What happened to the posts?

I blame Pam for this. Never teach your wife about "The Facebook", if you only have one computer at home. She has been monopolizing it for 2 months. Well...not entirely. I've been spending alot of time posting at our sister site www.astronomyisrael.com, which deals with many of my adventures starting my astronomy tour business and happenings in the sky around Mitzpe Ramon. Give it a try. It's not as daunting as it sounds. :)

"The Night of the Shooting Stars"

The night of August 12-13 is always the peak of the Perseids meteor shower. It is a big event in Mitzpe Ramon because our skies are so dark and clear. Thousands of people descend on the area in and around Mitzpe Ramon. The city sponsors a party at the football (soccer) field with music and a free glass of wine for everyone.

The name of this night always reminds me of an Italian movie of the same name (in English), but called The Night of San Lorenzo in the original Italian. Italian folklore has it that on this night all our dreams are fulfilled, perhaps also the source of the English, "wishing upon a star", which is always a falling star. There are so many stars that fall from the sky this night, enough so that all of our wishes and dreams can come true. Unfortunately, I remember being quite depressed by this movie with the charming name, which came out in 1982, because it was about the Germans in Italy in WWII.

However, all of our wishes for a satisfying meteor shower did come true, since it was quite a spectacular sight from Mitzpe Ramon. We counted 62 meteors per hour at the peak between 2:30AM and 3:30AM, and since these are not evenly distributed but cluster together, we enjoyed quite a show. You can read more details about the shower on www.astronomyisrael.com.

The night began in beautiful fashion with the trio of planets - Venus, Mars and Saturn - adding the three-day old crescent moon filled with earth shine to their ballet in the twilight sky.

Mars, Venus, and Saturn with the setting, three-day old crescent Moon on the night of August 12. (Click once, then again, for the full size image.)

The meteor shower started off slowly, with only a handful of meteors appearing each hour up until midnight, when things really started picking up. Most people didn't arrive in town until after midnight, having been told that the peak wouldn't occur until sometime between 2:00AM and 6:00AM. I went to the main traffic circle near the football field around 10:30PM to check out the party and music, but beat a hasty retreat when I saw the cars backed up in every direction as 3,000 people tried to find parking in an area with parking for at most a few hundred.

The city obligingly turns off all of its lights on this night. First the perimeter lights around 10:00PM, and then around midnight all of the street lights and utility lights go off. The city then becomes quite dark, and you can get a good view of the meteor shower even from within its precincts. People were scattered everywhere about town, in tents, on blankets, watching the night sky. It was really a very special feeling.

We did our observing from the parking lot of the Alpaca Farm, and I was amazed that we had it all to ourselves until around 12:30AM. Very few people seem to know about the Alpaca Farm parking lot, a dark, secluded site away from lights and cars, since many had just pulled off the road leading to it and set up their tents by the side of the road. It always amazes me to see Israelis do this, even next to quite busy highways, since it seems neither safe nor desirable to do so, and yet they do. I certainly felt smug with my Mitzpe Ramonian knowledge of all the best places to see a dark sky as I whizzed by them in my car, stirring up dust and noise in every direction.

People seem to be unable to restrain themselves from building fires at night, even if the entire purpose of their retreat to the wilds of the desert is to get a dark sky. There were bonfires built hither and yon, with people sitting around them, singing, playing guitar and roasting food. A small group even did this in the Alpaca Farm parking lot, but they were far from us and their fire was never very big. Then, there was the family with young children next to us who seemed to have some ritual of lighting a candle inside a billowy cotton sack, which filled with hot air and cast bright light all around. Fortunately, this quickly went out and they left us in the dark, for the most part.

I got an angry call from my wife around 3:30AM wanting to know why I wasn't home yet, putting an unceremonious end to the observing of The Mitzpe Ramon Astronomer. I guess she got worried about my being eaten by hyenas. In any case, it put an end to our Night of the Shooting Stars. I hope all of your wishes came true.

Where Did All the Posts Go?

I've been working on a new blog for my new business in Mitzpe Ramon, star tours of the night sky from Israel's Darkest and Clearest Skies, Mitzpe Ramon. We will use the beautiful night sky of Mitzpe Ramon as our natural planetarium, including basic education about the night sky, constellations, bright stars and notable nightly sky sights. As soon as I find the eyepieces for my telescopes, we will also offer telescope observations and visual astronomy education. At some point we will be adding astrophotography as well.

Mitzpe Ramon is home to Israel's largest research observatory, The Wise Observatory, testament to the quality of the night sky here.

I don't think anyone gives night sky tours anywhere in Israel, and Mitzpe Ramon is the perfect place for it. In addition, it gives me a way to put to use my 30 years as an amateur astronomer, and further justify my bringing 5 telescopes from the US to Israel, which should make my wife stop being mad at me for this one thing, anyway.

The new site and sky tour service is called Astronomy Israel. We have ideas for expanding this beyond astronomy, too, so stay tuned. I invite everyone to subscribe to this new blog, since I will be splitting my time writing there as well as on this blog.

Oh yes, I should mention 20% discount for friends, although I have no idea as yet what the price will be.

Here is a photo of the Milky Way from Mitzpe Ramon, looking toward the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio. We are looking into the center of the Milky Way here, from our home in the Orion spiral arm, 3/4s of the way to the edge.

The summer Milky Way from Mitzpe Ramon. The "Teapot" asterism in Sagittarius is prominent, together with the constellation Scorpio to its right. Below the "Teapot" is Corona Australius, the Southern Crown. Where do you want to go today? (Click for full size image.)

  

I Am Nearly Eaten By Hyenas

I was out this evening photographing this summer's celestial trio of Venus, Saturn and Mars in the western night sky of Mitzpe Ramon. The three planets have been making quite a showing this August in the evening sky just after sunset, and I wanted to capture their changing nightly positions in the splendidly dark and clear skies of the desert.

I have photographed them from within the town, from the promontory where the visitor center is at the edge of the crater, and this evening I decided to go to the Alpaca Farm and capture the planets among the hills and mountains of the high desert. I got some excellent photos which I think show off Mitzpe Ramon as an excellent stop for amateur astronomers, not surprising since Israel's largest research observatory is located in the mountains here, just outside of town.

Venus, Mars and Saturn as seen in the night sky above Mitzpe Ramon (Click for full size image.)

On the way back home, my car's lights picked up three animals skulking in the wadi about 200 yards from where I had been photographing. One animal went off to the right by itself, while the other two turned left and crossed the road in front of me, about a distance of 20 yards. At first I thought they were a pack of wolves, not uncommon in this area, especially near a farm where they can prey on farm animals and human garbage. But then I saw the pairs' striped bodies, hunched backs, trumpet-shaped ears and big barred teeth and realized I had happened upon a pack of hyenas.

Were they hunting me? Striped Hyenas are mostly solitary and eat carrion, although they are occasionally known to eat farm animals and wild boar. It is unusual to see a group of two, although they will sometimes travel in family packs. Had I happened on a family? Many predators can be found around the farms in the desert. They like easy, fast food as much as we do.

In any case, a mad hyena can be a frightful site, although these guys just ambled on over the hills after our encounter.

Striped Hyena in the mood for a fight (Source: Wikipedia)

I think in the future I will bring someone with me when I go to the Alpaca Farm at night.

The Full Moon of Pesach

Nothing says "Pesach" to me like the first full moon after the vernal equinox, since this heralds the arrival of Chag Hamatzot, the Festival of Matzos - Pesach. The holiday itself is uniquely set by this astronomical event:

And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, the Pesach sacrifice shall be offered to the Lord. And on the fifteenth day of this month shall be a festival; for seven days matzot shall be eaten.  -- Numbers 28: 16-17

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying , 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying , In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.  -- Exodus 12:1-6

When walking home from shul on Seder night seeing this moon I am reminded of the Seders of my childhood: the excitement and the fear, for I was always afraid I would forget the Ma Nishtanah (The Four Questions), and our large extended family, who gathered at my grandmother and grandfather's house, never got along, especially my mother, so there would be hell to pay for weeks afterward. Still, the excitement always won out over the fear.

