December 18, 2008 #067 - SN 1987a

I have been a shortwave listener since I was about 7 or 8 years old. My grandparents had a console radio, about 4 feet tall in a polished mahogany wood case with a wonderful large white multi-band dial. It was full of warm glowing vacuum tubes, a boy's dream. It also had speakers the size of dinner plates which produced a great sound. I'm sure you have seen pictures of families gathered around these, listening to the old time radio shows. That was not what I wanted to hear. Give me the BBC, time signals, tiny far off voices from places unknown. I thrived on Morse code and other strange tones that floated through the ether. This was only the first of many receivers to come.

Fast forward a few years. Late one night in February 1987 I was lounging on the bed and listening to shortwave broadcasts on my Kenwood R-1000 receiver with a long wire antenna. I was still tuning through the frequencies, listening here and there, writing what stations and type of traffic I picked up. Then to my surprise I hit upon traffic between South America and the United States. I was listening to the operators, speaking in English, transmitting information about a supernova just discovered in the southern skies. One of the brightest an nearest in modern times. They were talking about SN 1987a but it had no designation at that time.

This supernova was discovered on the 23rd day of February by a Canadian astronomer, Ian Shelton. He was working at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile when he made the discovery in the Large Magellanic Cloud. That would be about 160,000 light years away but it was visible to the naked eye. In the next few months and even today there is much excitement and research going on to discover the secrets of this explosion and what it can reveal to astronomers and stellar physicists.

The purpose of the message was to disseminate astronomical data between observatories and astronomers. This would facilitate more resources being brought to bear to study the fast breaking event. When I think back to that night It still amazes me that I caught that traffic. What are the odds of being on the shortwave at that specific time and hitting that one frequency out of a multitude of possible frequencies. The shortwave bounce had to be just right for my spot on the earth to pick up that transmission. It was kind of like hitting the lottery to hear this breaking news before the rest of the world heard it. Even though I have never seen this wonder in the night sky I will have this memory to treasure!


Clear Sky - Rich

December 16, 2008 #066 - First Lunar Eclipse

As I was watching the full moon rise a couple of days ago, old memories began to float to the top and burst open like bubbles in a brook. It is always amazing to me what our minds retain of our early lives, hidden below the surface, waiting for the proper eddy to bring them up. For some reason that seems to occur more and more often these days. Dare I say old age.

Anyway, I remembered that a childhood friend "Bob" and I began a project in art class during early grade school that consumed many days of work. We decided to draw and color a 36" map of the moon. The teacher supplied us with a large white poster board to produce our masterpiece on. Remember, this is many years before the space age. We worked diligently drawing and coloring in craters, rills, seas, and mountains. What inspired this project is not clear anymore, maybe a lunar map in the back of an atlas of the earth or a magazine article photo in possibly Look, Life, or the Saturday Evening Post. We completed it over the coarse of many art class periods and it was quite impressive for a couple of young budding space science students. After completion it was hung in the class room by our teacher for the rest of the year. When summer vacation came we had a problem. How to divide one artwork by two boys. Being best friends we compromised and each kept it a month. Over the years it fell into disuse as boyhood things do, and one of our mothers probably decided to clean our rooms and the moon was lost.

This memory lead to another. A year or so later Bob and I decided to watch our first lunar eclipse. My parents had just purchased an old farm house, their dream home. No more rentals with Dad fixing the landlords properties for rent credit. It was a great place out in the country for astronomy. We rode the school bus home Friday evening and set up my Edmund 3" reflector for our observations late in the evening Saturday night. It was clear and cold with about an inch of snow. There was an old fuel platform out behind the smokehouse. This had once held a metal tank secured for gravity flow of fuel to the farm equipment. We decided that was our observatory. I can not explain why it was any better than on the ground!

