The above photo was taken in our classroom during a Public Stargaze with a guest lecturer, Les Johnson, of NASA/MSFC.

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TAO Public Stargaze.

(Stargazes First and Third Saturday of the Month)

Where are we? See our map .

Tamke-Allan Observatory invites people interested in astronomy to meet at 1930h on the first and 3rd Saturdays for celestial observing between 7:30 and 11 PM. Or sometimes later, depending on the sky. .

Telescope making/mirror grinding is a hands-on activity for everyone (students, amateur astronomers and visitors).

 

Roy Morrow used James Nolan's camera to capture a beautiful image of the Dumbell Nebula (a planetary nebula from an exploded star). I took a photo of it with my cell phone and it looked like this:

The scope camera had a better image, but I took this one with my iPhone. One can see the remaining white dwarf star at the center of the Dumbell.

May 6 was a busy evening, as we entertained the students and parents at Linden School in Oak Ridge, at their new amphitheater. Saturn and Luna were excellent targets. What a nice group of people! We had 6 telescopes and several hundred observers.

In truth, there were 2 Saturns, but the first one had wheels and rolled away. The second had beautiful rings and a prominent moon, and delighted the crowd.

Recent (Nov. 2013) astrophotography by Shawn Harrison was displayed in real time on the TAO Mobile Solar Observatory rear-screen projector:

Along with decoding the "Enigma" poem by Galileo, we found this in the sky (telescope work at TAO on April 2 showing M1 through the 12" Meade by UJ and DR):

That's the photo of the Crab Nebula 6000 LY distant, at the start of history according to the young earth guys. That light has been traveling for 6000 years. How about the more distant objects? The light has been traveling a lot longer. The actual image is better since you're seeing a CCD image rendered on a monitor, covered by a filter, captured by a handheld iphone camera, resized, transmitted rendered in your monitor, etc.

We discussed whether Galileo could have seen the Crab Nebula in beautiful skies Italian without light pollution, about the year 1535. He saw and wrote extensively about Saturn. The answer is perhaps yes.

We looked at some astrophotos, including those by local people (e.g., as in the photo above, taken just before the hard drive filled up). Skies provided great visibility, but seeing near the horizon was bad because of the turbulence.

Bring telescopes, red flashlights, astronomy gadgets and cookies. The evening will offer opportunities for viewing and Luna (with craters), and Jupiter with 3-4 nearby moons.

Expect Stargazes on the first and third Saturday evenings of each month. Amateur astronomers bring telescopes and binoculars and offer views of astronomical objects, while visitors are invited to bring their telescopes, questions and cookies to share with the astronomers.

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Here's a gazing ball image from 5/19. Note the heavy light pollution along the horizon and illumination of the classroom by the light trespass (click for full size image). This is a 11 PM photo and the light pollution prevents viewing around the horizon.

Tamke-Allan Observatory of Rockwood is a treasure of Roane County. It hosts free Public Stargazes on the first and third Saturday evenings of each month. These stargazes have opened the night skies, free of charge to everyone, for the past 10 years. Amateur astronomers bring telescopes and binoculars and offer views of astronomical objects, while visitors are invited to bring their questions and cameras and meet the astronomers. Kids are especially welcome.

Too much light causes glare – a hazard on our highways. Directing light downward where it is needed conserves energy and gives us a safer, more secure community. It also keeps our observatory open for education and research. When was the last time that you could see our beautiful milky way? We are losing our Roane County Heritage in the glare of unshielded lights.

Star Party Etiquette

* Bring a red flashlight and avoid using any white light after dark.
* Get to know the lighting controls for your vehicle and ensure as little white light as possible shines from your vehicle. If you cannot control the lights, choose to park as far away from the telescopes as practical.
* Carefully enter the observing location. Speeding into a parking area full of telescopes and observers is a recipe for an accident.

TAO Academic Associates are Colleges, Universities and other educational institutions that have both faculty and students that share research and scientific goals. The emphasis is not just scientific -- this is a humanistic endeavor that encourages both cultural exchange and critical thinking.

Our Associate Groups:

• ORION

• Centro de Radioastronomia y Astrofisica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Campus Morelia.