Full moon of March 30 (actually the second day of Pesach) rises in Virgo over Machtesh Ramon. Spica is to the lower left of the moon, Arcturus left above the Eerie and even with the moon. The 4 stars of the constellation Corvus are to the right of the moon. A veil of haze drapes its multi-colored hues across the moon's shoulders.

Walking home this Pesach we passed the Club Ramon Hotel, whose tables were set for a large crowd of Seder celebrants, the Rabbi already starting the reading of the Hagaddah as families scrambled to their seats. The dew had already settled on the windows of the cars nearby.

The climax of the delivery from Egyptian slavery occured during "high moon", another reason the moon looms large in the celebration of Pesach. "Va'yiheh ba'chatziy ha'laylah...and it was at the very middle of the night." The moon would have been at the zenith in Egypt about 3300 years ago on this very night, casting its unblinking and eerie light across the Egyptian desert, littered with the dead bodies of the first born of men and animals, exposing to all the horror that had occurred in its ghostly tennebrae. "It is a night of watching unto the Lord...Ki layel shimurim who la'Adonai"...when we throw open our doors at the Seder's climax, invite in Eliyahu the Prophet, the harbinger of the complete and final redemption, as the destroyer passes over our houses. We watch, and God watches. Whose excitement would not conquer fear at such a moment?

9 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon ; and all the firstborn of cattle. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead . 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said , Rise up , and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go , serve the LORD, as ye have said . 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said , and be gone ; and bless me also. 33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said , We be all dead men. 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians. -- Exodus 12:9-36

 

A Pleasant Shabbos after a Cold Start - 2/6/2010

Shabbos morning dawned cold, after a night of high wind and rain. I was out walking Spot, saw Rabbi Slonim heading for Chabad, and told him I would see him soon. Went back inside and promptly fell asleep until Noon. And this on the Shabbos when we read about Matan Torah. Oh well, I guess history repeats itself.

After lunch at Chavie and Donny's, the sky cleared with dappled cloud shadows on the Machtesh for the rest of the afternoon. The temperature was pleasant, in the low 60s, with little wind. I walked Spot off leash along the Albert Promenade at the crater's rim. It was completely silent, except for the distant sounds of children at play, making for a very contemplative mood. It was good to have the howling wind silenced for a while.

Few tourists come 'round on Shabbos, but as Spot and I were sitting, a small group from Oklahoma came by with their Israeli tour guide. As luck would have it, I didn't have any blogging cards on me. The tour guide took the opportunity to ask me about why we moved to Mitzpe Ramon, our Zionist background, etc. The tourists seemed to find it very interesting, and the tour guide even joked that it was hard to arrange such meetings.

In the evening we headed over to Chavie and Donny's for Havdalah. As we left our apartment building, we saw a completely clear sky with bright stars and outstanding Mars rising in the east. As we looked up, we saw a satellite in orbit cross between Castor and Pollux, the Gemini Twins, move slowly northward, and suddenly disappear as it lost the reflected sunlight in the setting sun. It was a beautiful and quiet sight.

Weather report at 6:15 PM

Clear

Bright stars and planets in the night sky

Cold

Winds calm

Pleasant today; rain last night

Temp: 52 F
Wind chill: 52 F
Humidity: 48 %
Heat index: 51 F
Dew point: 36 F
Wind max: 1 mph
Wind avg: .6 mph
Wind direction: S

A little later in the evening I took Spot for a walk on the Machtesh overlook. Despite the bright light from the nearby youth hostel, the night sky was brilliant with ochre-colored Mars rising in the East, just after opposition so the closest and brightest it has been in 2 1/2 years. It was riding close to Orion, with Mars rivaling the even redder red-giant star Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder. I was treated to my first ever sighting of Canopus, the brightest star in the southern constellation Carinae, the second brightest star in the heavens after Sirius, which was high above it. Canopus just barely clears the southern horizon at this latitude, so it sparkled with a multi-hued brightness from atmospheric refraction.

The night sky from Mitzpe Ramon on 2/6/2010 at 7:00PM