Students Observe the Mercury Transit

On Monday, May 9, 2016, close to 100 students from grades 7 thru 12 walked into the Kohout-Dingley Observatory located on the Sacred Heart High School campus to safely view the rare transit of the planet Mercury crossing the disk of the Sun. This was the first use of the new Baader solar filter manufactured by AstroZap recently purchased specifically for the event. The session, in partnership with the staff of Insight Observatory, hosted entire classes throughout the course of the school day as well as small groups of students visiting during their lunch session. All observers were treated not only to the Mercury transit event but were able to observe groups of sunspots as well.

Sacred Heart Students Observing the Mercury Transit - Photo by Joe Masi.

The early morning hours of May, 9th brought a potential promise of clear observing conditions for the transit. However, just as I was leaving for the observatory to set up for the day, clouds started quickly rolling in. I checked in with the transit's live coverage feed from Sky and Telescope Magazine and J. Kelly Beatty, one of the publication's Chief Editors, was reporting the same weather conditions from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Once I arrived at the school's campus around 8:10 am located in Kingston, Massachusetts, I noticed the clouds were starting to break up and scatter a bit. Joe Masi, a science teacher at the school, assisted me with opening the facility that houses the 11" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. As the sky proceeded to clear up, we locked the solar filter onto place on the telescope and proceeded to slew the telescope towards the Sun. Remember, NEVER look directly at the Sun find it. As I focused the telescope I immediately detected a defined sharp black dot on the Sun's disk along with a few small groupings of sunspots. Mr. Masi wanted to get a quick peek before his 9:00 am class started. He quickly spotted the tiny planet as well.

A little after 9:00 am, Mr. Masi returned to the observatory with his first class. As the students in groups of 2 or 3 took turns viewing the Mercury transit upstairs at the telescope, the rest of the class below learned about the event taking place with a display set up by Insight Observatory on the first floor. The science teachers were discussing what was actually transpiring as well by using the display as an aide. While Mr. Masi's first class was enjoying the event, he suggested that the students image the transit on their smartphones. Some of the students attempted this throughout the day (as I did myself). However, it was very painstaking trying to hold the device steady enough to get an image in decent focus. A student from the first class, Nolan D., had the most successful image of the day. The morning classes that visited the observatory were treated to excellent views of the transit as the sky completely cleared up. However, the students that stopped by during their lunch period were challenged by fast-moving clouds. As they patiently waited, they were able to get a quick glimpse.

Mercury Transit at 9:15 am EDT - Image by Nolan D.

After the last class left around 2:10 pm, I sat in the observing chair at the telescope and took in the last part of this rare event. I watched the silhouette of the planet slowly disappear at the sun's limb exactly at 2:41 pm EDT. It was a great astronomy education experience and a pleasure in sharing the transit of Mercury with the Sacred Heart students. Some of them are already looking forward to the next one in November 2019.

Special thanks to Frank Lopez of the Stellarvision Astronomy and Science Shop located in Tucson, Arizona for his prompt delivery of the AstroZap Solar Filter allowing us to observe this special event.

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Students Observe Venus, Jupiter and the Moon

The rewards of witnessing students acquire their first visual views and photographic images of Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon are absolutely priceless. On the evening of Tuesday, April 28th, 2105, at 7:30pm EDT, 10 students from the Astronomy Club at the Sacred Heart School in Kingston, MA, gathered at the Kohout-Dingley Observatory located on the school's campus grounds. The goal for the evening was to observe and learn a little about Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon through the observatory's 11" telescope with direction from staff members from Insight Observatory.

Students Prepare to Observe at the Observatory.

Shortly after the sunset and the observatory dome was opened up with the telescope ready to go, a few students started to trickle in along with the school's longtime science teacher and astronomy club advisor, Joe Masi. As twilight began, we pointed out Venus, the "Evening Star" as it began to shine bright in the western sky. The 11" telescope was then trained on the inner planet to allow students to get a peek. Most of the observers reacted by stating, "I can see a phase... It looks like a gibbous moon like tonight’s moon phase."

Sacred Heart Senior, Cam K. Photographs the Moon.