• Our friends at the Obed (really dark sky) site!

• Our Costa Rica connection -- CREAR

 

TAO Program for June 16

7:30 PM at the observatory

(lecture at 8:00 PM)

 

ORION meets on RSCC-Oak Ridge Campus, Golf Bldg. auditorium, Wed., June 20,7 pm

 

June Skies

16 June. Spectacular Venus is just 2º north of the slender crescent Moon (about two finger widths held at arm’s length). The Moon is also about 1.5º south of M44, the Beehive star cluster. They all make for fine viewing through a pair of binoculars in the western sky after the Sun goes down. I challenge you to find a prettier sight anywhere.

19 June. The asteroid Vesta reaches opposition. After the dwarf planet Ceres, Vesta is the second-most massive body in the solar system asteroid belt. Its mean diameter is a respectable 525 km. But, unlike Ceres, it does not have sufficient gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape, which is why it didn’t make the grade as a dwarf planet. Vesta lies in northern Sagittarius, not far from Saturn, and reaches a peak brightness of magnitude 5.3. That’s bright enough to see without optical aid in dark sky. The chart below, courtesy of Sky and Telescope magazine, shows you where to find it from day to day.

20 June. Grab your binoculars and have a look at Venus just 0.4º north of the Beehive cluster in the western sky after sunset.

20 June. First Quarter Moon, 10:51 UT

21 June. At 10:07 UT, the Sun reaches northern solstice, the northernmost point on the ecliptic, where it appears to stand still for a day before slowly moving southward again. This marks the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere and the first day of winter south of the equator. At solstice, the Sun lies near the star Propus at the foot of Gemini, not far from the star cluster M35.

23 June. Jupiter lies just 4º south of the waxing gibbous Moon. Just a month past opposition, the big planet remains a resplendent sight in June. It slowly dims and grows smaller this month, but at magnitude -2.4, it’s still brighter by far than any star. The planet’s disk spans about 45”and continues to reveal plenty of detail in a telescope. Learn more about what to see on and around Jupiter in the Cosmic Pursuits Jupiter observing guide.

27 June. The planet Saturn reaches opposition, rising in the eastern sky as the Sun sets in the west. This marks the closest approach of Earth to the ringed planet in 2018. The planet reaches magnitude 0.0 and its disk spans about 18”. The rings are more than twice as wide as the disk. This year, the rings are tilted splendidly towards our line of sight by some 24º. It’s a great time to see this planet, which many new and experienced skywatchers rank as the most beautiful thing you can see through a telescope. Because the planet is in the southern reaches of the ecliptic, this year’s apparition favors southern stargazers. But northerners can see plenty on nights of good seeing.
The location of Jupiter and Saturn in the late part of June 2018.

28 June. Mars stops its eastward motion and becomes stationary relative to the background stars. For the next many weeks, and through its opposition on July 27, the planet will appear to move westward from day to day. This is called retrograde motion. At the end of June, Mars lies well to the east of Saturn in the constellation Capricorn. The planet gets down to business this month, brightening from magnitude -1.2 to -2.2 and growing to 20” across. On nights of steady seeing, it will reveal plenty of detail in a good telescope at moderate to high magnification. The planet rises around midnight as June begins and 10:30 p.m. as the month ends.

28 June. Full Moon, 04:53 UT

 

 

Here's a photo of our STEM teacher's group, learning "From Earth to the Stars with STEM" on Dec. 8:

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RECEIVE TAO-News

Here are photos from Heather Fries showing the sunset, and some of our visitors.

We had a welcome to guests followed by a classroom presentation at 1930 h on the Siemans competition projectt in using computer models to steer particle beams. This work has several applications in astronomy and materials research. Our presenters were Oak Ridge High School students Scotty Chung Yajit Jain, and Carlos del-Castillo-Negrete, and. These students are the 2010-11 Siemens Foundation Regional Finalists in the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. They are among 94 finalists selected from 2,033 student researchers from 36 states and are competing for Siemens awards that range from $1000 to $100,000. We had a hot grill and live music from the astro-country folk band outside

.

