Monthly Archives: October 2014

You are browsing the site archives by month.

Halloween Weekend – CNYO Session At Happy Valley WMA (Near Parish, NY) – 1st (or 2nd) November 2014

Posted on October 23, 2014 9:49 pm - - Leave a Comment

Greetings fellow astrophiles, zombies, and assorted spirits,

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWith a couple of sessions already under the belts of a few CNYO members at Happy Valley, we’ve decided to schedule what might be our last public observing session for 2014 during a spooky weekend at a spooky location. Happy Valley Wildlife Management Area is less known for its hiking and untouched greenery and more well-known (online, anyway) as a hangout for ghost hunters, paranormal enthusiasts, and UFO trackers. I’ll leave you to follow the links to learn more about its less astronomical activities. To us, it’s a great dark sky location with nothing around, a reasonably clear spot to set up scopes, a low tree line at the distance, and enough pavement to get everyone to our setup spot. Our location will be the loop centered on the google map below (I’ll leave you to make your own maps, but it’s only a few minutes away from 81N).

Additional updates to follow about the session and, of course, we likely won’t make a final call on the session until the afternoon of both the 1st and the 2nd.

Candy is most welcome (esp. Snickers!) but, pretty please, no masks. They’ll be as bad for your views as they will for our nerves.

Posted in: CNYO Events - Tagged: , , ,

“Stu’s Last Lesson” – Sky & Telescope’s Focal Point For December, 2014

Posted on October 23, 2014 6:10 pm - - 2 Comments

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

2014oct23_stuDr. Stuart Forster (a.k.a. STU – full caps) was one of the THE fixtures in the CNY amateur astronomy scene and his name still comes up regularly, often as part of some pearl of wisdom being imparted to new observers and seasoned members alike (I’ll leave you to read the top of the Stuventory page for more info about STU and to check out links to some of his images on the Syracuse Astronomical Society website). The trials and tribulations of Ryan Goodson and myself to handle the massive equipment collection we’ve come to refer to as the “Stuventory” is olde hat to local observers who’ve kept track of the process from a far. The sorting, documenting, and distribution of the Stuventory has taught us both about how very unique the hobby of amateur astronomy can be when you step beyond the 1×7 mm binoculars in your head and effort the collection of more and more photons.

To that end, and to prod others to recognize the complexities of sorting through the mound of gear inhabiting their basements, garages, and domes by those who follow when the unexpected happens, I am honored to have an article on the topic, “Stu’s Last Lesson,” included as the December 2014 Focal Point in Sky & Telescope magazine.

2014oct23_stuslastlesson

The article can be distilled to a single, all-encompassing message – Imagine you not being around to help your family unload your astro gear, then take steps to simplify their lives. Think about all the boxes, hex wrenches, leftover focusers and brackets from your modifications to other scopes, eyepieces (eyepieces!), cables, controllers, everything, and organize it all, either in a notebook or with a bunch of pics and notes on your smartphone.

If you read the article and have other ideas on how to help organize your equipment, by all means let others know (post a comment here, write a letter to the editor with your ideas, start a cloudynights.com thread, etc.). In the meantime, I hope the article gives you the impetus to block out a Saturday afternoon listening to astronomy.fm as you commit your astronomical obsession to pen and paper (or keyboard and monitor). Better still, I’m pleased that readers of Sky & Telescope (of which he had the full collection back to 1964) will learn a little bit about one of CNY’s great amateur astronomers.

Posted in: Education - Tagged: , , , , ,

It’s A No Go – Final Partial Solar Eclipse Update – 23 October (Thursday), 4:30 p.m.

Posted on October 23, 2014 4:19 pm - - Leave a Comment

Greetings all,

Unfortunately, the Syracuse skies are being particularly disagreeable today, with the current cloud cover only expected to get worse as the evening progresses. We are therefore canceling our event at the Onondaga Lake Parkway this afternoon, instead directing interested observers to the Slooh Community Observatory for less direct but more predictable views.

Additional events to be posted (hopefully attended) in the near future. Thanks for keeping track of site updates!

Posted in: Uncategorized - Tagged: , ,

Partial Solar Eclipse Update – 23 October (Thursday), 10:00 a.m.

Posted on October 23, 2014 9:54 am - - Leave a Comment

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

The skies are currently 20% clear over downtown Syracuse with predictions of worsening cloud cover as the day progresses. Accordingly, we’ll be waiting until 4:30 p.m. to make the final call on the Onondaga Lake Parkway session (for more details, including the location, see the previous link HERE).

In the meantime, there are routes to seeing the eclipse (and, very likely, the massive sunspot currently pointed near our way) in real time from the comfort of your own internet connection. The good amateur astronomers at the Slooh Community Observatory will be live streaming the event starting at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

That said, we await the afternoon skies to see if our session will happen. Stay Tuned!

Posted in: Uncategorized - Tagged: , , ,

Partial Solar Eclipse On October 23rd – Attendance And Location Update

Posted on October 20, 2014 10:26 pm - - Leave a Comment

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

The forecast for Thursday (Oct. 23rd) presently isn’t all that pleasant for observing the upcoming partial solar eclipse, but 3 days is a long time for CNY forecasting. We will keep track of the weather over the next few days and will announce on this site and our Facebook Page accordingly.

2014oct16_patia_solar_eclipse

The views of the partial solar eclipse from Starry Night Pro’s predictions.

The current location for the session will be the very southern end of the Onondaga Lake Parkway, just below the baseball diamond shown in the google map below.

For those willing to brave that left-hand turn at the main entrance, you need only loop left on the Parkway to get to the large parking lot at the southern end. For those NOT interested in fighting any rush hour traffic, we advise making a driving map that has you going past Heid’s, turning left onto 1st Street, making the left onto Lake Drive, then meander your way along to Onondaga Lake Parkway to get to the south end.

All of the data I’ve found so far for New York indicates the eclipse will start at 5:43 p.m. And go well past sunset (at which point it does’t matter to us anyway). The CNYO board will have several solar scopes and solar glasses there, so all you need do is show up! If you’ve solar equipment you want to bring, by all means do so.

Attendees may even be in for a special treat, as there’s currently a MASSIVE sunspot gracing the Sun’s surface. Seriously, look at the size of that thing in the image from NASA SOHO below:

2014oct20_mdi_sunspots_1024

As always, keep track of this website for weather updates, with the final call being made on Thursday afternoon. We hope you can join us!

Posted in: Sidewalk Astronomy - Tagged: , , , , , ,