[Launch Alert] Desert Astronomy

[Brian Webb]

	      ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
				  
			  Brian Webb, KD6NRP
		      Ventura County, California
			 kd6nrp@earthlink.net
		   http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp
				       
					    2002 March 3 (Sunday) 17:00 PST
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			 Contact Information
				  
If you'd like to reach me by e-mail, do not reply to this e-mail message.
Instead, e-mail me at kd6nrp@earthlink.net.

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		       Desert Astronomy Excursion
				  
Weather and other factors permitting, I might take a trip next weekend
(March 8th and 9th) to the Owens Valley area to observe/photograph the
zodical light and comet Ikeya-Zhang.

The zodical light is a faint glow seen in the west after dusk and the east
before dawn. It's caused by sunlight reflected by dust in the solar system.
Comet Ikeya-Zhang was discovered on February 1st and is now visible in the
evening sky in the southwest. It's a naked-eye object for observers in dark
locations and is expected to continue brightening.

The zodical light and comet Ikea-Zhang are best seen from very dark
locations. Although popular astronomy venues like Mount Pinos are much
darker than the suburbs, they're not really that dark. To find truly dark
skies, you need to get as far away as possible from the city.

Heading north from Los Angeles, the night sky doesn't really begin to get
dark until you reach Fossil Falls on highway 395 (about 25 miles northwest
of Ridgecrest). If you go to Fossil Falls on a clear, moonless night,
you'll notice that the sky is dark, but even more so towards the north. As
a general rule, the further north you go on the east side of the Sierras,
the darker it gets.

I haven't selected my observing site, but I have a few candidate locations
in mind including:

	Southeast of Owens Lake on the south side of state highway 190

	Darwin Hills (southeast of Owens Lake)

	East side of Owens Valley between Lone Pine and Independence

If you're interested in coming along, please e-mail me. Also, if you know
of any good observing locations in this general area, I'd like to hear from
you.

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			   Unusual Sighting
				  
A few months ago I received the following sighting from Joe, a
meteorologist who resides in Santa Paula:

"Last evening (November 22nd) while watching a spectacular sunset in front
of my home in Santa Paula, I noticed a bright star-like object in a west-
southwest direction up about 35 degrees. The object appeared stationary. I
estimated the object to be perhaps -5 or -6 magnitude (thinking it may have
been a supernova), and I proceeded to get my binoculars out. This was
around 4:50 PM to 4:55 PM. However, around 5:10 or 5:15 PM the object
suddenly was much dimmer and almost gone. I looked at it with binoculars,
and determined it was in fact an object in earth's atmosphere. I
immediately knew it was some kind of rocket launch. Apparently what I saw
was the rocket moving directly away from me (hence the nearly stationary
bright light), then apparently a second stage ignited and the rocket moved
slowly toward the horizon and finally disappeared.

I went on the Lompoc Record web site this evening and found no information
about a Vandenberg launch, nor is there any information on the Vandenberg
web site. Obviously this was a classified launch. Or it could have been one
of those airborne launches. Whatever it was, do you have any information
about a launch of some kind yesterday around 4:45 PM or so?"

A missile launch from Vandenberg AFB didn't occur on November 22nd. What
Joe saw was probably a weather balloon. They're launched daily at 00:00
and 12:00 UTC (16:00 and 04:00 PST) from selected locations.

If the weather balloon is transparent, at high altitude, located between
you and the Sun, and the sky is in evening or morning twilight, you'll see
a bright point of light. They suddenly dim when the balloon's gas bag pops.

Back in November of 1998, I went to Mount Pinos to do some astrophotography.
After sunset, I spotted a bright, white speck in the west and immediately
identified it as a weather balloon. I pointed it out to my friends, but was
told it was Venus (a good explanation, but Venus wasn't in the evening sky
at the time).

Dave Holland trained his telescope on the object and confirmed it was a
balloon. You could clearly see the distended gas bag with a parachute and
instrument package dangling beneath. Dave wanted to take a photo of this
object, but I warned him to be fast because the bag was probably going to
pop soon. Sure enough, it popped, and it grew much dimmer. Luckily, Dave
got his equipment set up in time and was able to capture the balloon on
film.