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[RobbW]

Well, fellow members, it looks like this CA **points two thumbs at self** is going to have to get over his fear of public speaking in short order. I am currently planning and preparing for my first outreach presentation in October of this year.

May family and I are going on our first Disney cruise sailing out of Port Canaveral on 10/22. (You can wave Bon Voyage to us at www.portcanaveralwebcam.com). We are forum members over on www.DISboards.com, a forum site for Disney fanatics. There is a large contingent of fellow DISers who will be on the same cruise as us. Apparently, it is customary for DISers to schedule meet-ups and events for members to get together and hang out while on the cruise. I opened my big mouth and asked if anyone else would be interested in stargazing, seeing as how we will be out in the middle of a big dark ocean hundreds of miles from any light-polluting city. Turns out there are MANY who are interested. Since I'm the one who brought up the subject, I have become the de facto organizer and presenter for the event.

So far, a preliminary date and time has been set. We will be getting together on Wednesday night on October 26. As long as the weather is cooperative, it should be a great night for viewing. Not only will we be on a cruise ship out in the middle of the dark ocean, but we will have a new moon that night. Not only a new moon, but it will have set before sunset that night, as well. So, even if it wasn't a new moon that night, the sky would still be unaffected by the moon anyway.

Now, I have been in communication with Disney Cruise Lines (DCL) to get information about planning for this event and also to ask question about what we can and cannot do for it. I have already been given permission by the ships' officers for the responsible use of a green laser pointer during the presentation. Unfortunately, DCL has been a little less forthcoming with info on the nighttime lighting on the ship. Specifically, I have asked if it would be possible to have lights in the immediate vicinity of the event either dimmed or turned off. So far, I have only been told that the official response is that ship lighting must remain on at all times for the safety of the ship and its guests and cast members. It seems that no matter how I ask this question of them, they seem to think that I want them to turn off all the ship's exterior lights for our little outing. I really don't know what is so hard to understand about the words "immediate vicinity."

Oh well, I hope we can work through this before the cruise sets sail. In that effort, I have been provided (by a fellow DIS member) the direct contact information for the Group Events coordinator for DCL. This fellow DIS member is a priest who has sailed with Disney before. In fact, he has held Sunday mass on board the ships in the past and is currently scheduled to hold mass during our cruise, too. This contact of his has been instrumental in getting everything set up: space, seating, microphones, even a blurb about it in the Disney Navigator (the daily newsletter that is distributed to all cruisers to let them know what is going on). I have contacted this person and am hopeful that she will help me straighten things out and set things up so they are conducive to a night of gazing at the stars.

Also, our friend Audrey Fischer has been in contact with me about possibly kicking this stargazing event up a notch. She wants to see if it would be possible to register the Disney ship as a StarPark with the Global StarPark Network. That would be pretty cool! I have also asked her for any recommendations on handouts I could distribute to the group on light pollution. Anything to help spread the word!

So, now on to planning the actual presentation. This is where I need a lot of help and work. I am currently spending a lot of time virtually gazing at the night skies from our cruise ship. By that, I mean I am using Stellarium and some other digital tools to review what will be visible in the night sky during the cruise. The cruise is from 10/22/11 - 10/29/11. We will be sailing in the Caribbean with stops in St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. My stargazing presentation is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, 10/26/11, around 8:00pm. That time of the year and at that latitude, the sun should have already set around 6:00 pm. So, it should be plenty dark by the time of my event.

I am trying to put together a list of the best possible targets for the evening. I am trying to keep the list focused on naked eye objects with maybe a couple easy bino objects thrown in for those who are bringing theirs. I will need to not only know where in the night sky these objects will be located (and actually be able to find them), but I also want to be able to provide interesting and/or fun facts about the objects we'll be looking at. I want to try to make this event as fun as possible, rather than some dry, boring speech about stars. I'll try to inject some humor when and wherever is possible!

Anyway, I just thought I post on something I was up to these days. If anyone has ideas, advice, suggestions, recommendations, or commentary they feel would help me with my presentation, I will be all ears. I'll keep y'all up to date as this progresses along and my event gets closer. Thanks for listening!

