Astronomy Outreach Through Social Media

At 40 years old and a member of Generation X, I bridge the gap between a time when the Internet did not exist and an increasingly Internet-connected world. Social media is the next exciting frontier on the Internet where the younger generation lives. Unfortunately, amateur astronomy is having difficulty connecting with young people via outreach through social media. I would like to share with you the ways in which I have found success engaging with young people, primarily those at the college level, using social media.

 

Younger generations do not use email as much as their predecessors. Even college professors face difficulty reaching students via email, so amateur astronomers should not make the same mistake. Sharing information through email and text messages is being replaced by sharing on social media platforms.

It is time for amateur astronomers to become familiar with how to use Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, GroupMe, and YouTube for outreach. For instance, Snapchat allows location-based video sharing via a heat map interface that can be used to publicly promote an event as it is happening. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all have live video streaming options by which you can share astronomy virtually in real time.

The Baton Rouge Astronomical Society, to which I belong, uses Facebook to live stream the Moon at public events. Many college students use GroupMe for classes, so they already have the app on their phones. I use GroupMe to announce observing sessions and satellite passes. Sharing an event on social media can reach more people than those that can attend in person, especially if the link is shared widely.

The most important step toward introducing young people to astronomy is to go directly to them. Set up in places they frequent, even if light pollution is a problem. Be proactive in bringing people to the eyepiece by clearly and excitedly announcing what you are showing. Next, make it possible for them to share photos via social media. Attach a universal phone cradle to an eyepiece for taking photos of targets like the Moon or planets. Always let passersby know you are specifically set up for sharing photos to Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat. Allow them to take photos themselves, so they can say “I took that photo,” but assist if necessary.

What you think you know about young people may not be true, nor will it be consistent from one year to the next. They do love space and astronomy. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a superstar to younger generations, after all. Embrace live streaming as an alternative to traditional outreach. Share your own astronomy images via these same platforms. Keep people coming back by inviting them to follow you on social media. Your enthusiasm must be both contagious and Internet-connected. Go forward with the idea that we cannot reach everyone, but, as advocates for the scientific community, we have an obligation to introduce young people to astronomy through social media.

Note: My article first appeared in the March, 2019 issue of The Reflector magazine from the Astronomical League. 

Red Color Filter Screen in iOS 10

Anyone who has upgraded to iOS 10 can now enable a red screen mode on their device, whether it’s an iPhone or iPad. I made a video and put it on YouTube, but I have typed out the instructions below.

1. Go into Settings.

2. General>Accessibility>Display Accommodations.

3. Display Accommodations>Color Filters>Turn on Color Filters.

4. Tap Color Tint.

5. Scroll down to Intensity and drag the slider all the way to the right.

6. Scroll down to Hue and drag the slider all the way to the right as well.

7. Tap back twice to go back to the Accessibility section in Settings.

8. Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Accessibility Shortcut.

9. Tap Color Filters so a check mark appears next to that option.

Now, every time you quickly triple-press the home button, you enable/disable a red screen.

This might also be especially helpful for visitors to star parties who spread around too much white light from phones.

Video Instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jchv6gsvFko

Prepping for 2016 Perseids: Astronomical League Logging

As you might already know, the most actively observed meteor shower is upon us. The Perseid meteor shower peaks this coming Thursday night into Friday morning, but it will give us meteors days before and days after the peak. I have previously shared with you how I go about observing the Perseids. In this post, I want to introduce you to logging your observations for the Astronomical League’s Meteor Program.

Here’s what I bring outside if I plan to log observations:
1. Cot
2. Pillow/Blankets
3. iPhone 6 with some level of night vision protection
4. iPhone 4S for recording audio
5. Off and/or Thermacell repellent
6. Warm shoes

The Meteor Program is fairly straightforward. All you need to accomplish in order to complete the requirements is to log your nightly observations for a total of 36 hours, making sure to send in your logs at periodic time blocks (12h, 18h, 24h, 30h, and 36h) for your attempts. Observing during peak shower times limits your ability to accumulate hours rapidly, so although it seems simple enough to stay up all night, in reality, it’s best to spread out observing sessions in three to six hour chunks over the course of the year. After completing 36 hours of logs, you should consider continuing your efforts for personal reasons.

The log form is limited in only one regard. The PDF stops at 43 spaces for recording meteors. I created a spreadsheet in Numbers for Mac to allow for logging more than that. In the case of the Perseids, I have enough pages of empty blocks to cover more than 200 individual meteors. The first page of the form contains fields for recording the date/time, location, conditions, direction facing, hourly sky conditions, breaks taken, and additional comments.

