more often until, at around three in the morning, they suddenly began pouring out the sky at the rate of about one meteor per second. One observer even saw a meteor after the Sun rose. What caused this burst of shooting stars? It appears that they originate from a comet. In December 1865 and January 1866, that comet was discovered by the German Wilhelm Tempel and Horace Tuttle of the United States. Because its orbit was identical to the orbits of the meteors, it was subsequently identified as the “parent comet” of the Leonid meteor stream. Moreover, because the comet passes close to Earth every 33 years, it was connected to the great meteor “storms” of 1833 and 1866. In a similar way, Comet Swift-Tuttle, discovered in 1862 by the Americans Louis Swift and Horace Tuttle, was determined to be the parent comet of the Perseid meteors. As I watched them that unforgettable night, I was struck by the awe these tiny specks can generate as they race through our atmosphere. I was struck also by the wonder they generated in my mind: these always welcome visitors from space invariably enchant my soul. A final note: One night in 1833, when Abraham Lincoln was a young lawyer, a deacon friend pounded on his door and woke him. “Arise, Abraham,” he yelled. “The day of judgement has come.” Lincoln leapt out of bed and strode to a window, and he saw countless shooting stars.” Shortly after he became president, when several states left the union, Lincoln told this meteor story to some visitors. As he watched the falling stars in wonder, he also saw that the familiar constellations were still there in the sky. “The world did not come to an end then,” he said wisely. “Nor will the Union now.” A fellow citizen who lived at the same time as Lincoln, and who likely admired and respected him, was Carl Schurz, who would be elected to the U.S. Senate a decade later. On April 18, 1859, on the eve of the American Civil War, he gave a lecture in Boston’s Faneuil Hall. He said:” Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them,, you will reach your destiny.”

Meteors Perseids 2023 August