At Vanderbilt Planetarium, You Can View the Sun Safely with New Solar Telescope
Visitors to the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum’s Reichert Planetarium can now view the Sun through a new solar telescope.
The Planetarium has just installed a Lunt Solar Systems hydrogen-alpha solar telescope in the Observatory – for daytime observation of the Sun.
Dave Bush, the Planetarium’s technical and production coordinator, and an astronomy educator, said the solar telescope is mounted “piggy back” onto the 16-inch Meade reflecting telescope in order to track the Sun across the sky.
(Above right: Dave Bush keeps an eye on the Sun. Vanderbilt Museum photo.)
“The refractor-style telescope with its 80-milimeter optical aperture gives us sharp detail and contrast of features on the surface and the limb, or edge, of the Sun,” he said. “This telescope allows us to see prominences, flares, super granulation, filaments, and active regions.”
Bush explained that hydrogen-alpha light is emitted by the hydrogen atoms that make up the majority of the Sun’s composition. When electrons within the hydrogen atoms absorb energy and rise to a higher energy level then fall back to their original orbits, light is emitted at a particular wavelength that can be seen with the specialized telescope.”
“Typically, telescopic views of objects in outer space rarely change before our eyes in real-time,” Bush said. “However, on a day when the Sun is particularly active we can watch features on the Sun evolve before our eyes while looking through an H-alpha telescope!
“The sun is dynamic and alive. It changes daily, and rotates.”
Bush explained the solar features in the picture at Below, shot by photographer Alan Friedman.:
• The wisps of white curling off the upper left curve of the Sun are prominences, or arcs of gas that erupt from the surface. Sometimes the loops extend thousands of miles into space.
• The lighter spots and streaks are called plages, the French word for beaches, and are, appropriately hot spots or bright emissions caused by emerging flux regions associated with the magnetic field of the Sun.
• The tiny hair-like lines that extend from the surface are spicules. These are jets of hot gas that can rise up to 6,000 miles high. Most last only 15 minutes before morphing into new spicules.
• The dark spots are sun spots, which are cooler areas of the surface caused by the suppression of convection cells due to the Sun’s strong magnetic field.
The Sun is 93 million miles from Earth, and its size is almost beyond human comprehension – 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
The solar telescope is available for viewing on a limited schedule, on clear days. (The Sun is not observable on cloudy or rainy days.)
MUSEUM AND PLANETARIUM INFORMATIONHours – Museum and Mansion
Through September 4: Tuesday-Sunday, 11:00 – 5:00. (The Museum and Mansion are closed Monday.)Hours – Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium
Through September 4: Daytime shows Tuesday-Sunday at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00. Evening shows on Friday and Saturday at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00. (The Planetarium is closed Monday.)Observatory
Year-round viewing of the night sky (weather permitting), Friday only, 9:00-10:00 (free with show ticket; $3.00 without show ticket)
Planetarium Schedule – Summer 2016
June 27 – September 4
Friday Nights
8;00 – Long Island Skies
9:00 – Black Holes
10:00 – Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon – NEW LASER SHOW!
Saturday Nights
8:00 – Night Sky, Live!
9:00 – Stars: Powerhouses of the Universe
10:00 – Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon – NEW LASER SHOW!
Tuesday – Sunday Afternoons
12:00 – One World, One Sky
1:00 – Solar System Odyssey
2:00 – Stars: Powerhouses of the Universe
3:00 – Night Sky Live!
4:00 – Laser Beatles – NEW LASER SHOW!
Museum Admission
General museum admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students with ID and seniors (62 and older), and $3 for children 12 and under. General admission includes estate-grounds access to the Marine Museum, Memorial Wing natural-history and ethnographic-artifact galleries, Nursery Wing, Habitat Room, Egyptian mummy and Stoll Wing animal-habitat dioramas. For a mansion tour, add $5 per ticket. (A video tour of the mansion is available on request.)
Mansion Tours
Guided tours of the Vanderbilt Mansion — listed on the National Register of Historic Places — are available Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00.
Planetarium Admission
During the day, visitors to the Planetarium pay general museum admission ($7 for adults, $6 for students with IDs and seniors 62 and older, and $3 for children 12 and under), plus $5 each for a Planetarium show. Since the museum is closed in the evening, no general museum admission is charged — visitors pay only for Planetarium show tickets: $9 for adults, $8 for students with IDs and seniors 62 and older, and $7 for children 12 and under.
Vanderbilt Observatory
Night-sky viewing on Friday (weather permitting), 9:00-10:00 p.m. Observation is free to visitors with a planetarium show ticket, $3.00 for those without a show ticket.
Location and Website
The Vanderbilt Museum is located at 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport, NY. Directions and updated details on programs and events are available at www.vanderbiltmuseum.org. For information, call 631-854-5579.
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum — a unique combination of mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park — is dedicated to the education and enjoyment of the people of Long Island and beyond. This mission is achieved through the thoughtful preservation, interpretation and enhancement of the Eagle’s Nest estate as an informal educational facility. Many exhibition and program themes focus upon Long Island’s Gold Coast Era. Programs also concentrate on William K. Vanderbilt II’s desire that his marine, natural history and ethnographic collections promote appreciation and understanding of the marvelous diversity of life, other cultures, and scientific knowledge. Planetarium programming, more specifically, focuses on scientific knowledge and seeks to capture Mr. Vanderbilt’s sense of adventure and exploration through state-of-the-art entertainment.