The individual blocks for each observed meteor contain fields for the time observed, visual magnitude, type (Perseid in this case), color, speed (Slow, Medium, Fast, Very Fast – S, M, F, VF) , smoke trail (Y/N), and additional comments. When I log a meteor, I dictate to the native iOS Voice Memos app, pausing it in between each observation, and saving the recording every 30 minutes or so. Using this technique, I can quickly dictate the time, magnitude, color, speed, trail, and comments like where in the sky I saw it and more subjective details. Every hour, I make a note of the sky conditions, but if things change in between observations, I also comment on those changes just in case I need to include it in the log. At the end of the night or some time the next day, I return to the audio recordings and transcribe my observations to the log form.

Meteor Program Log Form (Page 1)

Estimating visual magnitude is an acquired skill and not the easiest thing to master in the moment. Having visual observing experience helps, but there is a cheat sheet available to your eyes this time of year. Cygnus and Lyra should rise almost directly overhead through the course of this meteor shower. The brighter stars in both constellations will be your cheat sheet.

Here is a scale to help you understand visual magnitudes:
Dim- +5, +4, +3, +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, -3, -4 -Very bright

Vega is a magnitude 0 star. Deneb is your +1 reference star. Sadr is your +2 reference. Albireo is your +3. If you can see Eta Cyg, that’s about +4. Anything dimmer is your +5. If you can see +6 magnitude, you probably don’t need any help estimating magnitude to begin with.

Credit: SkySafari Plus for Mac

Anything brighter than Vega is mag -1, -2, -3, or -4. Venus is almost -4. Jupiter is currently -1.7. If you can estimate brightness based on these objects, then negative magnitudes should also be fairly easy to discern as well.

The radiant point for the Perseids is shown in the image below and is situated just above Perseus and below the familiar W of Cassiopeia.

While you should be aware of the location of the radiant point, observing this meteor shower is no different than any other. My general rule of thumb is to look to the northern sky early on with a slight preference to the northeast, transitioning my position to east and directly overhead, following the location of more prominent meteors as the night progresses, ending by pointing myself more in a south southwest direction.

I hope you are able to visit a dark sky to observe this event because, from what I’ve read and heard, this year should produce twice what we’re accustomed to seeing.

 

The Need for Impromptu Outreach

Of all the beneficial aspects of our hobby, astronomy outreach is the single most effective way to have a long-lasting impact on society. Live-streaming of events like solar eclipses, comet exploration, and even virtual star parties make a similar connection with the public. Thankfully, folks at NASA, SLOOH, ESA, and even Eyes on the Sky and Universe Today present the general public with tons of streaming content so that the burden is not all on us. Through these venues, not only do we instill an interest in astronomy, but we drum up support for Science, research, lunar missions, Mars missions, and deep space exploration. But nothing quite matches the interpersonal impacts of real face-to-face astronomy outreach. Underneath such a vast umbrella of sources, I feel amateur astronomers and professionals alike under-deliver on one front and that is in the realm of what I call impromptu outreach.

Many of us who belong to astronomy clubs participate in well-publicized star parties, solar events, and lectures, yet when it comes to interacting with the general public on our own, we come up short. Planned sidewalk setups are great, as are library events, public observatory nights, and lectures from professionals in the field, but in the real world, impromptu astronomy outreach is a largely untapped tool at our disposal. Astronomy does not stop for anyone, let alone the general public, so if the opportunity presents itself, we must leap at the chance to incorporate laypersons into our experience. For myself, the purpose of outreach is to capture the minds of those who have never experienced the amazement of Saturn’s rings, the brilliance of an Iridium flare, or the humble connection between humanity and the men and women aboard the ISS orbiting at 17,000mph.

For instance, while at Disneyland in Anaheim, I pointed out Jupiter, Capella, Castor, Pollux, and a few other bright objects to a mother and her young son at the very end of the It’s a Small World ride after her son marveled at the stars above. Keep in mind that was under the immense light pollution of Los Angeles. There was irony in that moment given the name of the ride we had just enjoyed, no?

Just last week, I stood outside waiting on a relatively dim, but predictable Iridium flare over Baton Rouge. While I was waiting, a group of three people approached to get in their car. I involved them in the observation because it just seemed like the right thing to do. When is someone in our hobby otherwise going to introduce them to satellite passes? On Saturday night, I set up my iPhone to capture a mag -3.4 ISS pass overhead. As I captured its descent in the southeast sky, two people across the parking lot pointed at the bright object. I made it my priority to let them know it was the ISS.

The impromptu method of outreach is easy. How many of you use it? Even teaching people cardinal directions using the night sky as our map is a worthwhile endeavor. When someone points up at the bright “star” in the sky in the middle of a parking lot, volunteer the fact that what they are pointing at is Venus, Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn. The general public does not realize so much is happening above them and I continue to see it as our duty as amateur astronomers to enlighten them at every opportunity. Satellite passes, Iridium flares, conjunctions, and lunar phase features occur daily, but we do not take the time to share those things with the general public, or at least not as much as we could.

