Whitin History - Part 1

This week I read roughly half of the Whitin Observatory history in the observatory library. Trekking out to the observatory in the snow is certainly some hard work, but I found the history to be very entertaining. What struck me the most was that the idea for the observatory and Wellesley's astronomy program came by chance at a dinner party. It makes the existence of the department seem that much more special, and shows the importance of networking with people when you have a far-fetched idea. I can't wait to return to the observatory this week to finish reading the history and (if the snow and clouds clear) to get some practice in with the telescopes.

Constellation Hunting

The first thing I need to do is learn the spring constellations so I can find my way around the sky while using the 6" and 12" telescopes. I already had to learn a handful of constellations for last semester's astro lab, so hopefully that will give me a leg up. I had to choose twelve constellations and eight bright stars, which I initially located using Stellarium. Most of the constellations I chose were ones that are compromised of a lot of bright stars, while others are simply often-referenced or have interesting shapes. Here are my choices:

Constellations:

• Orion
• Canis Major
• Gemini
• Ursa Major
• Ursa Minor
• Leo
• Taurus
• Auriga
• Cassiopeia
• Virgo
• Cepheus
• Bootes

Stars:

• Arcturus
• Rigel
• Betelgeuse
• Aldebaran
• Sirius
• Procyon
• Castor
• Pollux

Last night was beautifully clear and I ended up outside for a while at about 8 pm, so I was able to spend some time studying the stars and constellations in and around Orion. Hopefully there will be more clear nights this week so I can continue to study the stars and start practicing with the telescopes. In the mean time, I will use Stellarium and other references to study what I need to know for observing and for my future sky quizzes.