Have you ever been far away from city lights and noticed the stars like diamonds in the sky? Many people have, and have been deeply moved and amazed by the experience. Touching the Universe chronicles the adventures of author Steve Coe as he shares his love of the night sky. Coe is willing to travel far and wide to view new vistas of the universe. Each chapter in Touching the Universe contains Coe's observations of the night sky on each of the twenty nights he recalls in detail here. To set the scene for each of the nights, he discusses what led up to choosing each night; then he explains what he observed and learned as he perfected his observation skills. Share with Coe the joy of getting away from the city lights and setting up a telescope under dark skies. Follow a comet as it brightens and forms a tail; see a star cluster or nebula that will take your breath away. Viewing the stars and galaxies that inhabit the night sky provides peace and calm in a way that isn't available anywhere else.

Touching the Universe

My Favorite Twenty Nights Viewing the SkyBy Steven R. Coe

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Steven R. Coe
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-0247-4

Contents

Introduction................................................................................1Chapter 1: November 10, 1979 Getting Started...............................................4Chapter 2: September 26, 1981 Twin Arrows, Arizona.........................................15Chapter 3: May 26, 1984 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference..............................27Chapter 4: April 11, 1986 First Australia Trip.............................................40Chapter 5: June 27, 1987 Sedona: Maynard and Jean Clark's House............................54Chapter 6: September 17, 1988 Lowell Observatory...........................................64Chapter 7: July 2, 1989 Saturn Occults the Star 28 Sagitarrii..............................74Chapter 8: March 9, 1991 Buckeye Park: Observing Herschel 400..............................82Chapter 9: June 18, 1993 Grand Canyon North................................................91Chapter 10: July 18, 1994 Jupiter Struck by Comet SL9......................................103Chapter 11: December 29, 1994 Sentinel with Pierre's Twenty-Inch f/5.......................110Chapter 12: March 27, 1995 Comet Hyakutake.................................................122Chapter 13: October 22, 1995 The Ultimate Star Party.......................................129Chapter 14: April 12, 1997 Comet Hale-Bopp Public Viewing..................................141Chapter 15: February 26, 1998 Eclipse Cruise: SS Dawn Princess.............................148Chapter 16: October 17, 1999 A Night in the Observatory....................................159Chapter 17: November 18, 2001 Leonid Meteor Storm..........................................166Chapter 18: April 14, 2002 Messier Marathon................................................171Chapter 19: September 27, 2003 First Five-Mile Meadow Trip.................................179Chapter 20: April 1, 2005 The Second Australia Trip........................................192Chapter 21: 2010 My Telescopes through the Years...........................................205Chapter 22 The Five Things It Has Taken Me Thirty-Three Years to Learn.....................226

Chapter One

November 10, 1979

* * *

Getting Started

The night sky has always interested me. Even as a child those points of light in the sky were a source of fascination. Some of my best memories from childhood are of going fishing with my grandfather, Fred Rainey. "Pop," as I called him, taught me that the constellations would show me which direction we were traveling in. There was a "North Star," and it even had pointer stars to make certain you knew where it was located. There was also a "South Star"; it was called Antares, and it resided within a giant fish hook that also looked like a scorpion. When Antares moved beyond the western horizon, a giant hunter (Pop said he was a fisherman) called Orion rose up in the east to take its place. Pop was my hero; he could use the stars to steer the boat home. That was amazing stuff to a six-year-old boy.

I learned more stars and constellations when I joined the Boy Scouts and went after an astronomy merit badge. It took a while to get used to the strange names for the stars. Many of them are Arabic in origin, and it took some time to pronounce and use those names correctly. But I managed and eventually got the merit badge.

By this time it was the sixties and the space age had begun. I remember going outside at the time given in the newspaper and watching a Gemini capsule travel overhead. That tiny dot of light contained two men. Truly amazing! Like so many other people, I remember exactly where I was when the first landing on the Moon occurred, watching on my parent's television as those distorted black-and-white images showed humanity traveling out into the solar system for the first time. It was an amazing feat, and I believed that it would change the world for the better. Ah, the naiveté of a teenager.

Because my draft board insisted, I joined the navy in 1970. My father was a career naval aviator (I was born in Pensacola, Florida, the largest naval air station in the world), so I knew what I was getting into. Just because I was curious about it, I decided to become a submarine sailor. The good news is that the navy kept their part of the bargain and I got a good education as a nuclear power technician and a chance to see the world. I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, and we traveled to the West Coast, Guam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. After all, we did need to keep an eye on the Russians. And they felt likewise about us.

After six years as a sailor, I decided to muster out and get a college education. Arizona State University was my choice for two reasons. First, the state of Arizona is covered in telescopes. It is dry and clear, so the stars are beautiful and there is a lot to see. Second, two of my shipmates, P. J. Boyle and Ray Frazier, were going to attend that same university and we could share expenses. Oh yes, and we could also party together. One of those was more important than the other, but I don't remember the order right now.

I started out at ASU to be a professional astronomer, but it did not work out as planned. I quickly found that many astronomers were mathematicians who wanted to measure the universe, not look at it. Twice I traveled to Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson, to help one of the professors. It was made clear to me that there was no place to look through those instruments; they simply gathered data for later analysis. But I did not want to take measurements; I wanted to look for myself.

The most fun I had with astronomy at ASU was as a teaching aide in the astronomy lab. We set up telescopes and showed folks the sky from the top of the physics building. It certainly was not dark, but we could view the Moon and planets. It helped to introduce other students to what they were learning about in the beginning astronomy courses.

But I was frustrated, so I changed my major course of study to communications. This included courses in journalism, radio, and television. It all turned out for the best. Learning to write clearly and concisely is a skill that proved worthwhile almost right away.

Answering an advertisement in the Sunday paper, I wound up with a job at the DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix. As a professor there for twenty-six years, I trained many technicians. These students graduated from DeVry and had their opportunity to travel around the world, raise a family, and enjoy life. I am proud of that. Many of the astronomical adventures in this book were undertaken while I was a professor at DeVry. The money I made and the time off I enjoyed made it all possible.

My first telescope was an eight-inch Newtonian, a simple scope that is easy to care for and I found fun to use. It uses a carefully polished mirror at the bottom of a tube that reflects the light to another mirror that bounces the light out to the observer's eye. This mirror configuration was invented by Isaac Newton over three hundred years ago, but a good design is still a good design.

The other thing that got me on the track toward really enjoying my time out under dark skies was joining an astronomy club. The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) in Phoenix is filled with people who just love to get out under...