Private Twilight Program ~ Eagle Eye Observatory ~ Closed to the Public

The Eagle Eye Observatory is closed to the public from 8:00p.m.-9:15p.m. this evening for a private party.  It will reopen to the public at 9:30p.m. for our Dark Sky program.

SKY WATCHER EVENTS ~ MAY
During May the bright planets appear one by one in the wee hours of the morning from just after midnight until the morning twilight, climbing higher in the eastern sky as each hour passes.

For those wanting to see impressive objects in the evening sky, look for Arcturus (Alpha Bootis) the brightest star in the northern hemisphere. Arcturus can be found by first looking at the Big Dipper in Ursa Major, follow the curve of the handle of the Big Dipper southward and arc to Arcturus. At 37 light years away, Arcturus is the closest giant star to Earth. Arcturus is a classic orange K1 III giant star with a surface temperature of 4200 K. In visible light , it’s luminosity is 113 times the Sun’s.

Moving a few degrees south and west of Arcturus into the constellation Virgo and using the 14″ telescope at the Eagle Eye Observatory we can see deep into the Coma-Virgo cluster of galaxies and find Messier 87 (M87). It is a giant elliptical galaxy, the largest and brightest member of the Coma-Virgo galaxy cluster. This galaxy is estimated to be 63 million light years away and has one of the strongest radio sources in the sky.

On March 10, 2019 the first ever image of a Black Hole Event Horizon was published. This image defines the location of a Black Hole that is 6.5 billion times as massive of our Sun.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/black-hole-image-makes-history

There are many more beautiful objects appearing in the eastern sky during May. Globular clusters of stars are amazing to see through a telescope. At a distance of 33,900 light years, M3 is further away than the center of the Milky Way and is estimated to contain 245,000 solar masses.

Another globular cluster (M13) also known as the Great Hercules Cluster and is considered the most spectacular in the northern skies. It appears large and bright because it is relatively nearby, about 25,100 light years away. Messier 13 contains several hundred thousand stars. Unlike open clusters, such as the Pleiades, globular clusters are tightly bound together by gravity and contain very old, mostly red stars. The age of M13 is thought to be 12 billion years – nearly as old as the Milky Way Galaxy itself.

These are many exciting things to see at the Eagle Eye Observatory, so come on out and have a look.

Jim Sheets
Astronomer