Astronomy VI- Stargazing at the Hangar

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.

Lining up the 8 inch telescope

Step on up and take a look through the 11 inch telescope and see the Galilean moons of Jupiter

The automatic tracking function of the telescopes were a little lazy and kept Mr. Conway jumping trying to keep two telescopes on tract. All in all it was a great experience for the cadets. We hope some decide to become more involved in the astronomy program at the library and perhaps even participate in research project to spot exoplanets with one of the library’s telescopes.