Backyard Astronomy And Other

My wife, Debbie and I were in Greenville, South Carolina on August 17th 2024…meeting with some grandchildren at a mutual easy location. While driving by Roper Mountain, via I-85, I thought about the famous 23-inch (1882) refractor telescope on top of this mountain.  

Now, this is not just any antique 23-inch historical refractor telescope.  This is the very one that was used by (Princeton Astronomer, Richard Pierson) to see the Martians coming to Grovers Mill, New Jersey, in “The War of the Worlds” based on an 1898 novel by H.G. Wells. This radio show was thought by many to be an actual invasion of the earth by Martians, with many thousands of listeners throughout the country being frightened to death!

Orson Welles (with his booming and dynamic voice) narrated the famous broadcast. Welles played the character of the Princeton Astronomer. This event brought world-wide fame to then 23-year-old Orson Welles.

Roger Ivester

Photo credit and information as following, of the 23-inch refractor telescope and observatory: Roper Mountain Science Center, And Charles E. Daniel Observatory.

The Daniel Observatory, Roper Mountain, South Carolina:

As a Greenville County Schools facility, the Daniel Observatory is open to the public only during special events.

The Charles E. Daniel Observatory features a very historic 23-inch refractor telescope, the eighth largest of its kind in the nation. The Great Refractor was completed in 1882 for Princeton University and was the main instrument in their Halsted Observatory. The lens was figured by Alvan Clark and Sons of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1933, the telescope was entirely rebuilt by J. W. Fecker Company. The U.S. Naval Observatory owned the telescope from 1964 until 1978, when it was offered to the School District of Greenville County.

Funds provided by the Charles E. Daniel Family Foundation were used in renovating the telescope and in constructing the observatory building to house the telescope. The telescope is used to educate, to inspire, and to entertain visitors. On select Friday evenings, the observatory is open for limited public observation, in conjunction with programs shown in the planetarium. 

As following: Commemorative Plaque in Grovers Mill, New Jersey.

Famous landing site of the Martians to commemorate “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast on October 30th 1938.

An abreviated story of British Airways Flight 009, callsign Speedbird 9, that departed from London Heathrow to Auckland. I’ve compiled the following information from Wikipedia and other sources. The plane was a Boeing 747-236B. Roger Ivester

Actual plane photo as following also from Wikipedia

On 24 June 1982, the aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic dust by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, SE of Jakarta, Indonesia. A catastrophic event occurred….all four engines shutdown.

Selected information as following from Wikipedia and other sources…

On 24 June 1982, the route was flown by the City of Edinburgh, a Boeing 747-236B registered as G-BDXH. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung around 110 miles (180 km) south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia, resulting in the failure of all four engines.

Incident or event:

At the time of the incident, the flight crew consisted of 32-year-old Senior First Officer Roger Greaves, 40-year-old Senior Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman, and 41-year-old Captain Eric Henry Moody. The flight crew members had boarded the aircraft at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Kuala Lumpur and were due to pilot the 747-200 for the Malaysia to Perth Airport leg.^[4]

As the flight progressed, smoke began to accumulate in the passenger cabin of the aircraft. Passengers who had a view of the aircraft’s engines through the window noted that they were unusually bright blue, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect.

Around 13:42 UTC (20:42 Jakarta time), the number-four Rolls-Royce RB211 engine began surging and soon flamed out. The flight crew immediately performed the engine shutdown drill, quickly cutting off fuel supply and arming the fire extinguishers. Less than a minute later, at 13:43 UTC (20:43 Jakarta time), engine two surged and flamed out.

Within seconds, and almost simultaneously, engines one and three flamed out, prompting the flight engineer to exclaim, “I don’t believe it—all four engines have failed!”

The flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91 nautical miles from its flight level of 37,000 feet.

At 13:44 UTC (20:44 Jakarta time), Greaves broadcast a Mayday to the local air traffic control authority, stating that all four engines had failed. However, Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, interpreting the call as meaning that only engine number four had shut down.

After a nearby Indonesia flight relayed the message to them, air traffic control correctly understood the urgent message. Despite the crew emergency transponder setting of 7700, air traffic control could not locate the 747 on their radar screens.

Many passengers, fearing for their lives, wrote notes to relatives.

Reports from another source say passengers were in awe of an electrical light storm outside the plane, as the engines glowed white and then stopped.

Owing to the high Indonesian mountains on the south coast of the island of Java, an altitude of at least 11,500 feet was required to cross the coast safely.

The crew decided that if the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude by the time they reached 12,000 feet they would turn back out to sea and attempt to ditch into the Indian Ocean.

