Constellation Orion, Big Dipper and Jupiter - September 28, 2014

Constellation Orion, The Big Dipper and Jupiter and its Moons

Southold, New York

Constellation Orion Over the Custer Observatory Dome

Jupiter and its Moons

The Big Dipper

North East Astronomy Forum

NORTH EAST ASTRONOMY FORUM

Rockland Community College

Suffern, New York

April 12, 2014

Constellation Photography

 Astrophotography of Constellations

Constellation Photography

Constellation Orion, the Hunter, with the Custer Observatory Dome

Night Sky Photos During Power Outage from Hurricane Irene

Some photos taken during the power outage from Hurricane Irene. It was a rare opportunity to view the night sky without the glow of light pollution from the lights on Long Island. It was also a good time to take some photos of the night sky. These photos were taken where I live where the night sky is usually drowned out by too much and improper lighting.

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/