Stargazing in Baltimore
(Volume 55, Issue 1/2, May 2007)
Tracy Landfried, tlandfri@arl.army.mil and Chris Olson, chris@chrisolson.com
Our evening of star gazing began with networking and a delicious dinner with dessert of huge sweet strawberries and chocolate fondue. We ate and gazed at the Inner Harbor from the condo of our gracious hostess, Judy Tapiero. She gave us a quick tour of her family art collection, and everyone enjoyed views of the harbor while chatting. After dinner we walked over to the Science Center and met our astronomer host for the evening, Rich Stein.
Unfortunately, the evening of May 3, 2007 was cloudy so our stargazing was limited to catching a glimpse of Venus, going through phases like the moon, through the 8-inch Clark Telescope in the Science Center Observatory. Stein gave us a quick tutorial about telescopes, how the observatory worked, and about watching the stars and planets in the evening Baltimore sky. The Science Center Observatory’s telescope was built in 1927 and spent its early life mounted on the roof of the Enoch Pratt Library. The telescope is in the white dome that can be seen from Light Street.
The second half of our "stargazing" took place indoors, at the Davis Planetarium. Stein gave us a private tour of the night sky. We saw it as it will never be seen in Baltimore due to light pollution. We saw the night sky from the North Pole and the Equator. Stein pointed out the brightest planets and stars. We saw the Southern Cross -- a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere -- and part of our own Milky Way galaxy. The planetarium itself was interesting: how the lights worked; how the 50 foot diameter ceiling was constructed; how the enormous projector replicated the night sky. We saw a year’s worth of stars moving in minutes. The moon went through its phases in record time. Saturn and Venus moved towards one another in the night sky. We saw planetary movement that will take months in just a few minutes. The Planetarium projector includes light pointers to keep track of particular stars or planets.
The Maryland Science Center Observatory offers free stargazing through the telescope on Friday evenings.
You can get starmaps for the current month at their website: http://www.mdsci.org/shows/planetarium.html
Newsletter Archives |
||
