An asteroid and meeting new friends

Four astronomers on a September night serenaded by coyotes – an eerie and surreal scene in the darkness of Norton Cemetery. So goes another impromptu stargazing session in Keene, NY.

I met up with my stargazing buddy Kevin and we were joined this night as well by Robert. Robert is an amateur astronomer from rural Pennsylvania who has been vacationing in the Adirondacks (Essex) and always brings his telescope. Remarking what a beautiful observing site is Norton Cemetery, we’ve been joined by him for four years now since Robert first came across one of these Neophyte Astronomer posts.

But on this night as the three of us were aligning our telescopes – another car arrived and it wasn’t one of our neighbors stopping by for a look at Saturn.

George Viscome from Lake Placid emerged, declaring as he spied our red headlamps and pilot lights: “I guess some other folks had the same idea!” This was kind of cool because George, unbeknownst to us, has occasionally been bringing his own 12″ aperture telescope to Norton Cemetery to observer asteroid occultations. Yet this is the first time we’ve run into each other.

So four astronomers with various types of telescopes. Robert with his 6″ (I think) refracting telescope, Kevin and I with our 9-1/4″ and 8″ Celestron Schmidt–Cassegrain reflector scopes, and now George with a large 12″ Dobsonian scope (a form of Newtonian telescope). Norton Cemetery has become sort of an Astrotourism spot! And rightly so. What a cool place to meet and enjoy the serenity under the night sky!

I should mention that George’s visit was especially purposeful. His passion is recording asteroid occultations. That is – an asteroid passes in between a star and the Earth, casting its shadow over a narrow path. One has to move to where the shadow falls with each specific occultation. This is an eclipse but involving a star in the Milky way other than our own. Indeed, we gathered around George’s computer to watch as a faint star winked out for about three seconds. George submits his observations (with careful GPS time stamping) to the community of professional astronomers. This data helps them to determine the size and even the shape of an otherwise nearly invisible asteroid. Way cool, George!