Two boys went to bed that night but didn't sleep much. In anticipation we were up well in advance of the start of the event, bundled in heavy clothes. As the eclipse progressed we eagerly watched, one at the eyepiece and one eyeballing the moon and then switching places. Every once in awhile we would go inside to warm up. We survived the night on mutual excitement and eyes full of wonder at the moons changing aspect and seeing the earths shadow move through space. We were two tired boys when Bob's parents came to get him at the end of the weekend, but we had seen our eclipse!

NOVEMBER 18, 1956

Clear Sky - Rich

December 15, 2008 #065 - Red Shift Suite

My music collection has another selection that might be of interest to astro music fans. In the late 1990's I purchased a version of planetarium software called Red Shift from Maris Software. They included a bonus Music CD. It was composed by Jean-Pierre Garatoni and was called "Redshift Suite - A Space Age Symphony". It contains 12 tracks which I would say are new age in timbre and play well in an astronomical setting or just casual listening. I have not been able to locate any place on the net where the CD is for sale save as a companion to the software. I did locate a site for the composer on iLike and Facebook. They indicate that the title is available on ITunes. I have included the site address if anyone would like to hear these selections.

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Jean-Pierre+Garatoni


Clear Sky - Rich

December 14, 2008 #064 - Amazing Full Moon

I hope you went out and took a look at the amazing full moon last night. This full moon was close to it's orbital perigee and as such was the closest, largest diameter, and brightest in about 15 years. I watched it rise through the woods to the east of our house until it cleared the last of the branches and floated into the clear sky.

As I left for work at 3:15 am the sky was hazy which dimmed it's overall brightness. A half hour later I was standing where I had an unobstructed view for miles in every direction. It was at an altitude of about 15 degrees past the zenith. A ring appearing to have a faint rainbow hue with a wall thickness the same as the moon's diameter circled it at 23 degrees. Contained within this ring were six stars near mag 3 or brighter. I stood and took in this beautiful view for a while. There are some rewards for going to work at this time of the morning!


Clear Sky - Rich

December 13, 2008 #063 - Amateur Astronomy Handbook

I wonder how many out there remember the Amateur Astronomy Handbook published by Fawcett as a How To Book #454 for 75 cents. It was published in 1960 and I found it at the local drug store along with several other how-to-books, in one of those revolving wire magazine racks that were placed near the check out counter in those days. I have saved it over these almost 50 years. I am sure the pages were turned hundreds of times during my boyhood. It contains plans for all kinds of astronomy projects and at one time or another I dreamed of building almost all of them.

My favorite project was the Wide Angle Telescope - Camera constructed with the lens from a K-22 Aerial Camera Lens Cone with a Tessor Optical System, f/6, 24" focal length. The cost of this lens was (Used $39.50) (New $59.50) at Edmund Scientific. It stated that this lens cost the U.S. Government $1200, and we talk about the cost of government hammers today. That would be about 10 times that amount in today's dollars. Of coarse that was way out of my reach even at the used price! But I did look at those pages over and over. They even had one of these Lens Cones at the local Army Surplus Store where I lingered many times looking at it from all directions.

Just looking at these pages again makes me want to see if that K-22 is still available on the net.


Clear Sky - Rich

December 12, 2008 #062 - Voyager Grand Tour Suite

Today I would like to refer you to another CD that presents some sounds from space, intermixed with music. It commemorates the Voyager Grand Tour of the solar system. The composition was produced to archive 12 years of planetary exploration in music. Launched on August 20, 1977 and traveling out beyond Neptune's moon Triton on August 25, 1989, the two Voyager's photographed five planets and fifty seven moons.

The composition was composed by Michael Lee Thomas and is titled "Voyager- Grand Tour Suite". It was recorded by Bainbridge Records and is cataloged as BCD2503. It is still available on the net.


Clear Sky - Rich

December 11, 2008 #061 - Seeing In the Dark

I was rummaging through a surplus book store and found a copy of the Timothy Ferris book "Seeing In the Dark". This is the companion to the PBS Channel program that ran in 2007. The book chronicles the changing landscape of amateur astronomy around the world, how astronomy has played a part in his life, and an overview of the universe. The style is reminiscent of Carl Sagan at his best. It dredged up memories of my youth and what drew me to enjoy the hobby over the years.

