Fireflies and Constellations

Fireflies in Southold

Surrounding Custer Observatory is a large field owned by the Town of South. In the last few weeks there has been a noticeable burst of activity in the field at dusk! Thousands of Fire Flies are in flight across the field at dusk looking for a mate! I am new to observing Fire Flies although I remember them from childhood. I never gave them the closer look that they deserved after capturing them and putting them in a jar. My only goal at that time was to watch the blinking of their soft light in the dark. 

I recently became aware of a reported decline in our Fire Fly population and a Citizen Science project to keep track of Fire Fly populations across the United States. Seeing a friend, Steve Bellavia, post a photo of this night-time flurry of activity reminded me of the Citizen Science project and thought I should add the Custer location to the map of this project.

On subsequent nights I decided to try my hand at more night-time photography and photograph the soft light of the night-time flight of these fascinating childhood insects. At the same time I decided to catch some and put them in a large jar, something I have not done since I was young, only this time it was in the interest of science! I brought them indoors to photograph them and try to identify the species based on a photo ID page on on the Museum of Science's Firefly Watch website. According to their photos I had caught a Photorus firefly.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and you can see part of the Milky Way on the left side of the image.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius, part of the Milky Way  and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

The Custer dome was rotating at the time of this timed exposure, a happy accident, so the dome opening appears larger then it is.

An Original Science Music Video About Life In An Observatory!

Welcome to the Hotel Mauna Kea

Five planetary astronomers bring you an original science music video about life at the observatory at the 14,000-foot summit of Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. The astronomers, stationed at the Infra-Red Telescope Facility, wrote the song while they investigated aurora in Jupiter's atmosphere and the composition of Mars' atmosphere. One songwriter says: "The emission line and the dip that are mentioned in the video are real, and they are interesting. We have never abandoned an observing run to go to the beach."  

Juan Delgado (Flamenco guitar), Kelly Fast (vocal, videography, 12-string guitar), Ted Kostiuk (spoken vocal), Lyrics by John Annen, Juan Delgado, Kelly Fast, Ted Kostiuk and Tim Livengood.

Look for LEO in the SKY!

Join the 6th Worldwide GLOBE @ NIGHT 2011 Campaign
March 22 - April 4 for the Northern Hemisphere
 

Find LEO the LION in the sky and Go to www.GlobeatNight.org 

to participate and record your results. 

 

This is a Citizen Science Project that you can do as a family. Go to the GlobeatNight website and download the Family Activity Pack and enter your results online.

Custer Observatory is Participating in GLOBE @ NIGHT Campaign

Our annual light pollution campaign, GLOBE at Night (GAN) is underway! Help us make a worldwide map of light pollution by contributing your observations and recruiting others to participate.

I know many of you have participated in the AFGU Dark Skies sessions in the past and may be veterans of GLOBE at Night. For the newcomers, it is fun and easy to get involved. You make measurements of the brighteness of the night sky by observing the constellation of Orion (late February or early March) or Leo (late March/early April) and compare your observation to the magnitude charts that are online. Enter your data along with your latitude, longitude, time and date of the observations on the reports page. You can enter more than one data point and we would love to see you make lots of observations from different locations! Visit the GLOBE at Night website for full details.

There are a couple of new additions for 2011.

1. Two campaigns! GAN has expanded. Observations can be made from February 22nd to March 6th and from March 22nd to April 4th (northern hemisphere) or March 24th to April 6th (southern hemisphere). The second set of campaigns will use the constellations of Leo and Crux instead of Orion.

2. You can do GLOBE at Night on your cellphone this year! The new reports page works on cell phones. It will even read your GPS coordinates, date and time of the observation directly from your cell phone's GPS and fill in those parts of the form for you. To top it off, there is even a night mode that will make the screen red to preserve your night vision.

3. New Dark Skies Rangers activities! The Dark Skies Rangers program consists of a series of activities on different aspects of light pollution suitable for a variety of different audiences. They are great additions to dark sky programs.

4. Expanded social media presence. You can follow GLOBE at Night on Twitter or Facebook to keep up with the latest news.

I hope you can join us for this exciting project. If you have access to lists/blogs/discussion forums/twitter feeds where you can help spread the word, we would appreciate your help. Connie Walker, the GLOBE at Night director, sent a couple of versions of an ad you can use for promotional purposes. I am attaching them below.

Thanks for all you do. Help us top last year's 15,000 observations!

