Behind the Visitor Center: Birds and Solar Observing

 I got a tip the other day that some birds were nesting behind the Lehman Caves Visitor Center at Great Basin National Park. I went and took a look, and sure enough, there was a nest with two little mouths visible. We looked around and found the mama bird:

A Say's phoebe. Both males and females Say's phoebes look very similar, with gray backs, blush-colored abdomens, and black tails that they wag a lot. Say's phoebes are flycatchers that don't mind being around people, and they usually nest on buildings.

We also noticed another nest close by:

 This one was occupied by a barn swallow, with another barn swallow flying in frequently.

I took the kids up after work to check out the birds, and they thought they were pretty cool. 

They were also happy to participate in another activity behind the visitor center:

 Solar observing! We could see solar prominences around the sun, as well as a couple sun spots.

For their efforts, the kids received solar observer certificates, and we took a photo with the park volunteer, Tom.

After some browsing in the book store and cafe and gift shop, we went back out to watch the birds. The kids were much more patient than I expected, and it was pretty cool seeing what mama bird was bringing back to her babies. It looked like she was catching a lot of moths, but also grasshoppers and flies.

I knew the kids were having a good time when they asked me to be their mama bird and feed them. I hope they aren't picky eaters!

Great Basin National Park 2013 Astronomy Festival

Last weekend was Great Basin National Park's Astronomy Festival. I was really looking forward to it (and it was a self-imposed deadline to get up some astronomy-related road art). 

On Thursday night we attended the ranger talent show. The ranger acts all had an astronomy theme.

Some kids I know opened the show with their rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

 
It was just a little bit cute. Okay, maybe a lot. Desert Girl made sure she was holding her star!

 Other talents showcased included beautiful singing, violin, guitars, trumpet, a reading, and a Star Wars skit with awesome costumes. It was a really enjoyable evening. (I had the wrong lens and no tripod so stopped trying to take photos as the sky got darker and darker.)

Then we headed over to the picnic area and looked through a variety of telescopes at the amazing night sky. It was a cloudless night and quite warm, ideal conditions. It was nice having the Astronomy Festival in the fall so we didn't have to stay up so late to see the night sky.

Desert Boy really wanted to get his Dark Sky Certificate because the prize was a Milky Way candy bar. In order to earn it, he had to look through telescopes and spot a binary star,  a galaxy, a star cluster, and a planetary nebula.

For the binary star, we looked to the oldest known one, in the handle of the Big Dipper. This has been a test for good eyesight for ages--can you see that the second star in the handle is not one star, but two? These are Mizar and Alcor (and recently discovered several more stars).

The galaxy we looked at was our nearest spiral galaxy neighbor: the Andromeda Galaxy. When you think about how big the Milky Way galaxy is and that we just see a portion of it, it's pretty amazing that we can see a whole other galaxy out there with its billions of stars. When I think of geologic time as being overwhelming, I just remind myself that it has nothing on astronomy, where a distance of 2.5 million light years to the Andromeda Galaxy is considered close. It certainly helps me put life in perspective--we really are little specks, and we might as well get along!

A star cluster is a bunch of stars close together, but much, much smaller in number than a galaxy. To put this in perspective, a star cluster may "only" have hundreds of thousands of stars in it. Or perhaps several million. But it's still not anywhere close to a galaxy. Oh, my. We looked at the best known star cluster in the northern hemisphere, M13, in the constellation Hercules.

Finally we looked at a planetary nebula. I thought it was rather difficult to be able to spot planets outside our solar system, so I asked what a planetary nebula was. The astronomer explained that the old-time astronomers, who didn't have such good telescopes, thought they were seeing planets forming. In fact, they were seeing dying stars. One day our sun will become a planetary nebula. These are relatively rare, with only 1500 known. And the one we saw, the Dumbbell Nebula, was gorgeous, my favorite sight of the night. In fact, it inspired me so much that I went home and looked up more information about planetary nebulas, started watching a BBC shown on astronomy called The Planets, and made me go back to the Astronomy Festival to learn even more.

 Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. It was cloudy and stormy Friday night. And much of Saturday. But we decided to head to the ranger programs in the afternoon and learned about telescopes and how to use a planisphere. The kids' favorite activity was making a solar bracelet.

Ranger Aileen explained how the sun emits lots of different colors, and the kids identified the colors. She then told them how below the violet light is another kind of light, one we can't see, called ultra violet. It's the one that can make our skin tan (or sunburned).

She had some special beads that would turn color only in ultraviolet light. So inside a building the beads would be clear, but outside they would magically transform in color.

The kids loved the hands on activity. Even Desert Girl was able to make her own bracelet.

We had to wait a bit to get some good sunlight to make the beads their brightest. We sure were impressed with how much they changed color!

The astronomy festival was lots of fun despite some not-so-ideal weather conditions. One other thing I should mention is that Wally Pacholka was the keynote speaker. He gave up his day job as an accountant to take photos of the night skies. He had some photographs for sale, and I couldn't resist--they are stunning. Check out his website to see his remarkable work.

Great Basin National Park also released its Astronomy Ranger Minute, which has some amazing videography.

We're already looking forward to next year's Astronomy Festival! The date has been set for September 19-21, 2014.

Our Little Solar System

I'm a big fan of road art, and I had an idea in the early summer of a fun road art project. But it was hard to get the time, energy, and materials needed to implement it. I gave myself a deadline: it needed to be up before the Great Basin National Park Astronomy Festival on September 5-7. And fortunately it's up! Here's the newest road art on the park road.

The solar system has arrived! We begin with the sun (which later blew over so is now oriented slightly differently.)


Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. My helpers were enthusiastic for the inner planets.


Venus, our nearby neighbor. Wow, it looks small!

Go, Earth!

Oops, Mars is a little blurry. Must be a telescope error.

Intermission to drill holes in the boards!

What's after Mars? Well, we did put up Jupiter, but then we came back and put up five dwarf planets, including Ceres, which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.



Then comes Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system!

Saturn, Desert Girl's favorite planet. Our Saturn keeps losing its ring, though.

It's a long way to the next planet, Uranus (which should be bluish, but I had lost energy by this time, so if anyone wants to paint it blue, go for it!).

And what's the last planet in our solar system?

Neptune! (which should also be bluish)

But wait, what about Pluto? Most of us were taught that we have nine planets in our solar system. Those days are gone. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union came up with a definition of planets, and Pluto just didn't meet it. So now it's a dwarf planet.

 

Little Pluto, a cold rocky planet far, far away.

The good thing about Pluto becoming a dwarf planet is that we also got a few more dwarf planets, with more probably to be discovered.

Meet dwarf planet Haumea (which is slightly oversized in the model, but we had run out of little, tiny balls).

And here's Makemake (which we have a lot of fun pronouncing).


Finally there's Eris, the largest of the dwarf planets. (And maybe the hardest to find in our little solar system, since we had to switch to a different fence.)

To space these planets, I found Dr. Jerry Galloway's website that had both a 100 foot backyard model and also a four-mile model. I made adjustments to make it about two miles long. It was a nine-planet based system, so then I looked for information about the dwarf planets and fitted them in. They might not be exact, but neither are their orbits. Several of the planets and dwarf planets change order depending on where they are in their orbit (for example, Neptune and Pluto).

Here are the distances if you're interested, along with diameter sizes scaled for a four-mile long course (I chose to make my planet diameters not to scale, as I wanted them to be visible while driving 60 mph along the road, but wanted to give you an idea in case you want to make your own solar system model):

Astronomical body	distance	diameter (inches)
Sun	0	60
Mercury	105 feet	0.2
Venus	185 feet	0.5
Earth	271 feet	0.6
Mars	413 feet	0.3
Ceres*	~600 feet	<.1
Jupiter	¼ mile	6.2
Saturn	½ mile	5.2
Uranus	1 mile	2.2
Neptune	1 ½ mile	2.2
Pluto*	2 mile	0.1
Haumea*	2.1 mile	<.1
Makemake*	2.2 mile	<.1
Eris*	2.5 mile	0.1
*dwarf planet

Running or biking on the park road will now have some new landmarks--can you make it to Jupiter in ten minutes? How about Uranus?

