April 2014

Dear Friends,

Lookout Observatory (LO) is located at approximately latitude 41° 14′ N. This makes some interesting objects in the southern sky not visible. However, by traveling further south, the staff of LO (yours truly) can see and photograph some of these objects. Ever since I was a child, living in Ohio at almost exactly the same latitude as LO, I have wanted to get a photograph of Omega Centauri, the brightest globular cluster in the sky. My childhood friend, Fritz Kleinhans (who grew up to be a physics professor and teach some astronomy classes), recently invited me to join him in New Mexico at a location at about 33° N latitude, where Omega Centauri would be visible. I just recently returned from this exciting adventure.

Three images are attached, each taken through a small, high-quality telescope with a lens diameter of 65mm and a focal length of 420mm. (I couldn’t take the big telescope from LO.) The first image is of Omega Centauri. The second is of a peculiar galaxy known as NGC 5128. It is also too low in the southern sky to be seen easily from LO. The third image is of the crescent moon, showing “the old moon in the new moon’s arms.” The “old moon” is lit by light shining from the sun, reflected off the earth to the moon and then back to the earth for us to see. In order to show this fainter light, the bright crescent of the moon directly illuminated by the sun had to be greatly overexposed. The picture of the moon is included to show you the relative apparent sizes of these objects in the sky. All three pictures are the same size — a square about 1/2 degree on a side. You will notice that the outer, fainter stars of Omega Centauri make it appear almost as large as the moon, whereas the galaxy NGC5128 appears considerably smaller. In all three pictures, north is up.