Tag: astronomy

Leonids

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Meteor counting log, Leonids shower, from November 1934
Up to three per minute!

Ninety years ago, during the Leonids meteor shower, someone was counting a lot of burning bits of debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. With one fifteen-minute window boasting forty-five meteors (!), that’s a powerfully active shower. Not quite a storm, but those happen with the Leonids sometimes.

According to NASA, the Leonids peak about every 33 years, with 1966 being a spectacular meteor storm. In one fifteen-minute window, thousands of meteors fell like glowing rain. How amazing is that?

Also: check out the times indicated. We’re assuming the counting started at 11:00pm and ran until early morning, with a 24-hour clock opposite how we’d expect it. (Maybe sleep deprivation?) Either that or it was a truly spectacular meteor shower!

Battery Access

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Temperature probe, open case, with circuit board, batteries, and screwdriver.
Always entertaining: the original, off-brand battery.

When the screw heads to the battery access panel are stripped, just go all the way and open up the entire housing. Why not?

The real question is this: why are those screws stripped? Did it arrive that way, battery installed, or did they take a real beating after popping the first battery in? Why have screws to keep it shut in the first place?

Metersticks

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Three metersticks
Various vintages.

In our Physics & Astronomy labs, we use metersticks with great frequency. Often for measurements, sometimes to approximate distances that make the arithmetic easier, and occasionally as a handy tool for pointing to the projector screen.

They aren’t super-high precision any more than the rulers you remember from elementary school, and for that we have other tools. Sometimes, as you can see above, the years have warped and twisted things a bit. We adjust.

As you might expect, they offer metric distances on one side, inches and feet on the other. The best ones – the oldest set – were long ago painted black to conceal those SAE units. Clearly, someone grew weary of students measuring everything in inches and then complaining that the math wasn’t working out right.

Small Radio Telescope

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Satellite dish radio telescope viewed through window
Ah, daytime astronomy.

At the Observatory, we have a well-loved Small Radio Telescope, an older version of the one available from MIT’s Haystack Observatory. It’s an educational tool, suitable for undergraduates, which offers one charming advantage over our other, visual telescopes:

You can operate it comfortably from the climate-controlled building interior, conducting your radio observations in almost any weather.

Post Holder

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Old optics rail post holder, dated 1-29-09
A Cenco classic

It can be a real pleasure to find old objects lying around, with their dates of acquisition marked on the side. January 29th, ’09!

Which ’09, exactly?

Yup, still in Olin 269

Olin Science Building was constructed in 1954, so it’s doubtful this particular post holder dates back to 1909. Especially as the lettering on both sides matches up.

So we were still purchasing equipment for the old, cast-iron optics rails as recently as 15 years ago? Wow.

Construction Photo

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Aerial photograph of the Observatory construction, 1963
1963: a quiet corner of campus.

Six decades ago, there wasn’t much on the south end of campus, making it an ideal place for the new Observatory. Relatively calm, not much to block the view, and few sources of nearby light pollution. A lot can change in that time.

Today’s maples and oaks – not pictured, because they were maybe saplings? – are now large enough that they block some low areas of observation and are losing limbs due to disease and age. The stadium has been wreathed by parking lots and festooned with high-intensity lights. Campus buildings have crept southward, surrounding the site. Lewisburg and its surroundings have developed, installed more nighttime lighting, and the sky has grown brighter, obscuring more of the night sky.

Clouds, however: they’re here as much as they ever were. Oh, central Pennsylvania.