Stargazing comes to CAP Squadron 508
On
Wednesday, August 22, Ken Conway from the Yuma Foothills Library set up 8 inch
and 11 inch telescopes as a makeshift observatory in the hangar parking lot.
Mr. Conway leads the community astronomy program that is financed by book
donations to the Foothills Library. 508 Cadets were first treated to a
presentation about the recently completed Cassini program to study Saturn and
its environs. We saw mindboggling images of Saturn, the saturnine rings, and a
selection of its disparate moons taken by the Cassini probe (and the Hubble
Space Telescope, in a few cases.) Curious cadets asked a number of probing
questions showing that they were alert and paying attention to the guest
speaker.
This summer
has seen a rare alignment of planets of our solar system with Venus, Jupiter,
Saturn, and Mars all visible at the same time in the evening sky. The weather
cooperated and the scattered clouds that earlier in the day obscured a portion
of the sky dissipated. The planets were visible in their unusual splendor.
Cadets took turns looking at the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. They
saw the bright cloud tops of Venus and polar ice cap of Mars. Cadets learned
about binary stars by searching for the pair that are represented by Albireo in
the constellation Cygnus.
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| Lining up the 8 inch telescope |
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| Step on up and take a look through the 11 inch telescope and see the Galilean moons of Jupiter |
