The lunar terminator, the line between night and day, is perfectly placed this weekend for gazing at the moon’s rugged surface
Friday March 27: Program ON!
Hi gang,
T program tonight at the John Glenn Astronomy Park is ON! The forecast calls for clear skies and temperatures in the upper 30s, so dress warmly (more warmly than you think you ought to- without a warm sun at night, things can get nippy.)
The program begins at 7:45 PM.
Keep in mind that JGAP is always open for folks to >independently< stargaze with their own telescopes, binoculars or just their eyes. Sunday night, conditions look extremely good for quick "stargaze" from our plaza. Feel free to drive on in, but turn off your lights once you park so others can enjoy the view.
You may secure free passes for this Spring’s upcoming programs at:
JGAP Is a dark site deigned to give people a place to enjoy pristine, starry skies. It takes time for human eyes to adapt to dark conditions after they have experienced bright lights.
So, please be considerate to others when driving in after dark and turn your high beams down. This helps keep our observing field dark. Then, once you have parked, please turn off your headlights right away.
If you have trouble in the dark finding your way to our field from the parking area, wait a minute or two without exposing yourself to bright light. Then walk. You’d be amazed what your eyes can do if you just give them a chance.
02. Astrophotography
01. Spring Skies
The “Leo Triplet”, three bright galaxies in the direction of the constellation Leo.
Spring is “galaxy season” for amateur astronomers- a time when the night side of the Earth, in the early evening, points through the sparsely populated “poles” of the Milky Way galaxy, allowing us to see the vast universe beyond.
In that vast universe are innumerable “island universes”, galaxies each filled with billions, or hundreds of billions, of stars.
Many of these are visible as faint smudges from the skies of the John Glenn Astronomy Park. Though faint, their fast distance, so great that the light from these objects has taken tens of millions of years to reach us, impresses.
03. Jupiter
Image of Jupiter byJoe Renzetti
That brilliant “star” high in the east at sundown is Jupiter, the largest and grandest of our solar system’s planets.
Looking at Jupiter through a telescope, we see thin colorful bands. These are the cloud-tops of Jupiter. The bands mark the different regions of the clouds where the Coriolis force causes winds to the east or west depending on how far from Jupiter’s equator the regions are.
This is the same phenomenon that, here on Earth, leads Ohio to experience winds primarily from west to east and folks in Miami, Florida to feel the breeze coming mainly from the opposite direction.
On Earth, the land sticks up and jostles the wind around a bit, making it chaotic. On Jupiter there is no land. In fact, Jupiter is pretty much clouds all the way to the core. Because of this the “trade winds” on Jupiter have nothing to run into, and the winds spin around and around along more or less straight paths.
Image by Alex Mullins
On most clear, moonless, evenings, you’ll find folks taking advantage of the dark skies at JGAP to shoot images of the night sky.
This pastime is known as astrophotography.
All are welcome to bring cameras and telescopes to JGAP to try their hand at this.
If you get a good image, why not share it with us by using our Instagram hashtag: #jgastropark
Predicting the Weather
The Clear Sky Clock
The chart below is an hour by hour prediction of how clear the skies will likely be over the coming two days. Cloud cover and transparency are the critical data points. In general, dark blue is best. If both transparency and Cloud Cover are indicated as dark blue, then skies are likely to be clear and filled with stars. Lighter colors are proportionally worse.
In recent months, the predictions of the Clear Sky Clock have been somewhat unreliable, so use at your own risk.
Clear Outside
The forecasts from the website Clear Outside have proven very accurate and reliable in recent months and give a great indication of what sort of clouds to expect, if any.
ClearOutside forecast for the Hocking Hills
Astrospherics
Another great site for predicting conditions on an hour by hour basis is Astropherics, whose model of late is better than that of the Clear Sky Clock. Access JGAP’s location with this link:
Weather.Gov
Finally, the best site for predicting the weather is the site from which all the data comes from in the first place, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecast page. The best forecast for JGAP is the Logan, Ohio hourly pinpoint forecast. Find it here.
The most critical part of the forecast is the blue line which represents the predicted cloud cover for that hour. Generally 50% or higher is not good.
Incidentally, Weather.gov is a product of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has suffered devastating cutbacks in recent days that may undermine its very existence. NOAA provides data that commercial services call upon for their own forecasts as well as conducts research that helps improve forecast models in the future. Please consider speaking up for it.
Support the Friends of the Hocking Hills State Park
Do you love the Hocking Hills State Park? Would you like to help projects that make HHSP an even better place? Do you love JGAP?
Then consider joining The Friends of the Hocking Hills State Park, an organization that supports projects like JGAP and other enhancements to the most beautiful park in Ohio.
http://www.friendsofhockinghills.org/
Join our Facebook and Instagram Communities
We have a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/JohnGlennAstronomyPark/?ref=bookmarks
… and an Instagram Page
https://www.instagram.com/jgastropark/
On both we are regularly featuring items of astronomical interest.
If you have questions that you’d like addressed in these feeds, feel free to Facebook Messenger them to us!
“The greatest thing we can do is inspire young minds...”
- John Glenn