The book and a DVD of the show are still available through PBS. I know copies are available at many AV Centers of local libraries. I'm sure you will enjoy this chronicle about our hobby, as I did.

Mr. Ferris has a web site at:

http://www.timothyferris.com/

Public Broadcasting has a site at:

http://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/



Clear Sky - Rich

December 10, 2008 #060 - The Griffith Observer

I picked up a pamphlet at a library sale not long ago that I could not pass up for a buck, even though it cost only 20 cents when it was published in 1958. It is called "The Griffith Observer". I have never seen a copy before, or been to the observatory, so I decided to do a little research on the web.

Griffith Observatory is located above Los Angeles, CA. They began publishing this booklet in 1937 and it is still published today. They have a cumulative index that you can download and they will provide photo copies back to the first issue. They are available for $8.00 each. The annual subscription is $23.00. Information can be found at:

http://www.griffithobservatory.org/observer.html

They have extensive programs for the public, all detailed on their website. The Sidewalk Astronomers even set up telescopes each month for public viewing. Based on the pictures, I would guess that as with many older observatory sites light pollution is a very bad problem for them. They have photos of binoculars mounted to provide views of Los Angeles, which doesn't look that far away. As many of us can attest, light polution is a common problem across much of the Midwest, not just California.

http://www.griffithobservatory.org/btelescopes.html



Clear Sky - Rich

December 9, 2008 #059 - The Sentinel

Yesterday I wrote about the unused original sound track for "2001 A Space Odyssey". If you want to have some fun next time you are out walking across the lunar surface with your telescope, download and play "The Sentinel" by Arthur C. Clarke. This is the original short story, he wrote in 1951, which he expanded for the movie.

It was produced as a radio program for the series named Mind Webs. It is now public domain and can be obtained just for the downloading as an mp3. The production and quality are first class. It is my favorite of the hundreds of old time radio programs available for free on the Internet. If you are like me you will get a thrill as you listen and watch the moon drift across your field of view!

Go to:

http://www.archive.org/details/MindWebs-SciFi

Scroll down to:

Mindwebs-790128_TheSentinel

Download the 6.7 mb file and you can play it with a portable player or computer.


Clear Sky - Rich

December 8, 2008 #058 - 2001 A Space Odyssey

The mid-western sky has been very cloudy and lake effect snow continues to make sky watching problematical in the early winter. As the Great Lakes cool down later, we can have very cold clear skies at mid-winter. As a result my outdoor observation time is scarce. So, I have been going through and listening to my music collection as I spend more time indoors.

If you are like me you purchase CD's, play them over and over for a time, then put them away to be rediscovered again at a later date. As I was preparing the last two blog entries, I came across one that I had forgotten for a few years. Everyone has probably seen the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey" by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. The sound track is one of the most memorable from my boyhood movie trips. I remember my father taking me to see it at the theater. I was one of those who came out with my eyes glazed and jaw dropping. The effect lasted for several days.

I am not sure how well known this information is, but I doubt many know that the actual music soundtrack was the second written for the movie. Composer Alex North wrote the original score, but it was never used. If you would like to hear it, the CD was released in 1993 by Varese Sarabande Records as "2001 The Legendary Original Score", performed by Jerry Goldsmith and The National Philharmonic Orchestra. The CD is #VSD-5400. It is still available on the net.


Clear Sky - Rich

December 7, 2008 #057 - Music From The Galaxies

Yesterday I wrote about a NASA recording. This time I would like to tell you about another interesting CD made by Dr. Fiorella Terenzi. She is a Doctor of Physics with a specialization in Astrophysics. The radio emanations were recorded from a galaxy located 180 million light years away in Abell 6697. The observations were made by the staffs of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and the Very Large Array. The data was manipulated and synthesized and then digitally recorded. The CD was released in 1991 as 'Music From the Galaxies' by Island Records and is #422-848 768-2.