In doing radio astronomy, TAO supports the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA). SARA materials and ideas turned up at the TAOSON exhibits at the 2010 Rockwood Fall Festival in Rockwood, TN:

IDEAS

Perspectives on good astronomy occasionally appear on the Bad Astronomy Blog, at http://www.badastronomy.com/intro.html

Triffid Nebula by Tom Hering (below)

 

Find the Observatory

(Click for Directions)

 

Maryville Scouts visited us on March 5, 2016

Scoutmaster Chris brought Troop 700 from Maryville and they filled the classroom. What a group -- with questions and a lot of interest in learning how to find Jupiter (and moons) with our 8" refractor. They were already a part of the TAO action since it was one of their Eagle Scouts who built our camping area in our woods. They brought us coffee and 3 types of strudle (!) and we shared our telescopes (Thanks Jan, DR, and George), Jim Long's Spagetti, 2 kinds of bread, cookies, chips, etc. It was a beautiful evening, after those clouds cleared.

Eye patches for Dark Adaptation
I used to wear an eye patch to dark adapt but later, decided to simply close an eye when needed. I was wrong.

Itt turns out that pirates were on the right track in wearing eye patches. I had thought that they should just have closed their eyes to dark-adapt to go below-decks but no -- blood transmits wavelengths (heavy curve) that bleach ocular rhodopsin (light curve)
Shiver me timbers and belay any discard-patch advisories. Wearing an eye patch for dark adaptation is a good idea.

TAOrem launch

This was a success. Past and future students and amateur astronomers were invited. Launch of this remote sensing balloon occurred at 4 PM on 1/17/2015 from Tamke-Allan Observatory in East TN, USA, 35.8325 Lat, -84.618 Lon. Transmissions were 110baud ASCII, 8b, 2s, np on 433.97462 MHz upper sideband, with ID WA4ADG-1 as announced on http://arhab.org/hab_launch_list.php and tracked on http://www.roanestate.edu/obs
and on Twitter @TAOrem.

Our 2 launches of 2014 used instrumented weather balloons (monitoring position, temp, ionizing radiation, solar insolation, etc.), and attained about 100,000 foot altitude before bursting as expected.. The Jan 17 launch was more experimental, using a 1/3 filled non-expanding bladder -- we had constant-volume altitude stabilization at 30,000 feet. Flight duration was long as expected -- about 5 hours.

Image of Saturn by Michael McCulloch

Friendly local astronomy groups:

TAOSON (TAO Solar Observation Network) Signal (issues)

TAO Astronomy Society

ORION

Join ORION discussion group

Smoky Mountain Ast. Soc.

 

Dark Skies

1. Carpe Noctem -- Seize the Night and Stop Light Pollution

2. Security Lights for East Tennessee

3. When is National Dark-Sky Week

4. Parkland News

5. Let There Be (LESS) Light

Check the premier International Dark Skies site
and the new Dark Sky Institute site

Carpe Noctem! Let's keep our little TAO dark with stars in the sky. In the map, all red areas have lost their night sky while blue areas have dark skies. Please support our dark skies. We are darker than Knoxville, but WE DO HAVE A PROBLEM from light pollution.

 

Past TAO Events

READ April 18 Knox News-Sentinal article - Losing the Sky

Kingston Troup 101 on trail 2005

Music on the Mountain

John Dobson's Visit

Click for Astronomy Lab Photos

Click for other TAO Photos

 

Antenna searches
Retriever's nose in the wind
Ether's far secrets.

-- Haiku by Corporal Shaftoe,from Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

 

M15, M27 and M33 by Roy Morrow (above)

Radio Astronomy

Our 15m radio astronomy sytem responds to changes in D-layer density. If the greyline(grey area on the map) is above TAO then we get terrestrial transmitter interference in our Skypipe Jupiter/Solar monitor receiver. Signals which travel inside the grayline region often experience significant improvements in propagation because of the loss of ionization in the D-region as the Sun sets. However, because the higher F-regions of the ionosphere remain strongly ionized for longer periods of time, signals with higher frequencies are able to travel to greater distances with less attenuation when they are within the grayline. The current solar position is shown in the yellow area. Click on the image for more informaton.

TAO proudly supports the NASA Night Sky Network through our associated astronomy clubs in Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Soddy Daisy