I consider the road art as community art, so anyone who would like to improve on the art (for example, making better planets or a ring that will stay on Saturn) or add to it (e.g., asteroid belt, other celestial objects) is welcome!

Tips for Watching the Perseid Meteor Shower with Kids

Desert Boy holding a meteorite

You've probably heard that the peak of the Perseid meteor shower is tonight. Are you ready to watch this exciting natural phenomenon? Here are some tips to make the most of it.

1. Find a Dark Spot

We are lucky out in the rural desert to have a very, very dark place to watch the meteor shower. However, we even have some stray lights around. So to make it as dark as possible, we'll try to position ourselves to use buildings to block out that extraneous light. Tip: out in the West, the moon will set around 10:00, so it will be even darker after then. (You can find your moon and sun times for your area here.) Also, use red flashlights or regular flashlights covered with red tissue paper to preserve your night vision. It can take 15-20 minutes to get your eyes accustomed to the dark!

2. Get Comfortable

I've gone for night hikes to watch meteor showers (partly to stay warm!), but perhaps the best way is to sit down or lie down. We're planning on hanging out on air mattresses in the back yard with sleeping bags and pillows. That way if the kids fall asleep early, we can still enjoy the meteor shower. 

3. Be Patient

The Perseid meteor shower is expected to have 80-100 meteors per hour. That's over one a minute. But that still leaves about 40 seconds of every minute with nothing. That can be difficult for little kids (and sometimes adults) to wait. Things that might help are to look at the constellations and listen to stories about them, to join a meteor viewing party so there are more people to talk to, or to play games about where the next meteor might be. (Hint: this is called the Perseid meteor shower because many of the meteoroids appear to originate from the constellation Perseus, which is in the northeast sky under the "W" of Casseiopeia.)

Hope you see some good meteors! (And if you happen to get lucky enough to have a meteorite land near you, send it to me!)

Definitions from The Free Dictionary:

Meteor: A bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's atmosphere. Also called falling star, meteor burst, shooting star.

Meteoroid: A solid body, moving in space, that is smaller than an asteroid and at least as large as a speck of dust.

Meteorite: A stony or metallic mass of matter that has fallen to the earth's surface from outer space.

Night Sky

 We went to a special night sky program the night of the Perseid meteor shower. We didn't see a whole lot of shooting stars (mainly because we were tired and went to bed relatively early), but I did take the opportunity to dabble in photographing the night sky. I have a ways to go, but it's a fun diversion while waiting for a turn to look through the telescope! In the above photo, can you find the Big Dipper? Desert Boy can identify that asterism easily now.

Do you know what you're seeing in the next photo?

 For those of you who know astronomy, there are lots of right answers (and please leave some in the comments!). For those of us who just dabble in astronomy, I'm looking at the big picture: the Milky Way galaxy. That cloudy-looking river of stars that flows across the top of the black roof above us is present nearly every night. We are lucky to live in a place with so little light pollution we can see so far out beyond our planet.

Sometimes we can even see some extra things in the night sky:

Like a UFO! Okay, I don't really think it's a UFO. Do you know what it is?

Astronomy Festival

 We joined the gathering at the Transit of Venus party at Great Basin National Park on June 5. Folks were taking a break from the telescopes to let clouds go by.

Once they cleared, we peeked through the telescopes. To me, the Transit of Venus isn't a spectacular sight, just a little dot in front of the sun. What I do really like is watching Venus move and thinking about the history of what it's represented to the astronomy world.

To see that change in movement, we took a break and went into the visitor center to see the exhibits.

 Desert Girl was ready to run! Her babysitter had done her hair in French braids, and it was absolutely adorable.

 Desert Girl liked the border collie resting under the sheep camp.

 She also liked the kangaroo rat.

The spadefoot toads were another attraction. I always get a little uneasy when Desert Girl pets the fake rattlesnake, and try to make sure she knows that she should never do that in the wild.

