finally...

Last night, a few minutes before 10pm, at an azimuth of 75 degrees and an altitude of about 30 degrees, I think I saw an Iridium Flare! It was a brief flash of linear light that caught my eye as I was peering at the stars. I double checked online and it appears I saw Iridium 86. It happened quickly and I wasn't expecting it, so I wasn't able to get a picture. Here, however, is what an iridium flare looks like:



Yesterday I looked at CalSky and found that there would be a satellite visible around 1:45am this morning. So, after a long night of homework and projects, I decided to go out and take a peak. At about 1:50am, at an altitude of about 80 degrees and an azimuth of 130 degrees, I think I saw the Lacrosse 5 satellite! It looked just like the moving bright spot I saw the other day, so I'm thinking that was a satellite too. Either way, despite my absolute exhaustion, I was pretty excited to see the satellite! At about 6:10AM this morning (I know, I definitely didn't get my 8 hours), I saw a bright light drifting across the sky from the northwest horizon to the east horizon. It got as high as about 20degrees above the horizon, and it was visible for several minutes. I checked out this bright light on CalSky and it seems to have been the International Space Station! How crazy to think about people living on that little speck in the sky. The more time I spend with my eyes to sky, the more insignificant I feel. Not in a bad way... but in a "wow, what an amazing universe" kind of way.

wax on, wane off?

Last night at around 9pm, I spotted the moon. The sun had recently set, the sky was a deep blue, and the crescent moon was absolutely gorgeous. It was around 270 degrees in azimuth, about 30 degrees in altitude. In this photo, it appears larger than it actually was, probably from the slight movement of my hands. In reality, it was a small, beautiful waxing crescent moon. Here is a picture of the moon last night:



In this picture I also captured Venus, about 10 degrees above the horizon and around 270 degrees in azimuth.

As the sun dipped further below the horizon and the stars became visible, I star-gazed for quite a while. Eventually I noticed a bright, faint light moving quickly across the sky. Later on I searched online to see if it was anything significant, but I couldn't find anything. I've narrowed it down to believing I saw a satellite. I'm not sure which one, but I'm hoping next time I'll be able to predict when a specific satellite will be out and to look for it!

amazing meteor.

Earlier tonight, I made some regular astronomy observations but first, I must tell you about this crazy thing that I saw! Between 11 and 11:15pm, I was driving west on Lake Michigan Drive heading back to my apartment for the night. All of the sudden, I saw this huge fiery orange thing burst into view and go shooting across the sky at an azimuth of about 285 degrees, about 45 degrees above the horizon. It moved at a moderate speed for several seconds before disappearing from sight. It was alarming, I literally yelled "Oh my gosh!" while alone in my car and my jaw completely dropped. I've been researching since I got home to figure out what exactly I saw, but to no avail. I've seen little shooting stars before, and this was nothing like anything I have ever seen. It totally freaked me out! I'm still completely puzzled and have no idea what I saw. It was massive compared to meteor showers and other things I've witnessed and seen videos of... this mystery thing appeared the same size as the moon if I had to guess. I'm stumped. I don't know what it was. Did anyone else see this? Does anyone else have an idea what it might have been?

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UPDATE: With the help of the news and my classmates, I determined that the fiery ball I saw shooting through the sky was in fact a meteor. Wow!!! I've never seen any meteor like it before, so I'm thrilled that I just happened to be driving and get to catch this magnificent event. Definitely a very cool thing to witness.

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Tonight, at around 9:30pm, I got a text from one of my lovely astronomy classmates (Emily Balcer) telling me to look west! So, I went out on my balcony, looked west, and saw a planet! I believe it was Mercury. It was at an azimuth of about 275 degrees, and about 25 degrees up in the sky. It appeared to be glowing orange.

While out there, I did some stargazing. I saw Orion at about 225 degrees azimuth, and it was around 40 degrees above the horizon. I could see the two bright colored stars in Orion, something I've never really noticed before. Red Betelgeuse and blue Rigel both stood out to me after our lesson on stars last week in class. While I wasn't able to take a picture myself, I'm including one anyway to show this constellation.



I could also see Canis Major, which stuck out to me because of the bright star Sirius. Canis Major had an azimuth of around 210 degrees and was only about 20 degrees in altitude. Again, I couldn't take a picture but here's one anyway...

the moon & more.

Spring has spring, skies have been clear quite often, and I've been doing some serious star-gazing. Moon-gazing too! Unfortunately, I've been pretty busy and haven't been updating this blog very frequently. Instead, I've been recording my observations in a notebook. So, here's a little bit of what I've been up to lately.

Monday, March 22 - 12:07am.

