The "Local Sidereal Time" of an observer is the right ascension of the object that is directly above the observer. The longitude lines on the celestial sphere are called "Right Ascension" lines and go from 0 hours to 24h59m59s. Imagine the latitude/longitude lines of the Earth being projected up and onto the celestial sphere. The celestial sphere is the apparent "bowl of stars" overhead in the night sky. Similarly, the night sky has a coordinate system. Each point on the earth has a unique latitude and longitude assigned to it. To figure this out, it is necessary to know a few technical tidbits about the night sky.Įveryone is familiar with latitude and longitude lines on the Earth. Regardless of the technique used, it would be helpful to know whether an object is well placed for viewing. Then, the observer sweeps about the area to, hopefully, find the object. In that technique an observer uses a star chart to hop from star-to-star, ultimately arriving in the vicinity of the object. The second major way to find objects is star hopping. A variant of the GoTo is the "Push To" where a computer device indicates to the user which direction to manually move the telescope to get to a desired object. The user enters the name of the object and the telescope slews to the object. One is the use of a "GoTo" device, such as a telescope with a computer/hand paddle. Doug began by pointing out that amateur astronomers tend to use one of two techniques to find objects in the night sky. Doug showed some of the constellations presently visible by using these charts.ĭoug then presented a mini-talk on Observing Techniques. The WHAC star chart is continually updated and a convenient tool for club members. There was a bit of delay and chaos at the June '07 meeting in trying to get a proper star chart. You had to be at the meeting to see and appreciate the video clip.ĭoug refreshed our collective memory of the star charts that are available on the WHAC website.
#Vicinity in skychart movie#
He set up his digital SLR to take one frame per minute, and made a movie out of it. This made is simple to see the reason for the behavior of the planets as described earlier in his presentation.Īndrew shared a video of sunset and moonrise as seen from the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea. By July 30, Mercury will be hard to see as it swiftly dives back into the eastern horizon.Īndrew presented a video clip showing the terrestrial planets in orbit around the Sun. Mercury is at greatest elongation on July 20, and is best seen in the period of July 20-24. Mercury is well up into the morning sky now.
By about August 5 both Venus and Saturn will be lost into the western horizon. The conjunction will also be nice the evening of July 17. Andrew showed that there will be a nice grouping of Venus, Saturn, and the Crescent Moon on the evening of July 16. We had a few late arrivals who attended a competing astronomy-related event at Keck HQ in Waimea.Īndrew Cooper presented our regular feature The Sky This Month. There were slightly less than 30 members in attendance, with a half-dozen new faces. Those new to WHAC were asked to introduce themselves to the club. He opened the meeting with a welcome to all members both new and old.
The WHAC Meeting was held on Jin the CFHT Large Conference Room at the CFHT Headquarters in Waimea.ĭoug Summers facilitated the club meeting.
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