[patrickm]

Hey Robb,
How cool!!! That will be a ton of fun. Even small travel binos will give anybody a sleepless night down south under dark skies. I'd recommend some southern hemisphere visual/bino object. Too bad the spectacular Omega Centauri, Coal Sack, Crux, and Running Chicken will be morning objects (and if you don't drag out of bed to see them at least one morning, I will personally issue the astro beat down), but the Magellanic Clouds WILL be visible and will be naked eye visible, too, since Magellan didn't have no telescope.

Aside from that, I'd pick some constellations and their stories, Orion, Andromeda, nebulosity around Cygnus, Pleiades, Hyades, Owl. That should be plenty! Boat will be moving, so that's a factor.

Have a great time and I look forward to following your adventure.
p

[Paulie pchris00]

The Titanic went down during a new Moon, ya know...

Of course, I don't think you need to worry about icebergs down in the Caribbean.

As for the sky, Orion should be rising around midnight by late October. Not so sure about anything further south than that. Too bad Scorpius and Sagittarius will be gone by then.Will try to investigat further, but good luck, and enjoy the cruise.

[dapple]

My secret source for outreach presentations is this webpage: rocketmime.com/astronomy/index.html

It's geared for northern viewing (and the Boy Scout Merritt Badge), but it's got a great mix of historical and scientific info in it. I usually mix and match some of the tours to fit the month and the attention span of my audience. I don't read it like a script, but rework it for the way I talk.

One thing that I've seen posted to other forums about stargazing on a boat: it rocks, in the side to side sense. Bino viewing is probably OK, but any instrument that needs a mount is probably not going to work so well. Though this advice was given for one of those smaller boats.

Good luck! And practice a few times...nothing beats down stage fear and improves flow and cadence better than rehearsing again and again. I'm sure there's some willing "victims" around here somewhere...

[RobbW]

Thanks for the link (just bookmarked it) and the advice. I'll definitely study up and try to find some "deserving" victims to practice on. I will be attending the Astrofest Outreach program at Starved Rock near Peoria, IL next weekend. Audrey Fischer has offered to help coach me a bit for my first solo presentation. She said there will be others attending that she knows would be happy to help me, as well.

Aug 20, 2011 11:18:55 GMT -6 dapple said:

My secret source for outreach presentations is this webpage: rocketmime.com/astronomy/index.html

It's geared for northern viewing (and the Boy Scout Merritt Badge), but it's got a great mix of historical and scientific info in it. I usually mix and match some of the tours to fit the month and the attention span of my audience. I don't read it like a script, but rework it for the way I talk.

One thing that I've seen posted to other forums about stargazing on a boat: it rocks, in the side to side sense. Bino viewing is probably OK, but any instrument that needs a mount is probably not going to work so well. Though this advice was given for one of those smaller boats.

Good luck! And practice a few times...nothing beats down stage fear and improves flow and cadence better than rehearsing again and again. I'm sure there's some willing "victims" around here somewhere...

[RobbW]

Aug 20, 2011 11:18:55 GMT -6 dapple said:

One thing that I've seen posted to other forums about stargazing on a boat: it rocks, in the side to side sense. Bino viewing is probably OK, but any instrument that needs a mount is probably not going to work so well. Though this advice was given for one of those smaller boats.

I just plan to bring my eyes, a couple pairs of binos to share, and my green laser pointer. My scope would be too cumbersome to travel with and ineffective on a moving boat anyway.

[RobbW]

Okay all you fellow CAers! My Disney cruise is coming up fast! Only 18 more days until I set sail. With time drawing nigh, I have a lot to get done to get prepared for this most exciting adventure. As I detailed in my OP, I'll be doing a stargazing presentation one of the nights on board the ship. I'm still waiting to hear back from my contact with Disney Cruise Lines to see if the ship will cooperate with dimming or extinguishing lights on the ship in the immediate vicinity of the presentation. If not, then I'll just have to make due and do my best.

Since I'm running out of time fast, I was hoping to recruit some of you and use your knowledge to piece together a custom viewing list for my presentation. I have a rough list put together of the brightest, most interesting objects that should be visible on the date/time/location of the presentation. However, I could really use some advice on adding objects to my list and tweaking it to make it as fun, entertaining and educational as possible.