About a month ago, I was laying in bed trying to sleep... key word being "trying". My mind was racing with a dozen different things I was stressing over, and to add to it there was a bright light shining in my eyes! It didn't take long to realize it was the moon, bright as can be outside my bedroom windows. I reached over to the notepad on my nightstand and wrote down what I saw: The moon was at an altitude of 30 degrees and an azimuth of 280 degrees. I didn't have my camera at this time, so I couldn't take a picture. With a feeling of accomplishment for doing something school-related, I fell asleep looking out the window at the moon.


Monday, March 29 - 8:45pm.

Two weeks ago, I was walking to my car and glanced up at the sky. It was cloudy, and I didn't have my planisphere, but I could still make out some stars. I saw the constellation Cancer at an altitude of 60 degrees and an azimuth of 190 degrees. I could also make out a bright spot near Cancer that I think may have been Mars! I tried taking pictures of my own but with all the lights nearby all I captured was black sky.



10:25 pm.

Later that night, I was driving home and as I peered out my window at the cloudy sky, I noticed the gorgeous moon shining through the overcast. I ended up pulling over on the side of Lake Michigan Drive to take a picture and make an observation of the moon. It was about 45degrees above the horizon, with an azimuth of 110 degrees. I estimated this based off the East-West orientation of the road. Below is the picture I took when I pulled over. The moon is in the bottom of the shot because I was trying to avoid capturing the city lights along the horizon.














Tuesday, March 30 - 12:00am.

Just one night later, I observed the moon again. It was again about 45 degrees above the horizon. This time, it was a little more south, with an estimated azimuth of 150 degrees. Here is a picture I took out my window of the moon:














Tonight, I can't see the moon. But I must observe it one more time so I'll keep looking!

rise and shine... and set.

Well, let's try this again.

Yesterday I happened to be driving at just the right time to watch the sunrise, and also the sunset. I was pretty excited about it because I'm usually in class before the sun comes up, and at work when it goes down. Unfortunately, driving isn't the best thing to be doing when trying to observe details about the sun. Also less than ideal is that I was driving west in the morning and east in the evening... so I was only able to see the sun in my rear view mirror.

I'm sure as the days continue to get longer, I will be able to observe the sunrise and sunset in a more appropriate setting, and also be able to take some pictures - photographing the sun behind me while driving 55 mph didn't seem like a very smart plan.

For now, I will share what I was able to observe.

I was driving west on Lake Michigan Drive at about 7:50am on Monday, February 9. I had the news on before I left, which reported it was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Behind me, I could see the pink and orange glow of the sun fading into cloudy gray skies. Driving on an E-W road, I noticed that the rising sun wasn't directly behind me but slightly to my left. It was just barely visible above the horizon, at an altitude of less than 10 degrees. Later in the day, when I got out the Star & Planet Locator to verify my observations, I found that at 7:50am in Grand Rapids (6:05am LST) the sun would be at an azimuth of around 105 degrees. That's slightly south of east, just like I saw.

Later in the day, I was driving east on I-96 at about 5:4opm and I noticed the sun was beginning to descend, it was around 20 degrees above the horizon. It was about 23 degrees Farenheit with mostly clear skies, a few clouds here and there. As I continued driving and watching, the sun faded behind the trees and disappeared. Crossing under a N-S road helped me to get my bearings and I estimated that the sun was setting at an azimuth of around 255 degrees. This confirms what we learned last week in class - the sun rises the same amount south of east as it sets south of west.

I began this entry with a disclaimer about how I didn't really get a chance to look long and hard at the rising or setting sun. However, after exploring the different details about each occurrence and putting them into words, I realize that I observed a lot more than I thought I did. This reinforces what I've been learning in class... that astronomy isn't all that complicated. It's actually quite simple, and extremely interesting. Just driving (and in the wrong direction, even) allowed me to collect a number of specific observations. Pretty cool, huh?

Hopefully I will turn this revelation into motivation to go out into the cold night and see more of what the sky has to offer. One thing is for sure - I'm waiting until the blizzard-like conditions subside :)

better luck next time...

Well, I was just about to go to bed and thought I'd step out on my balcony and take a peek at the sky. I saw what I thought was Orion... and then I used my Star & Planet locator - which I semi-learned how to use today - and it confirmed my guess. I tried to take a picture and failed, and then decided that I was too tired and cold to do anything more.

I thought I would jot this down before I go to sleep.

Maybe tomorrow night I'll add in some coffee and a coat and actually have a productive astronomy observation.

Until then, goodnight world :)

can you hear me now?

Welcome to Astronomy by Ashlee.

I will be blogging here for PHY205: Astronomy for Teachers.

Throughout the next few months, I'll be doing my best to post regularly about the things I am learning and doing related to astronomy. Actually, it's a sort of "scavenger hunt" of specific things I am supposed to seek out and observe. Here, I will report my success in making these observations... hopefully.

– several key constellations,
– a sunrise and a sunset
– the moon – on at least on four separate occasions
– at least two planets (not earth)
– at least two satellites (not Iridium flares)
– an Iridium flare
– at least one other astronomical event, object or phenomenon

Well, it should be interesting :)