Tag Archives: Onondaga Creekwalk

CNYO Observing Log: International Observe The Moon Night, 6 September 2014

Posted on September 13, 2014 1:41 pm - - 1 Comment

Larry Slosberg and I (Ryan Goodson) arrived at the Onondaga Creekwalk at 7:30 p.m. for the CNY edition of the International Observe The Moon Night. We quickly realized that the Moon would be obstructed by a row of large buildings, making this locale not ideal for the night. We decided to scout other locations.

After a quick walk to The MOST, we found the perfect spot on the same sidewalk shared by both a vacant building under construction and the ever-trendy record store The Sound Garden. Our fear was that foot traffic would be slow, but the Moon was well positioned and slowly traversing its way over The MOST, so we decided this would be the spot.

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After a quick set-up (and by quick I mean lightning fast – a couple NMT’s – whadya expect?), our earlier fear of lack-of-traffic was quickly replaced with the anxiety of too many onlookers and not enough scopes! I had set up Dan Williams’ 8” scope, and Larry was equipped with his car dwelling 12”. Thankfully, Dan Williams and Raymond Dague of the Syracuse Astronomical Society made an appearance and aided Larry and I with the part of the outreach I call the splainin’ (that’s okie for explaining). Larry was certainly the star of the show with his use of common objects to put stellar sizes in perspective. Dague and Williams both provided excellent commentary about the Moon and what turned out to be a far bigger hit – Saturn and Mars!

After pointing Williams’ 8” at Saturn, the comments ranged from, “That has to be fake,” to “Get the hell outta here! I’ve never seen anything so incredible!” Since this was a night dedicated to the Moon (albeit nearly full – maybe next year we get a petition making the rounds to move the special occasion to a first quarter date), we had to go back to our lunar companion and get a few oohs and aahs from those views as well.

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For the reader wanting the specifics, the scope I had used was an 8” F6.5. The eyepieces used for both the Moon and the planets were a 31mm Nagler (43x magnification), a 12mm Delos (110x magnification) and for the steadiest moments I would use a 2X Celestron Ultima Barlow in conjunction with the Delos to yield that sweet spot of 222x for Saturn. Through the 8” F6.5, this view revealed the ringed planet, the Cassini Division, 4 moons, and subtle surface detail (the surface detail part probably only seen by the more experienced observers in the group). In fact, it was this view that a group of Chinese tourists seemed most excited about. One of the last of the public onlookers to leave had stated that the night had been the most magical she can remember.

The Moon was viewed through both scopes and always filtered. The views were big and bright, with most of the questions relegated to wondering about the maria and larger craters. A young college student said she was excited to finally have tidal lock splained in a way she could understand-thank you Larry Slosberg for relating information in such a candid way!

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Before wrapping the event up we pointed toward a number of double stars and talked a bit about the large number of planetary systems being discovered by professionals and amateurs alike. The session closed around 9:45 PM, and we went home energized and ready for the next CNYO event.

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CNYO Hosts The Syracuse Version Of The First International Sun-Day At The Creekwalk, June 22nd

Posted on June 13, 2014 5:34 pm - - 2 Comments

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CNYO is pleased to join a whole host of other astronomy clubs, companies, and other organizations as we take an afternoon off to appreciate our nearest star. The inaugural International Sun-Day, held on June 22nd of this year, is a chance for amateur astronomers the world over to follow in the footsteps of Stephen Ramsden, who has brought amazing views of (and no small amount of information about) the Sun to many, many thousands of students and adults as the founder of the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project. Those who might be members of his Facebook page (or a Facebook friend) know the frantic, globetrotting schedule Stephen keeps as he does for Solar Astronomy what John Dobson did for Sidewalk Astronomy.

From the International Sun-Day website:

“scientia vincere tenebras”



The phrase means “Conquering Darkness Through Science”. It is the essence of the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project and all of the groups below who have partnered together to bring you this event.


Kaleidoscopic-SunThe Sun and its composition, energy producing mechanisms and relationship with our little rocky planet is, by far, the most important influence in the Universe on our daily lives as human beings.  It’s never ending, natural, clean production of and subsequent bathing of our planet in life sustaining radiance is directly responsible for the continued existence of every living thing on this world, yet most people on Earth take it completely for granted and rarely ever learn anything about it.
   

The world of social media has brought together people from all over the world, regardless of nationalist, political or religious affiliation, who share a common passion for astronomy.  These dedicated people are especially tuned into the natural beauty of the world around us so we thought it would be a great idea to try and get everyone on our various internet portals to plan for one day out of the year to recognize and share their vision of the immense power and subtle beauty of the Sun.   Then share it with the general public on a common page to inspire more science in the community!! 


International Sun-Day 2014 will be held on the Sunday nearest to the summer solstice.  It is a day where we are encouraging all users of social media to share what they love about our star. You can go out in to your communities and share it through traditional outreach methods, give us your thoughts and images of a beautiful sunrise or sunset, share a poem or story about the Sun, take a funny picture of what the Sun means to you or how you like to relate to it, basically any creative way you can come up with to share your view of  the Sun on social media.  
No advertisers, no sponsors, no fees, nothing for sale, no donations, just pure science for science’s sake  and appreciation for the beauty of nature.  Please join us on June 22nd, 2014 for International Sun-day.

