Fly the Friendly Skies

 

Well our favorite readers, anyone who knows me knows I love to learn. Terry has the same ambition to learn all he can about topics that interest him. Tonight Terry and I had an interesting view into space, via telescopes. Large telescopes that captured images of galaxies far, far away that we cannot see with the naked eye. It may not sound interesting or special since all of us can look up pictures and get information about galactic details or planetary photos and data, but it was beautiful up close and we saw it live. 

Terry noticed an event happening at Umpqua College at their planetarium. It was an evening filled with the ability to peer into our skies with the strong telescopes they have in their capable hands. I figured we would all have to take turns looking into the lens of these large telescopes to locate items in space we wanted to see. But it wasn't. 

Umpqua College not only has the large telescopes to locate all of these amazing stars, galaxies, and planets, but also the only all-digital system in the Pacific Northwest to capture the amazing space photos and put them on a screen for all to see at once. The listing said they had the capability to see Saturn and Neptune and we were in. That's all it took to pique our interest. The event began at 9:00 PM Friday, August 30, 2024 and we were headed there early. Dinner at 8:00 and off we went. 

Driving to the top of the hill where the planetarium was located took some time. We were so lost. Terry brought up a map, but it turned out to be fairly useless since we were two senior citizens trying to find something on a map, in the dark, without signs saying what was what. I mean, finding an entire building is difficult, you know? 

Terry finally figured it out and we arrived to see a group of folks sitting in chairs and on blankets on the lawn in the dark. Awesome. Now we had to stumble through the darkness to locate a place to sit. Terry didn't bring his chair either, so it made it difficult for him to sit in our little chairs that sit close to the ground. But we managed. 

There was a man operating things outside the planetarium. He had the screen all set up and the images were coming through clearly. Descriptions were given for each galaxy as it was seen live. A laser beam was directing our attention to where the galaxy was located in the nighttime sky to add to the learning process. Below are the photos I was able to get during the show. Now forgive some blurred photos as it is in darkness, with lights glaring toward us, and that hardly ever comes out perfect. 

This was the spiral galaxy, appropriately named. 

This photo is a shot of the galaxy up above that has come in clearer. The telescopes take the photo, but take a lot of photos of the same thing to allow the layering to produce an amazing shot. These telescopes are truly a technological advancement that I find remarkable to be able to get photos of our skies. Now if only we could get a clear shot of Aunt Edna at the family reunion ...

I found this one to be jaw dropping. 

The red mark shooting out of the top of the galaxy is the red pointer he was using. This is a good photo of gases that linger around the stars. 

Each of these photos are taken within seconds of each other, like I said. Each layer adds to the clarity. This is another showing the gases in and around the galaxy. 

I found this one to be quite interesting too. Looks like a large frog. 

Another one of my favorites. 

These look like they are "just photos" they are showing, but we are seeing these live by telescopes. 

There were several children spaced in between parents. The kids remained interested and were the first to ask quite a few questions. One of the questions they asked was, "Where is this galaxy in our sky?" The lasers would come out to pinpoint where these galaxies were. Very informational session, I must say. 

This galaxy was named The Barbell Galaxy because of the shape. 

Pictured here is a ring galaxy. I thought this was pretty interesting. 

Another barbell galaxy or apple core galaxy. He said they were known as both. Apple core due to the red on either end, with an image shaped like the apple had been eaten out of the middle. 

A remarkable image of the apple core or barbell galaxy. 

The night ended without seeing Saturn or Neptune. Our hosts made it sound as if the skies were not clear enough to pick up the two planets. It was suggested we attend next month's event to see if we can get a good view of them. But the night ended with a well known galaxy, known as Andromeda. 

The telescopes were still trying to layer shots to get a good image of Andromeda ...

And there we go. In all of its spectacular beauty and stunning light, Andromeda. 

We thank you for joining us tonight on our trip to the Umpqua College Planetarium or Paul Morgan Observatory as it is named. For more information on these star gazing events at the planetarium, click here. 

With the Paul Morgan Observatory being the only all-digital observatory in the Pacific Northwest, the view is great up here! Thank you for joining us on our star gazing night. Now fasten your seatbelts and fly the friendly skies with us. Take care of yourselves!