The crew began engine restart drills, despite being well outside the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet. The restart attempts failed.

Despite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as “a masterpiece of understatement.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.”

At 13,500 feet (4,100 m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. Although the crew had guidelines for the water landing procedure, no one had ever tried it in a Boeing 747.

As they performed the engine restart procedure, engine number four finally started, and at 13:56 UTC (20:56 Jakarta time), Moody used its power to reduce the rate of descent. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, allowing him to climb slowly. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted, as well.The crew subsequently requested and expedited an increase in altitude to clear the high mountains of Indonesia.

As the aircraft approached its target altitude, the St. Elmo’s fire effect on the windscreen returned. Moody throttled back, but engine number two surged again and was shut down. The crew immediately descended and held 12,000 feet.

As Flight 009 approached Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, the crew found seeing anything through the windscreen difficult, and made the approach almost entirely on instruments, despite reports of good visibility.

The crew decided to fly the instrument landing system, but the vertical guidance system was inoperative, so they were forced to fly with only the lateral guidance as the first officer monitored the airport’s distance-measuring equipment (DME). He then called out how high they should be at each DME step along the final approach to the runway, creating a virtual glide slope for them to follow.

Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. After landing, the flight crew found taxiing impossible, due to glare from apron floodlights, which made the already sandblasted windscreen opaque.

Other information as following:

It must have been quite a feeling for the captain, flight crew and all passengers to be able to plant their feet on the ground, and think how close they came to dying.

Captain Moody who was credited with saving the lives of 263 people on that fateful day, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 19th 2024 at the age of 82. Roger Ivester

This was my first time to attend the “Spruce Pine Alien Festival” and so glad I was able to go. What a day it was! I was probably passed by many “Real Space Aliens” but was just unaware at the time.

So here are some photos from the day:

26,000 people attended this one day event last year, and I feel sure there were more or at least as many this year. I had to park at least 1/2 mile away and walk to the downtown area, however, I didn’t mind this at all.

The finest Quartz in the world comes from Spruce Pine. Computer chips for cars, computers and anything where they are used are made from Spruce Pine quartz.

And also the first mirror that was manufactured for the 200-inch Hale Telescope was made from this quartz. Unfortunately the mirror cracked during the process before completion and another one was made from a new process or material at that time, known as Pyrex. This glass was better able to handle the incredibly heat needed during the manufacturing process.

Spruce Pine, North Carolina: How It became a part of astronomy history via The Chestnut Flats Mine, due to the incredibly pure Quartz which was used in the manufacture of the first 200-Inch Hale Telescope mirror. As mentioned previously (above) unfortunately that first mirror cracked during the manufacturing process.

Historic photo from days past of the Chestnut Flats mine as following: Photo credit: Mitchell County Historical Society

I found the following article by David Biddix, a Spruce Pine native, who shares some very interesting information. This is not the complete article.

Alex Glover…is the Director of Mining and Environment for Active Minerals International, LLC. He is a licensed professional geologist in nine southeastern states in the United States and has lived in the Spruce Pine area since 1997. He is interested both in the geology of the Spruce Pine Mining District and in its history, which goes back some 170 years.

….I’ve always wondered why ore from the Chestnut Flats Mine near Spruce Pine was chosen for the telescope’s mirror. Recently, I had a discussion with Alex Glover, a local geologist and mining historian who is very familiar with what is known as the Spruce Pine Mining District, a 10 mile-long, 5 mile-wide outcropping of rock from early in earth’s history that contains some of the purest minerals in the world and is the economic lifeblood of this region. This purity was the reason Corning Glass came to this region to find materials for the mirror. Alex speaks about what types of minerals are found in the district….

David Biddix: Spruce Pine, North Carolina

Now for the complete article by David Biddix as following: Click on the following link…

I purchased the following quartz specimens, pictured on the table below from “Rocks And Things.” Possibly even from the famous Chestnut Flats Mine, or for sure from the same vein of quartz rock. Roger Ivester

Solar telescopes provided by North Carolina Amateur Astronomers, and friends of mine for many years: Steve Davis and Don Brooks.

May 24th 2024 at 7:30 AM: While Debbie and Sophie were still sleeping…I walked outside to see this amazing early morning rainbow in the west. This was my first time to see a rainbow at this time of the day, as they mostly occur in the afternoon and in the east. However, maybe more frequent than I’d think, as I’m just not looking at that time of the day. And we all know that a rainbow is always opposite the sun: When a rainbow is seen during the afternoon…the sun is in the west.

On the night of May 10th 2024, beginning at about 11:00 PM and lasting a couple or more hours. The northern lights enveloped the entire northeastern part of sky with a brilliant red color from my suburban backyard . The Aurora Borealis is rarely seen this far south at a latitude of +35 degrees 15 mins. north latitude.