The composition is a little different from the NASA CD but I find it very interesting and easy to listen to. It is still available last time I looked at Barnes & Nobles in the New Age section.


Clear Sky - Rich

December 6, 2008 #056 - Symphonies of the Planets

As a wildlife biologist, I have always enjoyed listening to natures sounds. Having astronomy as a hobby, I also enjoy the sounds of space. I hear someone saying you have got to be nuts. Let me explain. NASA has sent many probes throughout the solar system and beyond, which carry instruments that record frequencies above and below the human hearing range. Many radio telescopes also record these frequencies. Scientists have taken this data, shifted these frequencies into the human hearing range and in a few cases arranged them in artistic ways akin to a symphony. These presentations can be quite haunting and pleasing.

One of my favorites is a 5 CD set of sounds recorded during the two Voyager flights to the limits of the solar system. From the box, "Share the journey of a 5 billion mile trek to the outer limits of the solar system. Hear the beautiful sounds of the solar planets. The complex interactions of the cosmic plasma of the universe, charged electromagnetic particles from the solar wind, planetary magnetosphere, rings and moons create vibration 'soundscapes' which are utterly alien and deeply familiar to the ear. Some sounds are hauntingly like human voices singing, giant Tibetan bowls, wind, waves, birds and dolphins". If you can find this set either new, used, or maybe in a library, it is a unique and wonderful way to find out what we human beings are missing, due to our limited senses.

The set is 'Symphonies of the Planets' and was produced in 1990 by LaserLight Digital and is #15 925. It is still available on the net.


Clear Sky - Rich

December 4, 2008 #055 - Used Book Stores

As my wife and I have traveled around the back country roads of America, we try to find the old used books stores that each small town seems to have. The next best place to find old books is at the small town library book sales. Many times this is in a basement room, where the treasures that no one reads anymore are offered to help support that library.

I love to look for books which cover my hobbies, astronomy and telescopes, kayaking, outdoor activities, and tons of other subjects. I have been a voracious reader all of my life. If I could I would have rooms full of books. Fortunately my wife tries to keep the brakes on me. She has the same likes but does not collect like I do. She reads and moves on, I tend to read and keep. Giving up a good book is like pulling teeth for me.

Not too long ago I found a complete, almost unused, bound set of Burnham's Celestial Handbook, Vol 1 thru 3 in a small town used book store. Now I realize that I had a paperback set, and that they were published in 66 and revised in 78, and so are a little long in the tooth. But, who in their right mind could pass this up for $15. I even ask the proprietor twice if that wasn't the per book price. "No" he said "For the set", gasp! Now, all my wife needs to do is figure out how to get me to part with the other set!

Clear Sky - Rich

December 3, 2008 #054 - Cloudy Nights Website

Well, another long period of no time just work is coming to a close. Every year my wife and I look forward to the end of the October to mid December portion of the year. In my line of work these weeks consist of up at 2:30 AM and to bed by 6:00 PM. We look forward to the Christmas and New Years Holiday and a normal life again. There is one consolation for early rising each day in the winter. The predawn skies are spectacular, even if the telescope must stay at home. My going to work companion has been Orion.

I have, been following the Astronomical and Space News. What wonders we have seen in the last few weeks. A spectacular meteor fall over Canada, pictures of not one but several planets around other star systems, the polar lander holding on much longer than anyone thought it would, finally freezing in the cold dark martian night. Who would ever believe the rovers would still be sending back data from mars and one even hoping to complete a multi-year trek to a new and much larger crater.

I have also been spending time on the Cloudy Nights Astronomy Site. This web area is one of the best places to keep up with the amateur astronomy universe. It is worth your attention, it is moderated to prevent what has happened to sci.astronomy news groups. There is something there for every facet of your astronomical hobby.

Clear Sky - Rich