If you are on the sidewalk, don’t stand there by yourself seeming creepy. Talk to people. Get them involved. If you use social media, take a photo and tag a location so that the feed shows something astronomy-related happening in that area. Be safe about it, of course, but make your presence known somehow. It has been my experience that people appreciate learning something new, especially when it involves the night sky. Most of the time, they had no idea what you showed them was even going to happen or that you could observe it. They may only attend one star party a year because of what you showed them, but that’s more astronomy than they were doing before they met you. Remember, they would rather be inside watching Dancing with the Stars than actually observing the stars. We have the power to change that mentality.

Eta Aquarids 2016 Recap

You may already know that the peak for the Eta Aquarid meteor shower was on the morning of May 6 and you also might be familiar with the source of this meteor shower, Halley’s Comet. While many of you may have simply observed this event from the comfort of your computer desk via SLOOH, because I live at 32° Latitude, I was far enough south to have a shot at seeing at least a few meteors (Most of my readers are northern hemisphere residents). I went outside to watch this one. If you reside in the southern hemisphere, you probably saw a better light show than I did.

The usual routine took place. I set up my cot facing ENE with a folded blanket as my neck support and my old iPhone 4S as an observation recording device. However, this year, I went ahead and plugged in an electric blanket via an extension cord to stay cozy for the few hours I planned to observe. As the night progressed, I rotated my view more southward, facing SSW as the radiant point of the meteor shower shifted away from the horizon.

After observing for three hours, I called it a night and began capturing several satellite passes to the southwest, even accidentally catching an Iridium flare and possibly even a Hubble flyby. The passes have not been verified with Skysafari yet, so I do not know which satellites I saw, but it was a busy patch of sky straight up until early dawn. Very exciting stuff. You may view these photos on my Facebook Page or only the two I posted on Instagram.

Upon listening to my observation logs a short while ago and transcribing those observations to the Astro League’s Meteor Program form, I have a tally. I saw eleven meteors, the first zipping across Lyra at 2:30am and the last at 5:02am. The best meteor of the night was a white mag -1 fast moving flash with a long smoke trail headed west at 4:29am. Most meteors were faint at +3 and +4 magnitudes, however.

Amateur Astronomy: A Cosmic Web of Hobbies

The niche hobby of amateur astronomy has a well-connected membership inside its friendly walls, but within the confines of our hobby exists a propensity for simply being a hobbyist-at-heart. Attending large star parties and participating in social media has shown me that amateur astronomers are involved in so much more than astronomy. While we come from different backgrounds and careers, our other interests tend to overlap. We’re heavily into cycling, whether on road bikes, mountain bikes, or touring (See Pedaling Astronomer). Owning binoculars tempts us to take up birding. Older members of our hobby tend to be into Ham radio. Photography and sketching underscores the artistic flare in our ranks. If you’ve ever been to Okie-Tex, you’ll know all about how guitar players congregate or how remote-control planes buzz around the camp during the day. From cycling, to birding, to quad-copters, we are an active bunch. We’re habitual hobbyists. That’s certainly not a bad thing.

It does not stop there, though. There are unique individuals among us who explore hobbies off the beaten path. I have met someone who chiseled his own arrowheads, a glass blower, and even fossil hunters. Heck, I like to roll my own sushi. It’s something of a chicken/egg situation in that being around others in this hobby has an infectious quality to it, yet at the same time, we possess an innate need to independently expand our horizons. Every new interest introduced to us via amateur astronomy seems plausible based on our own capabilities and so we adopt the secondhand avocation into our lives. We also almost instinctively dabble in anything we can get out hands on. Maybe one day, you’ll be rolling sushi or carving out arrowheads, too. If you are not a hobbyist to this extent yet, just wait. Like aperture fever, new hobbies are quite contagious.

Whether we merely possess a strong desire to tinker or astronomy has convinced us the old adage “The sky is the limit” was actually a mocking dare of sorts, we excel where others falter. We approach the event horizon and dive in head first, living deep and sucking out all the marrow of life as Thoreau envisioned. Like our expanding universe, our hobbies spread out in all directions connected by the cosmic web that is being a hobbyist-at-heart.

Do not let this post diminish your appreciation of our pursuits by my repeated use of the prosaic term “hobby.” We as amateur astronomers are so much more than mere hobbyists with additional overlapping eccentricities. Our societies and organizations serve as the liaison between the science of Astronomy and the general public. Our ability to relate with members of the general public using our eccentricities grants us access in ways the scientific community often cannot. To reference the movie Office Space, we have people skills. Astrophysicists and professional astronomers represent us at the uppermost tiers, but we run the ground game. Principles, concepts, and accepted theories trickle down to our meetings and news stories so that we can go out and teach Astronomy to the masses who do not otherwise have access to the higher echelon astronomers. We are the bridge between simplicity and complexity of our Universe.

