Gathering on a cloudy night in the hopes of seeing aurora borealis
by Jim Hendrickson & Matt White
An M-class solar flare erupted on the Sun on Thrusday with its predicted arrivel times for our Saturday night open hours, and with weather forecasts calling for favorable conditions, there was hope and expectation of seeing an appearance of aurora borealis in the area for the first time in a decade.
By the early afternoon when the clouds still hadn't cleared, Steve Siok had reported that a Donna Gaumond's school gropu that was planning to visit this evening had cancelled, but that we were still planning to open for public observing hours. I arrived early to find George Petitto already waiting at the gate. George is an enthusiastic amateur who visited us last Tuesday at Ladd Observatory and is interesting in visiting more often and becoming a member. A few minutes later, new member Matt White arrived and the sies began to clear just as the Sun was setting. Tom Thibault arrived and the Moon became visible for a short time. Matt brought out his Nikon 10x50 binoculars for a quick look before clouds filled in what had previously been a promising clearing sky.
Several local visitors arrived just before dark and stayed for about 15 minutes hoping it would clear, as they were expecting to see aurora borealis that night as well. They had left, as did Tom, and one of our earlier visitors returned sometime later after going into town for dinner, in the hopes that the still overcase skies would have given in by now.
Another family arrived some time later and stayed for a few minutes as I introduced myself and anssered a few questions they had about the observatory and what we had hoped to see tonight.
Finally Ian Dell'Antonio arrived with his family just when we were starting to see small breaks in the clouds. They had been looking for a place suitible to view the aurora as well, and decided Seagrave Observatory was their bast bet. Although still mostly cloudy, we were able to briefly view the Moon and Jupiter with Matt's binoculars. We also got to briefly see parts of Orion, Casstor & Pollux, and a satellite moving north past the twin stars of Gemini. They stayed about 15 minutes.
After staying over 2 hours and realizing we weren't going to get the clear skies expected, George left at about 21:30. Matt and I stayed a few more minutes before concluding the evening at 21;40.
The predicted aurora never materialized at our latitude, so a spectacular sky show was not missed.
Report submitted by Jim Hendrickson
Well, I guess asking to have four clear Saturdays in a row was a bit much. Still, by late afternoon, it appeared that we would have some clear skies for the open night. I arrived at Seagrave at about 7:30 pm to find Jim Hendrickson and Tom Thibault assessing the sky. A perspective member, George, was also in attendance. For a while, it looked as if the sky would open up, but after the moon had made a brief appearance, the clouds filled in, obscuring our view. I had quickly grabbed my binoculars to allow George a quick glimpse at the moon before it was covered by the clouds. A little while later, Jupiter made a brief appearance through the clouds.
A good point to note, on nights like this, a good pair of binoculars are invaluable, allowing a person the catch a quick glimpse of objects he or she would otherwise miss.
Despite the conditions, we did have a few visitors, many of them hoping to see the Northern Lights. Alas, the skies to the north were completely obscured. We encouraged them to visit again when the skies were clear.
About 9:00 pm, the clouds thinned out a bit, giving us another brief view of the moon and Jupiter, as well as Castor, Pollux, Betelgeuse and Sirius. Jim was able to spot a satellite pass the “Twins” as it proceeded north. Another couple showed up in time to catch the brief opening and we all shared a look through the binoculars. At around 9:40 pm, we decided to call it a night.
While we had hoped for better conditions, I have to admit the evening was not a total loss.
Report submitted by Matt White
