Stargazing 2024-10-25 (publ. 2024-10-26)

This last week was challenging due to a mixed rain and snow storm that left a lot of people without power, and made it difficult to drive and to get out of the driveway. But we have had better weather now for about two days, and the snow plowing has been able to catch up so that it is easy to drive again. It was mostly cloudy or hazy during this time also, but the night before last, the clouds started to open up. And then last night it was clear all evening.

It felt very cold, but around 7:15pm we got the older boys bundled up, and I took them outside to the yard to play and to look at the stars. I think we were just getting into astronomical twilight at that point, but I was able to show them a few constellations with the laser pointer, and we saw a few satellites and some falling stars. I try to use the laser pointer very sparingly because we are on the same side of town as the airport and I don't want to get in trouble or cause any trouble.

After putting the kids to bed, I went back out around 9:15 or so and worked on a sketch targeting Lyra. The skies were clear, and the moon was not up, but nevertheless the skyglow was very bright. I imagine that on Friday evening, every light in Fairbanks and the borough is turned on. It seemed harder than usual to see the dimmer stars. Anyway, here is the sketch. I used the hand method to estimate the angular distances.

sketch targeting Lyra

Looking at the Cambridge charts, it looks like magnitude 4.5 was my lower limit for dim stars, which made for sparse viewing around Lyra. But it might be fun to visit this area of the sky again soon with binoculars. From my field guide, I understand that there are some double stars in this constellation, and an eclipsing binary, that are very interesting to astronomers.

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