Online Learning Opportunities Using ATEO

During these unusual and stressful times, Insight Observatory has been fortunate enough to be able to offer and provide online learning opportunities with teachers and students from their homes. One instance was a recent collaboration with Plymouth South Elementary School 5th-grade teacher, Ms Christine DeSantis, from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Insight Observatory and Ms. DeSantis had scheduled an education program earlier this year to take place in April 2020. Fortunately, due to Insight's online Educational Image Request (EIR) application, Ms. DeSantis and her 5th-grade students could still proceed with the class project as planned.

Plymouth South Elementary School Student, Aidan F., examines his image of M27, The Dumbbell Nebula, taken on Insight Observatory's 16 f/3.7 astrograph reflector (ATEO-1) remote telescope.

"We are very grateful to have been able to benefit from Insight Observatory’s educational outreach program, especially during this difficult and challenging process of distance learning!" states Ms. DeSantis. "Students first visited Insight Observatory's website to learn more about the online remote telescopes and their locations. The students discussed why New Mexico was an ideal location for deep space photography, and how Insight Observatory Co-Founder, Mr. Petrasko, first became interested in space photography. It was inspiring and motivating for the kids to learn how a hobby and interest in space could eventually develop into this type of program."

Plymouth South Elementary School Student, Morgan H., displays her image of M57, The Ring Nebula.  M97, The Owl Nebula (upper right), and M108 Galaxy (lower left) were imaged by Brook C. and Cameron J. All deep-sky objects were imaged by the students on Insight Observatory's 16" f/3.7 astrograph reflector (ATEO-1).

"After their research, students were paired up to choose some deep-sky images to have photographed. It was particularly exciting for the students to find out that the spring sky is loaded with galaxies. Students chose from a list of open star clusters, spiral galaxies, globular clusters, and planetary nebulae. They were thrilled when their images arrived. After seeing their images, students discussed the immensity of distances in space and reviewed the variation in galaxy shapes. This was such a wonderful project, especially since it allowed my students to visit faraway places without having to leave their homes."

More images were acquired by Plymouth South Elementary School 5th-grade students using ATEO-1. M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy imaged by Trevor B. (left), M27, The Dumbell Nebula, imaged by Aidan F. (upper right), and M3, Globular Cluster imaged by Nathan B.

Insight Observatory would like to thank Ms. DeSantis and her 5th-grade students for participating in a classroom project for the 3rd year straight year! Even during these challenging learning conditions, we are very happy we could still make it possible!

If you are an educator and would like to participate in an online learning opportunity using our Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) remote telescope network, please Contact Us. 

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Northern Hemisphere Forecast for April and May: Showers - With A Chance Of Bolides!

This time of year, presents us with a unique, "all-sky", observing situation: double-header meteor showers - and, the possibility of 'fireballs', and/or, 'bolide' meteors, thrown in!

First comes the Lyrid meteor shower, peaking on 22APR and followed by the Eta Aquarids, peaking on 5MAY.

Ah-Ha! But - the bases are loaded...

There is also, a good chance, for spotting a 'fireball' meteor or two, and, even a "near-once-in-a-lifetime" bolide. This annual recurring situation is where the term, "April Fireballs" comes from (see my article, "The Great Fireball of 1966").

A meteor from the Lyrids meteor shower crossing the milky way - single exposure. Image credit: iStock by Getty Images.

Lyrid meteors originate with the short, long-period comet, C/1861 G1. This comet has one of the shortest periods of all, long-period comets, at just over 400 years. Therefore, its 'wake' is broad and rather dense. Zenithal Hourly Rates (ZHR), are only around 10, for most years - but, with meteor showers, one can never tell. The Lyrids have provided, in, roughly, 60-year outbursts, up to 90 meteors, per hour! The Lyrid radiant in Lyra is close to that constellation's brightest star, Vega, which rises around 8:30 p.m., in the east.

The Eta Aquarids, peaking on 5MAY, is the debris train, left, by the 76-year period comet, 1P/Halley (yes, that one - "Halley's Comet", for you newcomers (oh, you'll learn!))

The Eta Aquarids radiant rises at around 2:45 a.m. and the hour or two just before dawn will be the best viewing (That's what you get for becoming an Astronomer!) The Eta Aquarids occur, this year, near the full moon - but a full moon was never a deterrent to me, for a meteor shower. And, there is assistance at hand...