Less of Our Light for More Star Light

Join the 6th worldwide GLOBE at Night 2011 campaign: Feb. 21 - March 6

 

With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a concern on many fronts: safety, energy conservation, cost, health and effects on wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars. Even though light pollution is a serious and growing global concern, it is one of the easiest environmental problems you can address on local levels.

Participation in the international star-hunting campaign, GLOBE at Night, helps to address the light pollution issue locally as well as globally. This year, 2 sets of campaigns are being offered. For the first campaign from February 21 through March 6, 2011, everyone all over the world is invited to record the brightness of the night sky. The second campaign runs from March 22 through April 4 in the Northern Hemisphere and March 24 through April 6 in the Southern Hemisphere. The campaign is easy and fun to do. First, you match the appearance of the constellation Orion in the first campaign (and Leo or Crux in the second campaign) with simple star maps of progressively fainter stars found. Then you submit your measurements, including the date, time, and location of your comparison. After all the campaign’s observations are submitted, the project’s organizers release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last five annual 2-week campaigns, volunteers from more than 100 nations contributed 52,000 measurements, one third of which came from last year’s campaign.

To learn the five easy steps to participate in the GLOBE at Night program, see the GLOBE at Night website. You can listen to last year’s 10-minute audio podcast on light pollution and GLOBE at Night. Or download a 45-minute powerpoint and accompanying audio. GLOBE at Night is also on Facebook and Twitter.

The big news is that children and adults can submit their measurements in real time if they have a smart phone or tablet. To do this, you can use the web application. With smart phones and tablets, the location, date and time are put in automatically. And if you do not have a smart phone or tablet, there are user-friendly tools on the GLOBE at Night report page to find latitude and longitude.

For activities that have children explore what light pollution is, what its effects are on wildlife and how to prepare for participating in the GLOBE at Night campaign, see the Dark Skies Rangers activities. Monitoring our environment will allow us as citizen-scientists to identify and preserve the dark sky oases in cities and locate areas where light pollution is increasing. All it takes is a few minutes during the 2011 campaign to measure sky brightness and contribute those observations on-line. Help us exceed the 17,800 observations contributed last year. Your measurements will make a world of difference.

Star Maps: http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_magnitude.html

Submitting Measurements: http://www.globeatnight.org/report.html

GLOBE at Night: http://www.globeatnight.org/

Audio Podcast: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/02/03/february-3rd-the-globe-at-night-campaign-our-light-or-starlight/

Powerpoint: http://www.globeatnight.org/files/NSN_GaN_2011_slides.ppt

Accompanying Audio: http://www.globeatnight.org/files/NSN_GaN_2011_audio.mp3

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GLOBEatNight

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GLOBEatNight

Web App for Reporting: http://www.globeatnight.org/webapp/

Dark Skies Activities: http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers/

Can You See the Stars? Participate in this Citizen Science World Wide Event!!

The Custer Observatory in Southold will be participating in the "Globe @Night" world wide event. 

Globe at Night is an annual citizen-science campaign that encourages people all over the world to record the brightness of their night sky. For two weeks every March, when the Moon is not out during the early evening and the constellation of Orion can be seen by everyone everywhere, children and adults match the appearance of Orion with 7 star maps of progressively fainter stars found on the website, www.globeatnight.org. They then submit their measurements (e.g., which star map they chose) on-line with their date, time and location.

GLOBE at Night 2011 Campaign dates announced

• February 21 – March 6, 2011, Northern and Southern Hemispheres
• March 22 – April 4, 2011, Northern Hemisphere
• March 24 – April 6, 2011, Southern Hemisphere

Lights at night can impact both the biology and ecology of species in the wild. Some examples include:

• the disorientation of sea turtle hatchlings by beachfront lighting
• nesting choices and breeding success of birds
• behavioral and physiological changes in salamanders
• disturbances of nocturnal animals
• altered natural light regimes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

Families are encouraged to participate with their children in a global campaign to observe and record the magnitude of visible stars as a means of measuring light pollution in a given location. Globe @ Night is an easy observation and reporting activity that takes approximately 15-30 minutes to complete with your student and/or other members of your family. 

 

Flashlight represents our street lights that cause light pollution when light is emitted in the areas that are not needed.

Example of same flashlight where the light emitted is directed to the areas where it is needed and shielded to the areas it is not.

 
Go to Globe @ Night Website for more information about this event: www.globeatnight.org/


Visit www.custerobservatory.org for more information about our programs and directions!