My oldest grandson needed a project for showing the altitude of the Sun, via the shadow. I made my simple solar device in my back yard, and my grandson, fabricated his device near Myrtle Beach. We compared views fairly often, and discussed our results. A fun project for the both of us.

I made the following photos today, at 12:00 noon (December 21st 2022) EST.

The (Blue Mark) represents the Sun Shadow (Today) at “precisely” 12:00 Noon EST, December 21st. At “almost” the end of the scale, which represents the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. A very long shadow for sure!

The (Green Mark) at the (inch-mark #9) was made on the the first day of Fall (September 22nd).

The (White Mark) at the (#2 inch-mark) represents the shadow on the first day of Summer (June 21st) and the longest day of 2022. A very short shadow! This would conclude that the sun is never “perfectly” overhead.

The scale on the ground is perfectly level, and facing North. The shadow post is at 90º.

Nova Sophia (Sophie) looks on with interest…

January 26th 2023 @ 12:00 PM EST: My first photo of the suns shadow which shows the shadow getting shorter.

See photos below: Note the longest shadow, the blue mark, which was made on the first day of Winter, the shortest day of the year.

During DST, the time to measure the shadow should be made at 1:00 PM. During EST, the shadow measurement should be made at 12:00 Noon.

Since the introduction of the “Pocket Sky Atlas” so many years ago, I have found without exception…this atlas has served me very well.

Easy to use in the dark, and I can use the larger or smaller version equally well. However, I mostly use the smaller edition. I have different ring(s) for each version and to match different finders.

However, as of recent, I’m using my GoTo mount most of the time. Being the purist amateur, never would I have thought after 40 plus years of observing, I would be using a GoTo mount….now most of the time.

No need for an atlas with the following mount. 🙂

My son and granddaughter make frequent trips from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, traveling through Baker, California, via I-15.

Baker is best known for having the tallest thermometer in the world at 134 feet, and considered the gateway to Death Valley.

The thermometer was built to commemorate the “official world” record setting temperature of 134º F, set in nearby Death Valley on July 10, 1913. A record that still stands to this day.

Brad and Zoe took the following photo of the thermometer during a trip on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. The temperature as shown on the thermometer at the time they were there….was a cold 30º F.

Surprising! It gets cold in the desert also!

Roger Ivester

Mario Motta:  Observer from Massachusetts

This is a very difficult object visually, very faint surface brightness, due in-part to its large size and attenuation from outer spiral arms.The following image was made using my 32-inch f/6.5 telescope, with ASI 6200 camera. Total of 40 subs 5 minutes each,of Lum, R,G,B filters, and then 50 minutes of H alpha as well to bring out the surprisingly large number of H alpha regions you can see. Processing in Pixinsight, used especially modern processing techniques of Starnet 2, that allows “removing” foreground stars to enable processing the faint background, then adding the stars back in. (without this, nearly impossible to process properly).

Roger Ivester:  Observer from North Carolina

IC 342, is a faint galaxy in Camelopardalis, and can be very difficult for the visual observer, due in-part to the low surface brightness and large size, requiring a dark sky with excellent transparency.  

I made all observations with a 10-inch reflector from my moderately light-polluted suburban backyard.  On a 5.0 NELM night, I located and observed this galaxy rather easily.  A chain of six stars, with an orientation of NW-SE, lies a few minutes SW of the faint core. 

This galaxy is best observed with low to medium magnification.  I used 114x for the following pencil sketch. The 10-inch presented IC 342 as little more than a large faint glow without structure.  A faint and small core could be seen with averted vision, with the absence of visible detail being attributed to the lack of a dark site, which reduced the contrast significantly.  

On a night of lesser seeing and transparency, I was unable to see this galaxy with my 102mm refractor.

James Dire:  Observer from Illinois 

IC 342 is one of the most unique galaxies in the heavens due to its orientation, size and brightness. It’s a face-on spiral galaxy approximately 20 arc-minutes in diameter and glows at mag 9.67. Because of its size, brightness and orientation, it’s very hard to see visually. It spans only 1/3 the distance across as the face-on spiral M33 in the constellation Triangulum, which is 35 times brighter.  So M33 is easier to see in a telescope.  

IC 342 has about the same total luminosity as M100, a face-on spiral galaxy residing in Coma Berenices, however, since it spans three times the diameter as M100, but M100 is much easier to see visually. 

The only face-on spiral galaxy with the same angular size that comes to mind is M101 in Ursa Major.  However, M101 is 5 times brighter, so big light buckets reveal M101’s spiral arms with much greater ease. 

IC 342 lies in the northerly constellation Camelopardalis.  It is slightly southwest of the midpoint between two mag. 4.5 stars, Gamma Camelopardalis and BE Camelopardalis. The two stars are 5.75° apart. 

To see IC 342 in its splendor requires a long exposure with an astronomical camera. The galaxy is classified as a weakly barred and loosely wound spiral galaxy. 

The Hubble classification SABc. (S means spiral, AB means weekly barred, and c means loosely wound spiral arms). In barred spiral galaxies, the spiral arms usually originate at the ends of the bar. On IC 342, there appear to be two spiral arms originating from each end of the galactic bar. The arms tend to fan out as one traces them away from the bar. My image of IC 342 as following, was taken January 6, 2010 at the Wildwood Pines Observatory in Earl, NC. 

I used an SBIG ST-2000XCM CCD camera, operating at -20°C, attached to a 190mm (7.5-inch) f/5.3 Maksutov-Newtonian telescope. The exposure was 60 minutes.

Sue French:  Observer from New York

“Deep-Sky Wonders” P-15.

“….105mm scope at 28x, this pretty galaxy is a vaporous phantom spangled with faint stars.  It appears oval, its long dimension running north and south with a 12′.  From a dark-sky site with his 105mm refractor, noted observer Stephen  O’Meara has been able to trace out IC 342’s three main spiral arms.” 

The following pencil sketch was made using a 10-inch reflector at 88x.

Christian Luginbuhl and Brian Skiff: “Observing Handbook and Catalog of Deep-Sky Objects”

“….Large galaxy is relatively easy to see in small apertures at low powers. In 6 cm it is a faint blob north of a loose clustering of stars.”

“…25 cm a string of six stars runs SE-NW through where the object is seen in 6 cm.”

October 1965 at 12 years old:

Shortly after sunset, I would notice a small cluster of stars rising above the tree tops in the east.  It would take me a while, but I did learn that it was the “Pleiades” or M45.

My first deep-sky object…”celestial objects beyond the solar system” such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. This began my interest in astronomy, which I continue still today.

Just a little information, concerning my very first deep-sky object and a car company. Most all reading this are aware of this fact, but some possibly may not be.

In Japan, this cluster is known as “Subaru” which is the namesake of the car company.  The background of the Subaru emblem is most always blue, as to represent the “very hot” blue stars of the cluster.   

October 1967 and 55 years ago:  

I gave my first astronomy presentation to my 8th grade science class, using my brother’s 60mm equatorial refractor.  

The subject and title was:  “How To Use An Astronomical Telescope.” I was really a hit with my classmates, even if it only lasted for the remainder of the day. 

Such pleasant memories from October 1965 and October 1967.