However, this is not the first time I’d seen the Northern Lights from my backyard.

In February 1978, I walked outside at about 10:00 PM to see the most incredible sight. The “entire northern sky” was ablaze with reds and greens. And as described so often in astronomy and science publications, the colors were moving….similar to that of a large curtain waving in a breeze.

I thought everyone would be talking about this “absolutely incredible” aurora the next day, however, I didn’t hear of anyone else seeing it….locally or regionally.

Three nights in April 2000:

I saw the aurora again from my backyard at the same +35º 15′ N latitude. Again, very far south to see the aurora.

The following photos were made on the night of May 10th 2024, beginning at 11:30 and shortly after midnight. I was using an iPhone 14 with 3-second exposures, and being handheld.

Photos of aurora using an iPhone 14 (hand-held) on the night of October 10th 2024 as following:

The following photo of the aurora display with the Andromeda Galaxy (the tiny blur near the center of the photo) which is right of the constellation of Cassiopeia. Light pollution is severe in this area of the sky, which reduced the contrast of the aurora significantly.

After a couple unsuccessful observing sessions during the summer of 2024, I was anxious to try again in the early morning hours of 2025, with cold temperatures and more transparent skies.

March 26th 2024:

4:15 AM: I began with a magnification of 104x and field motion…then moving the galaxy out of the field, and then letting it drift back. Increasing the magnification to 291x, but the view was no better, and the galaxy appearing as only an intermittent blur and less than 50% of the time.

I attempted two very early morning observing sessions in March and April of 2024 from my suburban backyard, but again without success. A dark site is really needed to observe any low-surface-brightness galaxy, especially one as dim and faint as NGC 6118.

However, traveling to a dark-site has been over for many years. The disassembly of a heavy equatorial mount and handling a large solid-tube Newtonian, loading, driving, unloading, reassembly, and then having to do it all again, became just too much. I will just continue to do my best from the backyard.

I just couldn’t forget about this galaxy, and wanted to give it another try.

Saturday morning: May 11th 2024 @ 1:00 AM with a 5.0 NELM overhead, but about 4.0 in the area of the galaxy.

The following cellphone photo is from that night and beside my telescope. Note the constellation Scorpius toward the right lower corner. Now see the brighter pair of stars, almost in the center of the photo, above or north of Scorpius.

The most northern star, is known as “Yed Prior” at mag. 2.7. The second star toward the south or closest to Scorpius is “Yed Posterior” at mag. 3.2. Now move your telescope slightly to the NE of “Yed Prior” and use your star atlas to dead center, where NGC 6118 should be.

If you are a visual observer and observing from a suburban backyard, I wish you luck.

Telescope: 10-inch f/4.5 EQ Newtonian observing notes:

Description: A tiny and subtle brighter middle, which resembles that of a planetary nebula. And like so many planetary nebulae, when using direct vision, vanishes or winks out. The galaxy has a very faint and diffuse irregular halo, which is oriented NE-SW. After my many observing sessions of NGC 6118, it’s easy to understand why its named “The Blinking Galaxy.”

I was so sorry to hear about Al Nagler’s passing:

It was the April 2017 Southern Star Astronomy Convention sponsored by the Charlotte Amateur Astronomers Club, when a scheduled speaker for the convention cancelled at the last minute.

I’m not a member of the Charlotte Club, but had helped them over a few years to fill speaker positions at Southern Star.

A new speaker was needed…and really quick!

The Charlotte club officer in charge of Southern Star contacted me about finding a new speaker and asked if I could help in finding “the perfect” person to fill this now vacant position.

A solution, as I already had someone in mind:

I knew that Sue and Alan French were attending NEAF at that time. So, I called Sue via cell phone, and asked if she would talk to Al Nagler and see if he was interested in being a speaker at Southern Star.

Al was indeed interested and both he and his wife graciously accepted the invitation. 

Al gave a fabulous presentation concerning “everything anyone would want to know” about eyepieces. I don’t think anyone would know more about the science of eyepieces than Al Nagler. The presentation, to say the least was excellent, and so much so, I even took notes.

Al Nagler and his wife…two great people!

I was able to talk with Al and his wife for extended periods during the event, and also enjoyed having lunch with them in the Wild Acres cafeteria.

Photo as following: Al signing my “1000+ The Amateur Astronomer’s Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing” by Tom Lorenzin at the April 2017 Southern Star Astronomy Convention in Little Switzerland, North Carolina:

My signed 1000+ by Al Nagler and the late Tom Lorenzin pictured below: