Thanksgiving animals

Deseret Chuckwalla

My sister and her family came to visit for Thanksgiving and after the Thursday ritual overdosing on Turkey etc., we visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  We had a nice time walking around and checking out the animals- at left is what I believe is a female Desert chuckwalla that was hanging out in the Mountain Lion enclosure.  Either Mountain Lions prefer chuck steak to chuckwalla, or they are well fed, as this large lizard was quite brave in its choice of habitat.  The kids really enjoyed the cave and the bat ear demonstration as seen below.

Batboy

Batgirl

The animals are of course the main attraction at the museum and the unseasonably warm weather had them out basking in the Sun and posing for all the visitors. As always, click the pictures to enlarge.

Bighorn Sheep

Beaver

Deer

Prairie Dog

And yes, we even managed a picture of the elusive mother bat.  This is the first time that this animal has been photographed in the wild:

Thimble Peak

Yesterday afternoon I had to run up Mount Lemmon to take care of some business, and on the way down I was treated to the Sun setting behind Thimble Peak.  Fortunately, if I have learned one thing from my friend Paul, it is to take the camera along on these types of outings.   Image below was taken at 5:19 PM (on November 22nd) with an exposure of 1/500 of a second at f/10 with an ISO of 100.  I was using my Canon T2i and an EFS 15-85mm zoom lens, although I am not sure of the exact zoom setting...I am guessing it was in the neighborhood of 50-60mm.

Click to enlarge

Just to the left of Thimble Peak, you can see Kitt Peak National Observatory  which is the flat top mountain in the distance.  Below is a crop of the peak at full resolution.

Click to enlarge

Sunspots!

Been a long time since I took a picture of the Sun!  I am working at home today and while I have been quite productive through lunch, I needed a break...and when I looked online to see what the Sun was up to today I noticed that there are quite a few spots.  Out I ran to quickly set up the scope and snap off an image.

Taken in a hurry, using an alt-az non-tracking mount at approximately 1900 UT, November 13 2012, using my TEC 140 APO and Canon T2i - through a Lunt Solar Systems Herschel Prism.  Seeing was average, but at 1/4000 of a second not a huge issue other than proving difficult to focus prior to opening the shutter.

Click to enlarge

Honor Roll and a bit of humor

This morning I was very happy to attend the honor roll ceremony at Emily Gray Junior High School, where Ian made the honor roll!  He has worked very hard this year and deserves the honor.  While the ceremony was centered on the students, it was pretty obvious to me this morning that it means as much to the parents as to the kids.  I had a seat in the front row so I could take pictures, and the parents around me were clapping for almost every student, even the ones they did not know...maybe it is because I was surrounded by the adults who always sat in the front of class as kids....Anyway, NICE JOB IAN!

As long as we are on family topics, I have to share three pictures that my sister sent me of my niece, Sophie, during her most recent soccer match.  Sophie is in first grade and it is pretty clear that she is a budding soccer phenom.  Team needs a goal?  Get the ball to Sophie who will dribble the length of the field and put it in the net.  While you can see Sophie driving down field prior to scoring the winning goal, take a look at the faces of the horrified parents from the opposing team in the pics...Click them to enlarge...they are priceless!

Youth Programs at the SkyCenter

Final post in my run of work related posts...but at least now when someone in my family asks "what is it exactly that you do?" I can point them to the blog...

Over the past two months I have been very fortunate to be working alongside NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellow, Pacifica Sommers, as she has developed broad based overnight science trips up Mt. Lemmon.  These trips have culminated in an overnight stay at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter where the students have learned how to operate the 20 inch Jamieson Telescope at the mountains summit. 

While our public observing programs continue to flourish and grow, these educational trips are a new facet of our programming, and already one of the most rewarding.  Feedback from students and teachers that have come on these trips has been excellent and we have already learned many lessons as to what works and what does not work with a bunch of middle school students.

While I am posting a few images below, I encourage you to read the UA News article that goes into some depth about these trips.

Discovery story of Comet P/2012 T7 (Vorobjov)

This is the second of three posts that relate to my work at the University of Arizona's Mount Lemmon SkyCenter.  In an earlier post I mentioned that a comet had been discovered using the 32-inch Schulman telescope at the SkyCenter and now UA News has written a piece that details the partnerships and circumstances that led to the discovery.  It was gratifying to have this comet discovered at the SkyCenter as this demonstrates exactly the type of public access that was envisioned when funds for the telescope were generously provided to the University by the Schulman's Foundation.

Read the UA News Story by following this link.

Next up...coverage of our pilot youth programs...

Adam Block and the Cosmic Canvas

Lots of exciting news coming out of the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter this week-  so prepare for a small run of blog posts regrading my day job.  First off, Adam Block who manages our public observing programs received a distinguished award this past weekend for his significant contributions in astrophotography and astronomical outreach.  The Hubble Award is presented annually at the Advanced Imaging Conference and everyone that knows Adam understands how deserving he is of this achievement award.  You can read a nice story about the award and Adam on the University of Arizona News Website by clicking the link below.

Adam Block and the Cosmic Canvas | UANews:

Next up tomorrow, a detailed story regarding the partnership that led to the discovery of Comet  P/2012 T7 (Vorobjov) at the SkyCenter last week (original post on this comet here).