Failure, failure, failure, failure . . .. what a wonderful couple of evenings!

What's so great about nothing working the way you had hoped – in fact, everything going to pieces resulting in what common sense would have to declare as total failure?

1. Meeting a guy so entranced with the night sky that he's going to keep trying – and with a positive attitude – despite frustration with mechanical things that would have had me tossing everything in a heap and stomping off.
2. Meeting parents who care enough to invest some serious time in the obsession of a three-year-old.
3. Spending about eight hours in the universe under close to idyllic conditions, getting fooled (pleasantly) by Titan, and exploring once more that mysterious area on the moon known as the Aristarchus Plateau.

I'll start with the end – I could not solve the telescope problem that was brought to me; the precocious three-year-old obsessed with the planets refused to look through – even get near – my smallest telescope; my own efforts with the LX90 and video were frequently clumsy. But oh what beautiful, clear skies with balmy temperatures in the mid to upper 40s! And the ecliptic stood out so dramatically, anchored in the west by brilliant Venus and in the southeast by a nearly full moon with Saturn holding down another sector! And is it all that volcanic glass, or simply youth that makes the crater Aristarchus so bright that it seems to be one blazing eye set next to its twin, an empty eye socket named Heoroditus? And from it all I learned anew that we tend to let equipment overwhelm us. The important thing was being there under the night sky. Period. And the operative word there is "being" – anyone can park their body somewhere – but if you can live in these particular moments, ignoring minor frustrations and letting our incredible universe work its magic on you, then you’re way ahead of the game.

Feel free to stop reading now – but if curious, here are the details. Oh yeah – before I forget, boy do I still make mistakes. I was calling a nearby star "Titan," and dismissing the real thing as a nearby star just because I thought I was so smart ;-)

First, telescope woes

The first few hours came Friday night when an astronomy club member wanted me to help him set up his computerized telescope. It was a type I have limited familiarity with, set on a rugged – but frustrating – German equatorial mount. In the early days of astronomy as a hobby I laughed at anyone who used anything but an equatorial mount. These days, the mount seems more of a counter-intuitive, unnecessary curse, designed to destroy the enthusiasm of beginners. But before my visitor arrived I found the online manual and read – and reread – the pertinent pages three times. Marrying digital setting circles to this mount was not nearly as straightforward as using the same device on a DOB. When my visitor arrived I think we did figure out the correct procedure – but as we approached success each time, he grabbed the wrong axis lock in the dark - easy enough to do - and loosening it resulted each time in us having to start over.

OK – enough for one night. Deep breath and into the Observatory. The moon – approaching full – and Saturn were appealing and he wanted to see M42, though I knew it would be quite washed out. But the five-minute LX90 alignment procedure stretched into something approaching half an hour because I had not re-installed and re-ordered everything from my cloudy-night venture at a school. At my age it's really good to have everything under control and in its place before hand which is why I don’t like uprooting equipment and doing public events. (Still haven’t dared look at the corrector plate for children's fingerprints – but looking through the telescope is fine, and that's what counts!)

Once I got the LX90 going we had a good time with Saturn, took a glimpse at the Aristarchus region of the moon, particularly nice at this stage – and then went to M42 which was, indeed, washed out by the bright moonlight. No problem, I'll just hook up the video camera . , , yep, anther thing I had used at the public event and not re-ordered. In my defense I have the worst head cold I've had in a couple of years and I got two and a half hours sleep out of 48 and . . . but having something nice to do and focusing on another's problems was good for that situation. (Why does it take 65 years to learn what you should have learned in 20?)

I eventually got the video camera hooked up and working correctly – but it couldn’t compete very well with the moon either. M35 – a favorite open cluster looked fine – but Orion , the big sneak, was ducking behind the tree and house roof by the time the camera was ready.

, , , and yet I did manage to have several moments of simply being there and it was good not to be alone.

At three, eager and and knowing ? Maybe . . .

Saturday held more promise. We would try to get this stuff working again and would start in the daylight at 5 pm. At 7:30 pm I was expecting the 3-year-old – and I did not have a clue how that would go. His mother had written me:

Every week we have to literally take stacks of college-level textbooks on the solar system out from the library. Instead of a teddy bear, he sleeps with books about space. We have a collection of kid and adult DVDs on space and it is pretty much all he will watch. One of his favorite things to do is just sit outside and try to identify things in the sky.

Well, the work on the mounting had gone poorly once more and after nearly two hours I was ready to declare it a lost cause because one key bolt (and perhaps the hole it was threaded into) was stripped and not holding. It was simply impossible to make critical adjustments under such circumstances.

But I was really looking forward to meeting this little boy. I had never had someone this young at the telescope and at first I thought the video would be the best solution. But then I wasn't sure he would make the connection between sky, telescope, and what was appearing on the screen. It may just look like another DVD to him. So I was betting he would relate to the wonderful little 4.5-inch DOB Orion sells. This is a kids scope with adult powers and quality. More than once I have seen seven and eight year-olds come running across the yard, then slide on their knees up to its eyepiece. It's their size scope. So I thought if anything would work with a three-year-old, it would be this. And now in the gathering twilight he walked down the path, keeping pace with his parents, the tiniest of teddy bears clutched in one hand and some plastic bugs in another.

As he approached the scope he looked up and pointed – "Luna" he said. Oh boy. Not the word I would expect from a three-year-old. Just wait until he looks through the scope.