After all the attending students got their first look at Venus through a telescope, we then slewed to the bright-gaseous planet, Jupiter. The seeing was fantastic as usual during and just after twilight. The North and South Equatorial Belts were very apparent. There were also four of Jupiter's moons visible in the field of view. I had every student sit comfortably in the observing chair to allow them to take their time viewing the solar system's largest planet. After they focused the telescope to best suit their view, just about every one of them responded "Wow! That is so amazing! I can see the moons and belts... The belts are a reddish color".

The Moon Featuring the Crater Copernicus Imaged by
 Sacred Heart Student, Cam. K. w/ his DSLR Camera.

Last but not least in any way for sure, was our last target and Grande finally for the evening... The Moon is Earth's nearest neighbor. The phase was a waxing gibbous that provided an excellent view of the popular crater, Copernicus. The shadows observed within the craters and mountain ranges of the moon made the viewing that much more spectacular. One student attending, Cam K., brought his DSLR camera with him as he was there to photograph the observatory and its equipment for a school newspaper article. After viewing Jupiter and the Moon, he asked if he could try photographing the objects through the eyepiece. Cam used the method of holding the camera and zooming into the eyepiece with a telephoto lens as well as steadying the camera on a tripod. This method of astrophotography is known as "eyepiece projection".

In most cases, one would get a camera adapter to fasten the camera body to the focuser of the telescope for this method. However, just as an experiment, his very first results were surprisingly good. Cam is now interested in learning more about astrophotography. While cam is an avid photographer, he made a comment while he was photographing Jupiter through the telescope..."This is the farthest object I have ever focused on and photographed."

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Students, Parents and Staff Enjoy Comet Lovejoy

Students, parents, and a few staff members from the Sacred Heart School enjoyed comet viewing on the evening of January 20, 2014, at the Kohout-Dingley Observatory located on the school's campus in Kingston, MA. The event was planned and presented by Insight Observatory. The comet that was on display was Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2. The event featured a display of a 3-D model entitled "Anatomy of a Comet" that was designed and constructed by Insight Observatory's Creative Director, Paul Bonfilio. Paul greeted the attendees of the event as they entered the observatory and presented them with a brief lecture on what a comet actually is utilizing his 3-D model. After the audience listened to Paul's lecture, followed up with some questions and answers, the guests then proceeded up the stairs of the observatory to get a glimpse of this rare celestial visitor through the observatory's 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, operated by Insight Observatory's Project Developer, Michael Petrasko.

Insight Observatory's Creative Director,

Paul Bonfilio Explains the Anatomy of

a comet to students and parents.

The seeing conditions for viewing the comet through the telescope were only fair due to scattered clouds that rolled in over the course of the event. However, the thin clouds didn't hinder the observers from seeing Comet Lovejoy's nucleus and dust tail. Even though only a pair of binoculars would be more than ideal to observe the comet, the telescope's wide-field eyepiece provided observers to see about 50% of the comet in the field of view. It turns out that this evening allowed all of the attendees to get their first view of a comet ever.

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is a long-period comet discovered on 17 August 2014 by Terry Lovejoy using an 8" Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. The comet was discovered at apparent magnitude 15 in the southern constellation of Puppis. It is the fifth comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy.

By December 2014, the comet had brightened to roughly magnitude 7.4, making the comet a small telescope and binoculars target. By mid-December, the comet was visible to the naked eye for experienced observers with dark skies and keen eyesight.

Astrophotographer Chris Schur captured Comet Lovejoy 
C/2014 Q2 with globular cluster  M79 on Dec. 28, 2014,
 from Payson, Arizona.

On 28−29 December 2014, the comet passed 1/3° from globular cluster Messier 79. It brightened to roughly magnitude 4−5 and became one of the brightest comets located high in a dark sky in years. On 7 January 2015, the comet passed 0.469 AU ( 43,600,000 miles) from Earth. It crossed the celestial equator on 9 January 2015 becoming better seen from the northern hemisphere. The comet will come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 30 January 2015 at a distance of 1.29 AU (120,000,000 miles) from the Sun.

Before entering the planetary region (epoch 1950), C/2014 Q2 had an orbital period of about 11000 years. After leaving the planetary region (epoch 2050), it will have an orbital period of about 8000 years.

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