Meteor showers are the type of event that, you don't want to use a telescope at; at least, not for watching meteors. Typically, meteor showers are viewed with the unaided eye. Some observers will use, low powered, standard-style binoculars - I've tried that myself and, probably, missed, half of the meteors during a shower, by constricting my field of view in using them!

Orion 2 x 54 Ultra Wide-Angle Binoculars

Orion Telescopes and Binoculars have come up with a unique-sounding aid directed at the meteor shower, and, Milky Way density viewer: Orion 2 x 54 Ultra Wide-Angle Binoculars! Somebody finally did it!

Although I haven't tried these, for myself, I get it -- I've imagined similar optics in my, "deep-astronomical" past (around 50 yrs., total!)

Rather than missing out on some meteors by using the confined field of a standard pair of binoculars - these 2x54 ultra-wides sound, more like, an enhanced, 'unaided-eye' field of view, with their offering of a 36° FOV, and 70°, apparent field of view. I can only imagine what the denser portions of the Milky Way look like through these!

IF YOU DO HAPPEN ACROSS A BOLIDE – LET ME KNOW ABOUT IT!

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

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The Coming of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS

One of the great things about staying at home - you just, might discover a comet! Ninety-four (94) new comets were discovered by Amateur Astronomers, last year.

The last, great comet that I saw was comet Hale-Bopp, in 1997. When I say, "Great" - I mean that it was so prominent in the sky that, if you were facing about 70-80 degrees away from it, it still caught your attention out of the corner of your eye. Now, THAT's, "Great"!

Another comet that I've always considered to be, "Great" - was comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2). Most people don't remember that one - but, that's only because, it was so large, that it was difficult to see as a singular, intact object. The tail of the comet was so wide, and was positioned, directly overhead, that it looked more like a disintegrating, diffuse, airliner contrail - spanning nearly the entire sky, and with no, distinct "head".

Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS imaged on the 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector, ATEO-1 on the evening of April 10, 2020, by Muir Evenden. Processing by Utkarsh Mishra and Michael Petrasko.

But, enough about those "Great visitors" to the Inner Solar System - there just might be, another, looming presence in the night. Enter, comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS, or, comet "ATLAS", for short!) ATLAS is a sort of, "Rip Van Winkle"; it's been "asleep", since about the year 3000 BC! The chart, here, shows the comet's expected positions in the sky, from, 20MAR, in Ursa Major - 28JUN, 2020 in Orion. Currently, it is "cat-napping", in the northern constellation, Camelopardalis. On 12MAY, the comet moves into the constellation Perseus, and on the 23rd, it will be at its closest to Earth. It will be at its closest to the sun on 31 May 2000.

The dirty "snow-ball" - as we like to call these things - was discovered by one of the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System's (ATLAS) 0.5 m (20 in) reflector telescopes, situated at the top of Mauna Loa, Hawaii. At the time of discovery, in December of 2019, it was 3 AU's from the sun, at magnitude 19.6. By the beginning of February, it brightened to magnitude 17, and then, to mag. 8, by the end of March of this year.

The predicted path of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS thru June 18th, 2020. Graphic credit: www.cometwatch.co.uk

ATLAS has a very distinctive coloration; green/aqua, due to, diatomic carbon molecules, within its coma. Its orbital period was originally thought to be around 4,400 years. ATLAS, has some orbital characteristic similarities with the Great Comet of 1844 (C/1844 Y1), suggesting that this "new" (to us) comet might, actually, be a remnant fragment of the same parent body as C/1844 Y1. This apparition of ATLAS, was, initially, held to be, possibly a spectacular one - and, that may still be the case. However - recent observations have shown a decrease in magnitude, after having brightened to magnitude 8, as it crossed the orbit of Mars. It is currently at magnitude 8.9 - 9.2. This is not even naked, or, unaided-eye visibility. That's because the comet is fragmenting. It is still possible, that, the fragments will maintain enough structural integrity, to give the broken comet, higher scores - possibly, something along the lines of comet Shoemaker-Levy's plunge into the atmosphere of Jupiter, years ago! (We couldn't see that from the ground, but it was spectacular on a spacecraft video feed!).

Well, who knows?! When ATLAS is done, doing what it's going to do - it will head back out into the cosmic depths, on a 5,200-year-long loop, eventually, bringing it back around to the sun, once again. Along the way, it may even leave behind, a generous portion, of its disintegrating self in the form of a new meteor shower stream!

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

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