But he didn’t want to look at the moon. What was he interested in? Saturn and Venus. Ok. Too light for Saturn, but I turned the scope on Venus. His Mom looked. His Dad looked. And very patient and lovingly they encouraged him to look. But he was having no part of it. Why? I haven’t a clue. Partly exhaustion, I expect. Wrong time of night for a three-year old. But he seemed to almost fear the telescope – or maybe resent it in some inexplicable way? When I turned it on the moon he didn’t even want his mother to look?

Is it possible in one of those books or videos he heard or read how dangerous it was to look at the sun and perhaps had made a connection where he thought looking through a telescope was dangerous? Or was it exhaustion? Being in a strange backyard with a strange man and a strange instrument? Or am I just trying to be too rational. Hey, he's three!

I don’t know. They did stay long enough for Saturn to come out. I pointed the scope at it. Mom was properly wowed. But he didn’t want her to look and when she did he burst into tears. Dad scooped him up and that was that , , , maybe another night, maybe another year.

Funny – I guess my main concern before they arrived was that he might grab the wrong part of the telescope and leave finger prints on an eyepiece, or whatever. Bren had cautioned me to NOT tell him not to do this, but instead to redirect his hands to other objects. Anticipate, Redirect. I know something about the sky. She knows a lot more about kids. I was prepared. But, of course, this didn’t happen. Just the opposite, He wouldn’t touch it. And while I had thought a large scope might be intimidating, I didn’t expect this reaction to the little DOB..

So, chalk it up as one more learning experience.

My other visitor was still trying to get his scope to work, trying to work around the larger problem. His frustrations continued for three hours. I brought the LX90 to life again and focused on Saturn, the moon, and took a quick side trip to Gamma Leonis.

The Moon, Saturn and Titan

Even at 13,3 days the moon has some wonderful sites to offer,, And in the still air –seeing was above average – Saturn captivated me anew – and also fooled me. Stuck in my head was this little note from Sky and telescope web site:

A small telescope will always show Titan, Saturn's largest moon. This evening and tomorrow evening Titan is three or four ring-lengths to Saturn's east. A 6-inch telescope will begin to show the orange color of its atmospheric haze.

Not stuck in my head was the date. The note didn’t refer to last night, but to this coming Wednesday night, April 4! But see where the star marked "NOT Titan" in this simulation from Starry Nights is? Well, that's roughly where Titan will be April 4. And me in my blissful ignorance saw it there last night and announced to Bren and my other visitor that it was Titan and the bright object below Saturn was a Star. Yep. Get tour dates right Greg!

I did a little better with Aristarchus. This is one of half-a-dozen favorite locations on the moon – first because it presents a mystery: Why is it so bright? In fact, why is it the brightest large crater on the moon? Every source I check talks about it's brightness, but few give you answers. The general opinion seems to be that it's bright because it is young. Got it! It hasn’t weathered yet.

Weathered? Yes, space-weathered. It really does happen. Something d to do with the solar wind and cosmic rays that over the course of hundreds of millions of years turns raw, white scars from asteroid impacts dark. So what's that tell us? Well, that the crater is very young. In fact, you would think brightest equals youngest. But there's some conflicting evidence. There are a tad too many small craters laid on top of Aristarchus for it to be all that young. See, one way things on the moon – and some other planets – are dated is by the number of craters.

So, for example, Aristarchus is thought to be young, but older than Tycho, the large crater with the dominant ray system near the Moon's south pole. So how young is young? Maybe 500 million years versus 200 million, give or take a few dozen million or so.

Thent here's the matter of the plateau. As I rwrote earlier, http://www.giveyoujoy.net/awe/blog/archives/2006/01/seeing_red_hey.html this thing has a real ruddy tone to it. I didn’t notice it last night because I was using a moon filter on the LX90. But if you would like to see it, take a look at this Astronomy Picture of the Day. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020913.html The color apparently comes from a surface that probably has iron-rich, tiny, volcanic glass beads on it.

But here's a question that Charles Wood raises: Why aren’t there any rays from Aristarcus ejecta on the plateau? Could it be the plateau is actually younger than Aristarchus? That doesn't make sense. Or is it just covered with fairly recent volcanic ash from the Cobra Head? Well, maybe next time we go to the moon . . . .

Update: I ordered a Hyperion Zoom from a guy n Japan who was selling one used. This is a matter of instant gratification. The two places I know that carry them are out and awaiting a shipment that is at least three weeks out. So counting shipping I paid close to new price for this one so I could have it next week – I really do like these zoom lenses ;-)

Update: Just went to the Orion site to steal an image of the 4.5-inch DOB. They're advertising a new, simple, alt-az mount with these words:

Here's an elegantly simple, easy-to-operate telescope mount that frees you up to just enjoy the view rather than struggle with the equipment. It's sturdy and "grab-and-go" portable, with silky smooth motion. For stargazing or daytime scoping, the VersaGo is a dream.

It was an Orion GEM mount and computer system installation my friend was battling with these last two nights and it was frustrating both of us = far from simple. Interesting that they are now pushing a high end (this thing is pricey at about $370) version of simplicity. I am in complete agreement with their objective - "just enjoy the view rather than struggle with the equipment." And I prefer this approach to simplicity rather than the computerized one. But I haven't a clue whether their new system will live up to its billing. Their initial online ad was promoting a Newtonian reflector with this new mount, but calling it as "refractor." Wonder how long it will take them to fix that one ;-)

Comments, suggestions, enlightenment? Drop me a note: gstone@umassd.edu