Grove City College Physics

Comet C/2020 F3 (a.k.a., NEOWISE) from the GCC Observatory the evening of 2020-07-13. Stacked 10 exposures with ISO200 and exposure times of 50s. Will be adding more pics of NEOWISE in the coming days as I figure out the stacking software. FYI for those in the western PA area: NEOWISE is now best viewed in the evenings starting around 10PM until 11PM or so once the Sun has set well below the horizon and the northwestern sky is sufficiently dark for you to see it with the na...ked eye. It can be located slightly above the horizon in the WNW direction at about an altitude of 15 degrees (this is about the width of your clenched fist held at arms length). You will need to find a spot that has an unobstructed view of the sky towards the NW (in other words, a flat horizon). Looking towards the NW at the glow of the Sun after it sets, pan your eyes to the right of the Sun's glow and scan for a faint fuzzy object just above the horizon. You will need to let you eyes adapt to the dark for a good 20 or 30 minutes to make it easier to spot and located in a reasonably dark location. In the coming days it will get farther from the Sun on its way out of the Solar System. As a result, it will climb higher above the horizon at 10PM from day to day, making it more easy to see in the sunset glow. However, it will also continue to get fainter and more difficult to see with the naked eye and likely disappear from naked-eye view within about a week. The "sweet spot" to get the best chance to view are the remaining evenings this week. Binoculars or a small telescope should make it much easier to see. Came across a good video that better describes where to located it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=y8DHygDiVTM And a cool visualization of where its currently located in the Solar System here: https://spacein3d.com/asteroid/neowise You can also view pictures of NEOWISE taken by GCC physics professor Glenn Marsch here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sphericalbull/ Good hunting!

Solstice sunset at the GCCO.

A time-lapse of 250x100s unfiltered exposures of the comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) taken from the 0.5m telescope at Grove City College Observatory. Frames start at UTC 2020-04-03T01:34:00 and end at UTC 2020-04-03T08:39:22

uh oh! FB only allows a maximum live view of 1 hour... hang tight i'll get it back

The dome is open, the skies are clear, and your tour guide is caffeinated. Who's ready?

Concussion Lab with PA Cyber

If you haven't heard by now, the planet Mercury will be transiting the Sun beginning around 7:30am EST and lasting for about 5 hours on Monday 11/11. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the GCC Observatory is calling for cloudy skies with a chance of snow, so no live stream will be available. However, if you're interested in watching a stream of the event check out the link below for suggestions. I highly suggest the stream from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite because there's no chance of it being clouded out! Also, be aware that web traffic to these streaming sites may be high and you might experience significant lag in the stream. This page recommends 5 streams to check out, so if you're having trouble connecting to one of them, try another! Enjoy!