Partial eclipse at sunset from Cahoon Park, Bay Village. Photo by Dianna Lewis.
Sites along the US West Coast enjoyed a beautiful annular eclipse on Sunday, May 20, as did observers in China. We did not see much of an eclipse from Northeastern Ohio. We were, however, treated to some beautiful sunset views! Late-day clouds threatened to block the event entirely from view but, in some cases, contributed to the aesthetic.
Observers setting up at Edgewater to see partial eclipse of the Sun. Photo by Tim Campbell.
A group of CAA members gathered at Cleveland’s Edgewater Park for a view of the sunset event over water — as distant an horizon as we can get here. Others viewed and photographed the partial eclipse individually from other locations.
Cloudy sunset during partial eclipse. Photo by Christopher Christe.
A sun pillar rises into a firey December morning sky.
In the mornings and evenings of the cold seasons we are occasionally favored with glorious sunrises and sunsets. A few of those beautiful moments boast something beyond colored clouds and sky; they host sun pillars!
Sun pillars are the result of low-angle sunlight reflected from flat plate-shaped ice crystals suspended high in the air. Pillars can extend from approximately where the Sun sits, near the horizon, to points straight up and high above.
Monday morning, December 13, presented one of those fleeting moments as I drove to the office. I hurriedly pulled into a parking lot, extracted my camera from its case, and shot a few photos of the beautiful sky. A few minutes later, with the Sun slightly higher and the clouds slightly heavier, the fiery colors had faded and the sun pillar was gone.
Pillars, such as I saw, can also occur at night in the colder months. Lights from streetlamps, parking lots, buildings, and so forth can be reflected by atmospheric ice and produce delicately beautiful light pillars that are often mistaken for auroras.
So as you start or end your day, take the occasional glance at the sky. Perhaps you, too, will see the pillars of the Sun!
The CAA OTAA convention will be held at the Letha House Park building and grounds the afternoon and night of July 30, 2011. Registration starts at 3 p.m. There will be an Observatory demonstration session at 4 p.m. to learn about our new “Push To” equipment. Potluck dinner at 5 p.m., followed by a door-prize raffle, and then our speaker Jay Reynolds at 8 p.m. The subject of Reynolds’ talk will be the Cassini Saturn mission. The Club will provide hot dogs, brats, and lemonade. Bring a dish to share for the potluck!
In addition to reserving our observatory site and the excellent new Letha House building for the day, we have also reserved the pavilion area across the road. The pavilion features an open shelter with picnic tables, plenty of parking space, and a large open area suitable for setting up telescopes. The pavilion area may be even darker than the space around our observatory, which is unfortunately affected by the headlights of cars driving past on Spencer Lake Road and by outdoor lights from a house across the road. With both sections of Letha House Park reserved for our use, we will have plenty of room for telescopes. Now all we have to hope for are clear skies. See the flyer for further details (click here for PDF).
UPDATE: Due to a very unfavorable weather forecast, the Findley State Park star party has been canceled. We hope to try again in September! — Aug. 5, 2011
CAA will host a star party on the beach at Findley State Park from 9 PM to midnight (or so) on Saturday, August 6. Mike Williams, Jay Reynolds, and Bill Murmann plan to participate and of course welcome any other club members who would like to join us. Speaking from experience, Mike and Jay say that this is a great dark-sky site. Park Naturalist Roger Nikiforow said we could expect somewhere between 100 and 200 people for the program. The concession stand will be kept open before and during our star party. Roger will be giving a presentation about astronomy from 7-8 p.m. in the nature center, and will join us with his telescope around 8:30 p.m. CAA members are encouraged to attend and bring their own telescopes; a limited number of reserved camping spots have been set aside for participating CAA members. Everyone’s invited!
