Blogs / Dr.Bob's blog / Mid-July and the pursuit of epsilon Aurigae from the mountain
Mid-July and the pursuit of epsilon Aurigae from the mountain
7/10/09 - we've entered a special time with THREE local eclipse events heralding the predicted start of eclipse for eps Aur: a partial lunar eclipse this week, a total solar eclipse on 7/22 and another lunar eclipse on 8/5 - same week as start of eps Aur eclipse and the Adler meeting!
We've been frustrated at the mountain due to access road repair by the state highway department and cloudy mornings - thus , no new SSP4 data this week. We plan to try again later next week.
However, heroic Denver undergrad Nick Long has begun a series of DSLR imaging tests and found V=3.01 on July 7th. Ace observers Richard Miles and Des Loughney in the UK are reporting V mags close to 3.0 this week, one month prior to the predicted start of eclipse. eps Aur is remaining oddly bright this close to the start of eclipse. Your observations will be important to share!
As mentioned, both Richard Miles and Des Loughney have reported the V magnitude brighter than 3.0 in the last couple of days. During the 1982/1984 eclipse just prior to first contact and just after 4th contact the star system's brightness varied greatly, THis may have been do to very clear areas, clumps of opaque material, refraction effects, some combination or somehting else. It is part of the mystery. We hope to get a much better spectroscopic coverage during these times and perhaps shed light on what is causing those wild variations. Low resolution spectroscopy will be very important to keep an eye on the whole spectrum and then allow high resolution spectroscopy to zoom in on specific ares for detailed observation. Good luck to Dr Bob and Brian in getting the JHband data. I don't believe there has ever been JH band photometry done this close to first contact. The excitement is about to commence.
I'm ready to start up the 2009-2010 season here at JBO. However, Minnesota skies have not been cooperating the last couple of days with very clear conditions during the day and clouds across the northern sky in early morning. I saw this pattern last summer and fall -- clear skies during the day and much of the night with clouds developing just at sunrise. I'm tempted to contact a local meteorologist just to see if it has a name!Our efforts will be focused on obtaining good Johnson I and R datasets as soon as possible. Jeff Hopkins has heard that the eclipse may begin earlier in the longer wavelength bands. We'll try to do our part to collect data to complement Dr. Bob and Brian's upcoming JH data.We're close..... VERY close!
Pittsburgh isn't any better. My 2nd cousin is an involved amatuar astronomer, and we were TRYING to spot a stray meteor of the Persied showers a few weeks ago, and the sky was so clouded we didn't see one. We stayed up from sunset till 12:30 PM. I believe we not only have too much light pollution, but have great gobs of clouds littering the skies. Fortunatly, I don't live right in Pittsburgh, but light pollution from it is horrid,just horrible. I wish we had clearer skies like MN. My 2nd cousin lives in conneticut, but the skies are perfect for stargazing, I am actually jealous. I hope your skies clear up, and that Pittsburgh has a black out.
Hi Paul, I'm glad to see you are getting ready to make some R and I band measurements. Spectroscopic reports indicate the eclipse is already starting, but just exactly what is going on is still unknown. The systems seems to be very bright in all bands right now. Your data will be very valuable. Good luck. Jeff