What I would like to hear from my fellow CAers is advice on objects that can be seen with the naked eye. I will be bringing a couple pairs of binos on the cruise, and some other attendees said they will bring theirs. However, the majority of the stargazers probably will not have binos. So I want to keep my list geared towards naked-eye viewing. I would like to focus on: easily-recognizable constellations, planets, bright stars, and bright DSOs. Targets should be easy to find, recognize, and view with the naked eye (or low-power binos if we run out of naked eye targets). Also, I need to put together notes/stories/myths or anything fun and interesting to say about these objects. I want to provide my participants with useful information about the targets, but I don't want to bore them to death with details or text-book synopses. I want to keep this light and entertaining. In my head, I'm imagining the rather comedic presentation I experienced at the "Night Sky Live" show at the Adler during my recent Adler After Dark visit (for those of you who have seen this show).

Here is the list of objects I intend to include so far:

Ursa Major
Ursa Minor
Sagittarius
Cygnus
Cassiopeia
Hercules
Jupiter
M31 Andromeda
M45 Pleiades
Polaris
Vega
Deneb
Altair
Albireo
Arcturus
Mizar
M13 Hercules Cluster
ET Cluster
Beehive Cluster
General Milky Way observations

Like I said, it's just a rough list in draft form so far. The presentation will be at 8:00pm on Wednesday, October 26. I'm expecting the actual presentation to last between 30-45 minutes with a Q&A session after that followed by general non-narrated stargazing after that. The general coordinates of the ship at that time should be around 19.214825 and -66.078783. Depending on the location of the presentation on the top deck, we should have a clear view all the way to the horizon. Some of us will have binos, and I will have a high-powered GLP for pointing out objects. I have already been clear to use said GLP by Disney Cruise Lines.

Thanks for any help, everyone!!!

[patrickm]

Your list is good. Too bad Omega Centauri will not be up during your trip. Teapot/Sag will be really high. Just scanning with travel binos, you should see tons of nebulosity.

Andromeda, Pleiades, & Hercules Cluster should be naked eye visible. Double Cluster also. The comet? Who knows? In that dark of a sky, many things become possible. It will be just to the right of Rasalhague, which is easily spotted.

Once on ship, a good night out with your list beforehand should allow you to eliminate stuff & probably find others that pop out.

Here's a great pre-packaged tour you can borrow from:
my.execpc.com/60/B3/culp/astronomy/Fall/fall.html

Looking forward to your report.

[RobbW]

Patrick, that is absolutely perfect!!! I will definitely be studying that tour hardcore before my cruise. It really spells everything out and tells the stories! Me likey!!! Thank you!

[magic612]

Hi Robb,

You asked in the thread with my video if you could use that - YES! Of course. Feel free.

A few thoughts about your list:

Ursa Major - help people "point" to Polaris, and "arc" to Arcturus from the Big Dipper, and note that Ursa Major is larger than just the dipper too.
Ursa Minor - Depends on how well you can see the handle; a lot of this can be dim except Polaris and Kocab
Sagittarius - Point out the Teapot asterism. Then point out the spout; note that this is looking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy
Cygnus - Couple this with Deneb, Altair and Vega. Talk a little about light years; I just say one light year is about 6 TRILLION miles, and that that distance is hard for me to fathom. So I just think of it in terms of miles. Vega is in our "stellar neighborhood" at about 17 light years (miles) away. Altair is similarly close, at 25 light years. Deneb, though nearly as bright as the other two, is 3200 light years (miles) away. Neat distance thought-experiment.
Cassiopeia - This constellation, with Cepheus, Perseus and Andromeda, can make for some nice mythology, and all of these are relatively easy to point out and find.
Hercules - I'd skip this, since you won't really be able to show M13
Jupiter - Obviously, include this one.
M31 Andromeda - MAYBE, but definitely include Andromeda.
M45 Pleiades - YES.
Polaris - yes, see above
Vega - again, see above with Cygnus
Deneb - ditto
Altair - ditto
Albireo - I'd skip this. Binocs won't show the pair split. You'd need a scope. It sucsk to say, "It's a beautiful double star" and then not be able to see it!!
Arcturus - This is another good distance one - 37 light years.
Mizar - THIS is a good double star, because it's both naked eye and can be binoc-visible.
M13 Hercules Cluster - it will be a faint smudge in binocs. I say no.
ET Cluster - again, no. I think that really needs a scope.
Beehive Cluster - REALLY hard to find since Cancer is dim. Mars made a great pointer, but it leaves the Beehive by Oct 4 or 5.
General Milky Way observations - sure

To add:

Point out Mu Cephei in Cepheus - this is another powerhouse star but FAR away (about 1900 light years), and in binocs really will look orange. Also known as the Garnet Star
Double Cluster - MAYBE, for those who stick around and are really interested in binocs. Gamma to Delta Cass, then another 7 degrees towards Mirfak. Shows up, but may not impress, necessarily.
Mirfak (Alpha Persei) - there is a nice cluster around this star, the Alpha Persei cluster. It's large, but not necessarily riddled with stars like Pleiades. Play that one by ear - errr... eyes.
Hyades - You may have a clear enough horizon to show these if you're pointing out the Pleiades. Aldebaran makes a nice bright "bullseye" for it, helping binocular viewers. Plus, it really DOES need binocs to see, and not a scope anyway.
Capella - another bright star, 6th brightest night sky, 3rd brightest in north. Only 42 light years away.

Hope that helps - you'll do great!!! Just make sure you practice. ;D

[magic612]

Robb - forgot to add one: Mira. Very near Jupiter right now, and at magnitude 2, easy to spot. LONG period variable red-giant star - first one discovered, actually. I'll have a video of it finished before you leave, so you'll be all kinds of knowledgeable about it.

[RobbW]

Thank you, Dave. That is a LOT of helpful info. I just hope I can remember it all. OK, I'll whittle my list down some by removing those objects that will not be visible with the naked eye or binos. I'll drop the star clusters as those will not be visible. If many people bring binos, then I may try to point out a couple of them.

My GLP died on me at the last star party I attended. So, I have a new, more powerful one on a slow boat from China headed this way. I will use it for general pointing during my presentation, and for those who bring binos, I'm hoping it will help them find objects by following my beam in their binos up to the target. I can't wait to use this GLP during my presentation on the cruise. I can only imagine it will probably cause my audience to grow as guests on the ship try to figure out where this laser beam is coming from. Who knows, I could end up being the "star" attraction that night!

[magic612]

Oct 4, 2011 8:57:41 GMT -6 RobbW said:

Thank you, Dave. That is a LOT of helpful info. I just hope I can remember it all.

There's an easier way: Bring a clipboard with info on it (also looks a tad more professional than some random papers in your hand). It will keep you on point, with lots of extra info in case you need it - distances, # of stars in clusters, types for each star, etc.

Oct 4, 2011 8:57:41 GMT -6 RobbW said:

I'll drop the star clusters as those will not be visible. If many people bring binos, then I may try to point out a couple of them.

Trust me, the Hyades and Pleiades will NOT disappoint people who train binoculars on them. Explain how they can now see stars that are 15x - 40x fainter than they can see with their naked eye, simply because the binocs are gathering more light than their pupils.

Oct 4, 2011 8:57:41 GMT -6 RobbW said:

I can only imagine it will probably cause my audience to grow as guests on the ship try to figure out where this laser beam is coming from. Who knows, I could end up being the "star" attraction that night!

I'm betting you will be!! ;D

[RobbW]

I don't know much about the Hyades, but I'll definitely keep it on my list, as well as the Pleiades. I certainly was not going to drop them. Sorry if I alluded to doing so.

[magic612]

Oct 4, 2011 10:39:43 GMT -6 RobbW said:

I don't know much about the Hyades, but I'll definitely keep it on my list, as well as the Pleiades. I certainly was not going to drop them. Sorry if I alluded to doing so.

My bad - I knew what you meant, I was simply saying that people will "ooh" and "ahh" over those two, and the others will be faint smudges in binoculars, so they won't even know what they've "missed."

The Hyades is a great cluster for binocs - even very rich-field scopes have trouble capturing it all at one time. The 5 to 7 degree field of view of binoculars picks it up and frames it nicely.

Here's some info -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyades_(star_cluster)

It's another "distance" one to talk about too. Aldebaran is 65 light years away; the Hyades 150, even though Aldebaran is same "line of sight."

[Paulie pchris00]

If you can avoid deck lighting, and I know that was an issue, I would keep the Double Cluster, M31, and the Beehive on the observing list. They should all pop out nicely as long as you don't have to contend with glare. It will have to be a judgement call once you can gauge the limiting magnitude on deck.

