Northern Lights at the Buttonwood Inn?

Michigan Tech Photo

Most of us have heard of the northern lights, but did you know that recent sunspot activity  may promise some of the best lights in a long while? Scientists have tried a number of different methods for predicting when sunspots will occur and to what degree. Suffice it to say that although prediction has improved since the days of Galileo who, in 1612 during the summer months, made a series of sunspot observations, predictions are not always "spot on". After more than a decade of relative calm, the sun is said to be set for an active period with this week's past activity making all the headlines..



NASA Photo



We plan on taking some "night" trips to the "notches" just north of us to see what we can see. One of them, Crawford Notch, offers some great vantage points for viewing the Northern skies, not to mention beautiful mountains and forests. The other is the Pinkham Notch area. Imagine hiking to the top of Mt. Washington and taking in the view from there.  

Pinkham Notch Blog Photo

There is no shortage of wonderful viewing locations and we hope to be able to share some of our own images with you soon. Happy exploring from the Buttonwood Inn on Mt. Surprise!

Buttonwood Inn Astronomy Update

Although the nights recently have been cloud covered and full of snow (no complaints of course), about two weeks ago, on a Thursday night, I pointed the Inn's telescope toward the Constellation Orion, specifically looking for the Orion Nebula.


Meade 10 Inch

 I am really new to the whole digital image thing but I have always wanted to try my luck at taking pictures with a decent single lens reflex camera hooked directly to the telescope's viewfinder which is called prime focus coupling.

With today's cameras you can fairly easily see the image of the object you are trying to photograph directly in the eyepiece of the camera, or, in the case of some digital cameras with LCD screens, you can view the image directly on the screen and make some adjustments and view the "live" image before taking the actual photograph.

There are other methods, such as using the telescope's eyepiece as you would normally view the night sky and then, using a special mount, attaching the camera with it's lens so that you focus on the image in the eyepiece. Here is an example of that type of device.

When all is said and done, there are certainly other factors affecting the final image, some camera related, and others telescope related, which we I hope to discuss in future blogs. For the time being, here is a quick single image shot I took on that Thursday night two weeks ago and although it is certainly not a "Hubble telescope" quality image I was still excited about the fact that it worked. Hope you enjoy it.

Orion Nebula Canon T3i Prime Focus Meade LXD 10 inch

Stay and Stargaze Special - VEGA SPECIAL

To all you stargazers out there the Buttonwood is offering a special this month. Lodge with us for two nights or more and use our 10 Inch Meade Schmidt-Newtonian to view the wonders of the New Hampshire night sky!

We are in a low light pollution area and now is a perfect time to view the Constellation Lyra which includes the Northern night skys' second brightest star, VEGA. Nearly directly overhead we can count on the lowest possible amount of atmospheric disturbance and the current weather conditions have been nearly perfect for viewing.

Bring your own scope if you like as our viewing area is quite large and can easily support multiple setups.

We'll have the Mount Surprise media room setup with our 50 inch plasma to do some pre-night viewing of the constellation and it's multiple targets like: The Ring Nebula M57 which is a classic planetary nebula. Vega, Altair, and Deneb form The Summer Triangle.

The Ring Nebula M57

The Ring belongs to a class of objects known as "planetary nebulae" which have nothing whatever to do with planets. They were called that back in the days of crude telescopes because their small disk shapes resembled planets and the name has stuck. A planetary nebula is actually a large cloud of gas which was previously expelled from the central star. Having lost much mass to the cloud, the central star compresses to a very dense and hot star that illuminates the gas cloud via ultraviolet radiation in much the same way as electric current lights up neon in a sign.

True to form Jupiter has not disappointed this month and the weather has been pretty cooperative so far in the Mount Washington Valley. Using our 10 inch Meade Schmidt-Newtonian we've been able to get some awesome views of the planet and it's four moons, Io, Europa, and Ganymede, and Callisto. These four moons, discovered by Galileo Galilei and by Simon Marius in parallel, orbit between 400,000 and 2,000,000 km, and include some of the largest moons in the Solar System.

Odd thing is on Wednesday night August 5th I observed what I thought was a fifth moon just barely separated from Jupiter. It's alignment was consistent with the other four moon's but this was the first time I had seen it over the years of observing. I'm now beginning to wonder if it just wasn't a star aligned with the planet although I must say it did not appear to move out of view or change it's separation over the course of about an hour.

If anyone knows which moon this is I'd love to know. I did take a snap shot a while back that Alan Chaniewski was nice enough to "clean up" for me. I'm still working on the group I to0k on the 4th of this month and hope at least one of them displays that fifth "moon". Right now it doesn't look too hopeful since the camera I'm using doesn't really have the imaging capabilities to resolve the image.

Tonight is the 8th and it proves to be another good viewing night if the current weather is any indication. Looking forward to the Perseids. I've also been fooling around with a laptop and a simple Logitech webcam to see what if anything I can do with that. Here's hoping that on August 11th the skies are clear because the literature says that will be the best night for viewing Jupiter this year and there is a second bonus in that the Perseids will be active! ...The weeks best...

Happy Stargazing!!

Starry Starry Night at The Buttonwood Inn

Recently we had a visit from Alan Chaniewski, a photojournalist for the past 32 years, Alan is currently Chief Videographer at The Hartford Courant newspaper in Hartford, Connecticut. Most of his videos can be seen on their website at http://www.courant.com/. His recent blogs, including a very flattering one about the Buttonwood Inn's relationship to Astronomy, is posted on http://www.ctcameraeye.com/ .

Alan and his wife Debbie visited many of the sights in the Mount Washington Valley and the photographs they have taken are, to say the least , outstanding. This photo of me and Paula next to the Inn's 10" Meade telescope set up in the backyard of the Buttonwood is an example of Alan's skill because anyone who can make me look good in a photo is certainly skilled.

Alan also shot some great pictures of our resident red squirrel and an awesome picture of a hummingbird in mid-flight which can be seen on his blog. http://www.ctcameraeye.com/




Here's an example of an image of Jupiter I took that Alan was able to enhance. I used the 10" Meade you see in the photograph . I had a very simple Canon A80 digital camera which I simply held up to the eyepiece of the telescope and voila!



The following image of the moon was taken the same night and is a good example of the the imaging capability of the Meade instrument. As a kid I always wanted a telescope and I was always looking up and marveling at the night sky. I was fortunate to find this great telescope as we were planning to move from Central New Jersey to our new home at the Buttonwood Inn atop Mount Surprise on the border of North Conway and Bartlett. I just knew that the skies were going to be awesome with hardly any of the light pollution experienced down south and I wasn't disappointed. Looking up at the Milky Way here can be breathtaking and when our guests look up from the outdoor hot tub on a clear, moonless night they are often speechless as they take in the grandeur of it all.

Paula and I welcome anyone who is interested in astronomy to come visit. Whether you bring your own telesope, camera with telephoto lens, or binoculars, or take in the sights through our equipment you are sure to have a wonderful experience in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at The Buttonwood Inn on Mount Surprise.

Happy Stargazing!