Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press/MCT A lunar eclipse takes place over Lakeland, Florida, Wednesday, February 20, 2008. There'll be no eclipse this week, but other astrological objects will be visible.

Predicting the sky conditions is difficult, regardless of how advanced your computer system is or how much experience you possess. For local stargazing, the best resource is the Clear Sky Clock, available at http://cleardarksky.com. Select 'Clear Sky Clocks,' then scroll down and choose New York. Next you'll see a list of observatories, listed alphabetically. Select 'Clarkson Observatory.'

A color-coded prediction of cloud cover and overall transparency for our own Clarkson Observatory then appears. The image is updated regularly. I've generally found it to be incredibly accurate for the first twenty-four hours, and slightly less accurate beyond that.

For last week's lunar eclipse, the Clear Sky Clock predicted between 40% and 50% cloud cover, which was precisely what we got. The moon peeked out between the clouds while it was going through partial eclipse. Later the skies cleared up, with only a few scattered clouds during most of the total eclipse. A thick carpet of clouds covered the moon and sky shortly after, as if to tell us all to go home. Most of us were more than willing to get out of the cold.

For any of you stargazers out there, this is the one-stop spot to get weather, darkness, and cloud cover when trying to plan a successful night.

This week, while there is no lunar eclipse, the moon will still be bright, as it wanes from the full moon. It will rise late in the night, and set just after sunrise. This will leave use with dark skies to view Mars and Saturn in the early evening.

Mars still stands proud above Orion's head, and Saturn is near Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Venus and Jupiter will rise in the wee hours of the morning, for those of you intrepid insomniacs out there.

These planets will appear as bright stars, some of them with visible colors (i.e. Mars is red) to the naked eye (or binoculars). With a simple telescope, or the telescopes available at the Clarkson Observatory, some of the details become visible. For Saturn, the rings and some of its moons are visible. Jupiter's bands of color can be seen on especially clear nights. The moons of other planets are also visible, and their orbits around their respective planets can be observed over the course of a few nights.

Even though you don't get the astounding images provided by satellites that fly by the planets, it is awe inspiring to see these planets with your own eye. The experience can't be captured by television or computer screen. I know that I'll never get bored of it.

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