Then it was time to head back outside. Ranger Steve was really helpful getting the kids positioned looking through the telescope.

 
We're all set to join in the activities for the Astronomy Festival at Great Basin National Park June 14-16. And as a bonus, the Snake Valley Festival will be held June 15-17, so there will be lots of great things to do this weekend!

Millard County Cosmic Ray Center

I've passed the Lon and Mary Watson Millard County Cosmic Ray Center in Delta, Utah many times, and finally I decided it was time to stop and take a look. It's open Monday through Friday from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm. The cosmic ray center has been there since 2006, but the visitor center portion opened in the fall of 2011.

Inside, visitors are greeted to a pleasant space with signs around the walls explaining why the University of Utah and about 30 other universities from China, Russia, Korea, Belgium, and the United States are studying cosmic rays.

I have a more detailed post about what they're studying, some fun photos, and my amazingly wonderful wit here. (Are you still reading this post? Why haven't you clicked on that link yet??)

Okay, to continue...(now that you surely have read my previous post)...


One wall is dedicated to the Topaz Internment Camp, where thousands of Japanese-Americans were locked up during World War II without ever being charged with anything. The camp was just a few miles outside of Delta, and you can learn a lot more about it here.

The Topaz Museum was just awarded a large grant to build a new museum, which will help better tell the story of what happened in one of the darker chapters of American history.

 So, if you're in Delta on a weekday in the middle of the day, stop by this small visitor center and learn a little more about the history, the science, and more about the area. You can also get your very own Telescope Array Project t-shirt (only $5 when I stopped in, what a deal!). Check out the Telescope Array's website for more details.

Moon Answers

So in my last post, I asked where three things are on the moon:
1. Copernicus Crater
2. Mare Tranquillitas
3. Oceanus Procellarum

Kudos to John for getting Mare Tranquillitas!

Here are the answers:

 I found the answers on this website. I liked it because it was fairly simple. There are lots more features to learn on the moon!

A bit more info:
Copernicus Crater is one of many craters on the moon caused by meteorites crashing into it. It's estimated to be about 800 million years old.

Mare and Oceanus mean Sea and Ocean. They really aren't filled with water (hopefully you know this!) They are covered by lava, though, that's what makes them look dark.

Mare Tranquillitas means Sea of Tranquility in Latin, and as John pointed out in his comment on the last post, it's where Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

Oceanus Procellarum means Ocean of Storms and it's the largest of the lunar marias (seas and oceans). Several lunar probes landed here, as well as Apollo 12. Crater Copernicus is near its eastern edge.

So go take a good look at the moon and see what you can find. There are mountains up to 5 km (3 miles) high on the moon, lots more craters, maria, and other fun stuff. And if you're really lucky, maybe you will even see a cow jump over the moon!

Cows and the Moon

 Last night we happened to be outside as the nearly full moon was rising. The heifers were nearby, so we went out to visit and enjoy the peaceful high desert evening.

 The colors are muted in winter, with no leaves to cover the brown branches of the trees, no verdant grasses emerging from the ground, nary a wildflower peeking from a pile of manure. But it is still so beautiful.

The kids wanted to say hi to the cows. The cows were willing to entertain a distraction--from a certain distance.


Then it was time for a different distraction--some snow. I love how Desert Girl is checking out her big brother.

Tonight is the full moon. It seemed to take forever to rise, but by the time I came out of a meeting, it was obvious. While we were waiting for the full moon, we could see four bright objects in the sky: to the west were Venus (the brighter light) and Jupiter. They are getting closer together every night for the next few nights. To the east was Mars, with its reddish tinge. And to the south was Sirius, the dog star in the constellation Canis Major. Before long the stars making up Orion were twinkling at us. It was fun showing the kids a few objects in the sky.

One of the things I want to learn next is about the moon. So here are three things to look for in the photo above (and I must say it's a much better photo than some of my recent attempts!).
Where is?
1. Copernicus Crater
2. Mare Tranquillitas
3. Oceanus Procellarum

Answers coming soon!