Get Some Sun

Most amateur astronomers don’t dabble in daytime viewing. We are generally creatures of the night. This may lead the general public to believe we are actually vampires or part of some other mythical nonsense. It is time to get some sun before we freak everyone out.

From solar viewing, to stars, to bright planets, there are a lot of objects we can observe during the day. Of course, the most obvious object to observe is our nearest star. Of late, solar activity has been lackluster in terms of sunspots. Solar flares have been active and impressive, but most of us don’t have expensive Hydrogen Alpha or Calcium solar scopes. Most of us who do solar observing probably have white light filters and stick to looking at active regions of sunspots.

But before you step outside to have a look at the sun, you might want to check to see what’s up there first. I have written about this in the past, but with the upcoming Mercury Transit event in May, a reminder seemed appropriate. Many websites have up to date images of solar activity, so instead of setting up your equipment only to discover nothing is going on up there, look it up first and then go outside. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) maintains various perspectives of our nearest star, most of which I do not even use, let alone even fully comprehend. However, the white light SDO/HMI Continuum image shows the current sunspot situation and a specific page dedicated to sunspots numbers the active regions for you. There is also a SOHO app in the iOS App Store.

However, if Hydrogen Alpha is what you crave, the National Solar Observatory has various geographic locations report images in H-Alpha. Before setting up your scope to observe solar flares, filaments, granulations, and other solar phenomena, go to that site and see what’s going on first, especially if you hope to image something specifically spectacular.

If public solar outreach is something your astronomy club does on a regular basis, having these links scope-side permits you to show visitors what they will observe in the eyepiece prior to fumbling around at the eyepiece. Give them some sense of direction before launching them into the sun like you’re Superman disposing of nuclear weapons with a smile on your face for the good deed you’ve done. Quite often, members of the public have difficulty lining up their eyes with the objective and report only seeing a section of the sun, or worse yet, nothing at all. Having these apps available on a mobile device also permits you to discuss solar phenomena away from the eyepiece with real time images of what people were able to observe.

Go get some sun. Make sure you wear sunblock, though, and take necessary precautions when viewing the sun through a telescope using the aforementioned filters. There is no sense in getting sunburned or going blind in the name of amateur astronomy.

Alternatively, you could wait for someone else to post an image of the sun on social media.

How did the Messier Marathon go?

In March, my astronomy club had planned to host a members-only Messier Marathon, but inclement weather led to widespread flooding in our area, so our event was postponed until April. On Saturday, April 2, several members gathered to tackle this list, but when all was said and done, I was the only amateur astronomer still standing by morning. Only one other member toughed it out, but he was operating  a go-to scope, simply waiting for the next object to appear in his eyepiece. He left shortly after 2am.

Our rules were quite permissive, but the layout was organized. We divided the observing area into three main groups. I was camped out in the more serious section of our observatory where red light rules were in place and darkness reigned. Other less involved members set up out front where they could casually jump from one Messier object to another. Others were there simply to show Messier objects in a telescope. Light rules were less stringent out there and headlights could wash out the area in a moment’s notice. Logged observations were either done with a got it/didn’t get it approach, or by time found. Whether manual, go-to assisted, or push-to, the point was to have fun. I even doubled up my gear by running my XT8 alongside my 15×70 binoculars on a parallelogram mount.

I opted to log the time I found the Messier object simply because I could use this information for planning successive Messier Marathons. This list was mentioned in my previous blog post. For the most part, the order I planned to manage the 110 objects in was reliable, however, I knew there were a few on the list I would not observe because of the setting sun. Messier 74 and 77 were too low to log a successful observation. Messier 33 and 110 were the two other objects I was unable to observe. I was able to see the other 106 through the course of the night.

The segments where multiple Messier objects should’ve been visible at once were not as easy to observe as I had hoped. M10, 12, and 14 showed up in a staggered fashion. The moment when I took a break to wait came at 9:45pm when Corvus needed to rise up a little higher. Almost an hour passed before I could continue on to the next stopping point at 11pm when only four objects could be observed in that 10 minute block. From that point forward, Messier objects trickled in at a snail’s pace, limited only by their ability to break free of the atmosphere at the horizon. Many of the objects in Sagittarius appeared in an order different than what I had listed and everything east of there in the sky filled in until about 4:30am. At 5:30, I was able to observe M30 and revisit M31 to get M32, but no M110. April just wasn’t the time to see all of them.

Although this was my very first Messier Marathon, I learned a few lessons which will improve any future attempts at tackling the event under March skies. Binoculars made knocking out objects quick and easy. Dew control will be mandatory next time. I had to use the hair dryer on my optics with every other observation from about 2:30am onward. Food made time pass quickly. Despite the social aspect of the event, when it was just myself out there, snack time made the difference between outright boredom and sanity.

Here is my observation log: