Practical Observational Astronomy from the Sierra Nevada
General Description
This is a laboratory course that emphasizes astronomical observations made from the field. Within a national forest in the mountains, far from bright city lights, the Field Campus area has the dark sky ideal for observing faint celestial objects and meteors.
The course is designed for a person who wants to learn to identify the stars and constellations and to make simple observations with the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes. Telescopes and their accessories will be studied. We stress hands-on use of telescopes to view the moon, planets, sun, stars and nebulae of our own Milky Way galaxy, and other galaxies. Students will learn how to use star charts and atlases and the setting circles of an equatorial mounting to locate faint celestial objects. It should be particularly helpful to those beginning amateur astronomers who, having purchased their first telescopes, may now be having difficulty finding anything but the moon and brighter planets to observe. Students enroll to receive a letter grade, but have the option of switching to credit-no credit grading, or to audit, at the first class meeting.
Class Schedule
The first class meeting at the SNFC will be at 2:00 PM, Sunday, July 27 and the final session will be late Thursday night (Friday morning), August 1, 2008.
The class meetings are in the afternoon and at night, leaving the mornings open for hiking.
Each class member will construct a pocket sundial and a quadrant to observe the motion of the sky. We will learn to use the sundial as a compass on a luncheon hike to beautiful Frazier Falls, an easy mile hike from the trailhead. Other daytime activities include using the moon to find the time, learning to use your star dial and doing experiments on telescope optics and on spectra. At night we drive to the Packer saddle area where we have an observation site on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Nighttime activities include naked-eye observations: constellation study, use of the quadrant to study sky motion, meteor counting, and observations of variable stars. With binoculars and telescopes we observe planets, comets, stars, nebulae, the Milky Way and other galaxies. On Thursday, the last night, the course culminates with a star party at which we show roughly a hundred vacationers and area residents the beautiful objects we have learned to observe!
For more information click on the names to visit the web sites of co-instructors Steve Gottlieb , Jim Shields and Ray Cash.
Useful equipment and supplies
The sun sets at about 20:10 this time of year, and twilight ends about 22:00. Bring lots of WARM CLOTHING (hat, gloves, parka with hood) for the cold, late-night observing sessions, a DIM flashlight with a RED lens (Orion Telescope's "Adjustable Brightness Starlite LED Flashlight" is ideal), notebooks, pens and pencils, and the below texts. You are encouraged to bring your own observing equipment: telescopes, binoculars, astrolabes, cameras...
REQUIRED MATERIALS
- The July edition of "Sky & Telescope". Look in better bookstores in early July
- THE NIGHT SKY, a planisphere Order at Amazon
- The Bright Star Atlas by Wil Tirion Order at Amazon
List of regional Astronomy Links