And for the record, CA's are no longer allowed to call the Hyades Cluster by that name. ;D
elenin.paranomalo.us/2011/10/new-taurus-asterism-the-gibson-flying-v-constellation/

[patrickm]

I vote for Hyades as well if it's up.

Kids today could give a flying frak about an old guitar. I think.

[jeremy]

I'm wondering if you have checked to see if any satellites or ISS will be visible? People often think that is cool when you can predict when one will pass over, and there are several visible with the naked eye, especially in those dark skies.

[-=CROMAN=-]

Oct 5, 2011 7:36:43 GMT -6 patrickm said:

I vote for Hyades as well if it's up.

Kids today could give a flying frak about an old guitar. I think.

Lol... apparently you are not around many kids. I say we put it to a test and see.

[RobbW]

Oct 5, 2011 7:38:37 GMT -6 jeremy said:

I'm wondering if you have checked to see if any satellites or ISS will be visible? People often think that is cool when you can predict when one will pass over, and there are several visible with the naked eye, especially in those dark skies.

I checked for ISS flyovers, but none are to be visible, sadly. In fact, there will be no visible ISS passes during the entire week that I'm on the cruise. There WILL be ISS passes, but all of them will be in the Earth's shadow when they go over the ship. I already checked the extended schedule on Heavens-Above.com. Too bad.

I wanted to include the ISS passes in a special crusie gift I am making for a bunch of fellow DISboards.com members that will be on the same cruise as me. DISboards.com is a forum for Disney fans, fanatics, and those freakishly addicted to all things Disney. There is a special section devoted tot he Disney Cruise Line. They have threads dedicated to those DISboard members who will be sailing on the same cruise. It's a way to get to know your fellow shipmates before the cruise. Well, they have this thing they do called the FE Exchange. It's kind of like a Secret Santa gift exchange where each participant makes or buys gifts to deliver to each of the other participants' cabins sometime during the cruise.

I made a personalized passport for each member. It's called the "Passport to the Night Sky." It is modeled after a real US passport. However, instead of pages where you get stamps for each country you visit, each page is devoted to a day/night on the cruise. One half of the page lists the day/date, the ship's approximate coordinates at 8pm each night, the rise and set times for the Sun, Moon, and visible planets. Also, I include a "Celestial Object of the Day". I wrote up about a paragraph of information about each daily object and provided a sky chart to show where to find the object in the sky. There are also blank pages in the back of the passports for the kids to get character autographs during the cruise.

I had originally included a section on each day's page for info on the ISS passes. However, when I went to H-A.com to get the times and locations of the passes, it stated there were no visible passes during the entire cruise. I was pretty bummed, and had to redesign a good portion of my passports to remove the stuff about the ISS.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robb what about Iridiums?

And we got that new Chinese space station too!

[RobbW]

Yeah, a little too late now to add anything additional to the passports. I already have them all printed out and glued together. Besides, I was running out of room on the pages for all the info I wanted to include.

However, I will look up any flyovers for the night of my stargazing presentation and point those out. I know from the CA events how those are always crowd pleasers!

[magic612]

Robb, here's that Mira video I told you I was making:



Lots of info to talk about for an easy to spot 2nd (well, maybe close to 3rd by then) magnitude star. Hope that helps - and have fun! That's what matters most.

[patrickm]

Robb, how did this go? I don't remember reading a report from you upon return. Did I miss? Obviously you managed not to fall overboard. WTG!

[atomant]

Same here Robb, how was observing on cruise?
Looking for some good reads on a cloudy night.

[RobbW]

Yeah, I guess I kind of fell down on the job with the after-report, huh? Can't believe I forgot about that. I'll have to get back on here one of these nights and catch y'all up on the cruise. Not tonight, though. I'm in a bit of a food coma after a long Easter/birthday (my daughter's 6th) weekend and can barely think straight, let alone write a whimsical narrative!

[atomant]

Look forward to good read. Curious if you were able to ask crew dim lights.

[patrickm]

Dude!

[RobbW]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... I'll add the write-up to my already long list of things to do before the new baby arrives! Y'all will be lucky if I can even remember the details. I AM getting older, ya know!

[atomant]

ZZzzzzzzzzz...........