The process is simple! CNYO members will be set up from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 22nd at our favorite downtown location – right next to Walt The Loch West Monster near the southern end of the Onondaga Creekwalk. With Baader, H-alpha, and whatever-else-shows-up scopes in tow (and copies of our Solar Observing Guide), we invite you to come and take in what has been, until recently, an unfortunately rare, direct glimpse of the Sun. Just as nighttime astronomy underwent a great transition with the production of affordable and portable telescopes in the later-half of the 20th century, the equipment needed for Solar Astronomy is becoming more prominent and less expensive, hopefully ushering in a new era of special solar attention and study. Perhaps the 2nd Annual Sun-Day will have us moving to a larger venue!

Stay tuned to cnyo.org for weather updates as we approach next weekend.

We hope you can join us!

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Friday, March 7th – We’re Hosting Our International Sidewalk Astronomy Night (ISAN) Event TONIGHT, 7 – 9 p.m.!

Posted on March 7, 2014 9:54 am - - Leave a Comment

Greetings fellow astrophiles!

The Syracuse forecast calls for overcast skies (and possibly worse) on the official night of ISAN7 (tomorrow – Saturday, March 8th), so we are going to use the clear skies tonight (Friday, March 7th) to the best of our abilities at the same downtown location for ISAN7 Syracuse.

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You know, Walt (twitter). Image from syracusepublicart.wordpress.com

All of the other info about this event and some of its history, including the use of ISAN7 to honor the late John Dobson, can be found at our original post HERE.

We hope you can join us for a little downtown viewing! We’ll be featuring such sights as the Moon (which, if you’ve never seen it through a scope or binoculars, is quite a sight), Jupiter (which has been excellent in our skies recently), the Orion Nebula, several star clusters, random satellites (no ISS tonight unfortunately), a bit of mythology, and anything else bright enough to be visible from just West of Armory Square. We hope you can join us!

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CNYO Joins Sidewalk Astronomers Around The World In Honor Of John Dobson – Saturday, March 8th (7 to 9 p.m.) Near Armory Square In Downtown Syracuse

Posted on February 18, 2014 9:04 pm - - 6 Comments

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

CNYO is organizing a Syracuse session for the seventh International Sidewalk Astronomy Night (ISAN 7) being held in honor of John Dobson. We’ll have weather and event updates as we approach March 8th (the 7th and the 9th are official weather-alternate dates) and will be setting up next to Walt the Loch West Monster, the same place several hundred Syracusans observed the Transit of Venus in 2012 and a few of us participated in solar observing for the NASA Climate Day in 2013 (map below). Please spread the word and consider stopping by to celebrate John Dobson’s contribution to amateur astronomy. Several Dobsonians built by West Monroe’s own New Moon Telescopes will be on hand to show you their workings and, of course, show you the sights!


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Walt, just above the center green oval between Walton and W. Fayette.

A little background…

The 20th century was, by far, the most important century for amateur astronomy, as it was the first in which telescopes were mass produced for the consumer market (ours wasn’t much of a busy field for all of the rest of human history). The great science aside, it was the major jump in technology for our field that really grew our numbers.

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John Dobson, 1915-2014. Image from latimes.com.

While the list of names responsible for this transition is considerable, a few names are easily recognized as prime movers. John Dobson, who passed away this past January 15th, made one of the great contributions to amateur astronomy by taking the technology back to its foundations, synthesizing a number of great ideas in the amateur building community, throwing in some of his own ingenious ideas, and laying the groundwork for the scope we know today as the Dobsonian.

2014feb18_johndobson_sidewalkastronomersThe “Dob” made it possible for anyone to do large aperture, deep space observing by allowing builders to use very large mirrors in very (well, relatively) portable, reasonably light-weight designs. It is also a much simpler scope for a person to build compared to the many other varieties that used to dominate star parties. As the quality of the scope is limited by the quality of the builder and parts, this also means an expert builder can put together a world-class scope in their own garage that will absolutely compete with the best high-end company-built scopes (a fact that many of us Dob owners are thankful for!).

Better still, John was the world’s leading exponent for sidewalk astronomy, having effectively started the trend as the co-founder of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers. In his honor, CNYO members are joining other astronomy organizations and sidewalk astronomers around the world in the seventh International Sidewalk Astronomy Night (ISAN 7) on March 8th. In our case, we’re fortunate to have a prime piece of the Onondaga Creekwalk just at the edge of Armory Square and will be setting up, as always, next to Walt.

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You know, Walt (twitter). Image from syracusepublicart.wordpress.com

While not the best place in the world to observe, there is plenty to see in the Night Sky even from well-lit Syracuse. Attendees will be treated to views of a first quarter Moon (and if you’ve never looked at the Moon with any kind of magnification, you are in for a real treat), Jupiter (worth the trip out itself!), the Pleiades, the Orion Nebula, possibly the Andromeda Galaxy (at least a small sampling), and a medley of assorted star clusters (which means we’ll find out what we can see when we’re set up). On top of all that, it’ll be a great chance (weather permitting), to hang out with local amateur astronomers and space enthusiasts in an easy-to-get-to location.

For more information about John Dobson, check out his wikipedia page. For more information about ISAN 7, check out one of several sidewalk astronomy sites, including sidewalkastronomers.us and sfsidewalkastronomers.org. And, of course, join our Facebook Group, add our twitter feed, or keep track of cnyo.org for more information as March 8th approaches.

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