Wapsi Astronomer

The Barnyard Observatory

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This last Friday the skies were forecasted to be halfway decent. While shopping around for a telescope I was trying to think of good places that were convenient and quiet and free from lights. One place in-particular is almost too good to be true. One of my very good friends has some land just outside the town I live in. He is an artist that works with a very unique media; Barnwood. You can read more about him here. The long and short of it is that Barnwood Bob carefully disassembles old barns from the golden age of farming and takes that salvaged barnwood and creates wonderful things out of it. Mainly beautiful picture frames. Two of these creations stand tall and make the two main structures in a little swath of land called The Barnyard. Friends, this is a magical place. There are two barns. A two story and a taller three story companion. It’s sort of like Rube Goldberg meets Grant Wood and Salvidor Dali in a wonderful tribute to turn of the century midwestern agriculture. It’s something you would see flipping past the travel channel. This last weekend there was an organized walking art tour stretching throughout Eastern Iowa. One of the stops along the way was the Barnyard. On Saturday night Bob was kind enough to open his doors for a great Barnyard Party complete with lots of homegrown live music, plenty of food for all, a massive bonfire and general merry making all day and night. Attached to one of the barns is a great little stage graced by local musicians from all over Iowa and they play ALL NIGHT and sometimes into the very early morning. You really have to see this place to believe it and any description falls short of how truly cool the Barnyard really is.

So with the first clear non-schoolnight I thought it would be a good chance for me to get Mary out under the stars. We packed up the scope in the accord for the first time (tight fit!), and headed out to the Barnyard to get set up. We pulled up with plenty of daylight left and waited for the first stars to show themselves. As we waited and watched for the first stars to appear we saw a very bright very fast moving light approach from the northwest and make it’s way across the sky exiting northeast. We watched in amazement because we knew this could only be one of two things. The ISS, or the shuttle Atlantis that had launched that same day. The next day we did some research and find out that we had indeed observed the International Space Station transit over North America. Too fracking cool for school!! If you have never seen this, it’s truly a sight to behold. Big and bright and moving very fast. You can’t help but think of the scientists and experts on board as they pass directly over you and wonder if they might be looking back down at you. Or at least in your general direction.

By this time the sky was getting dark and we pointed our scope at the old favorite, Saturn. This time I let Mary do the driving. I showed her how to use the Telrad, then the finder and finally the eyepiece. This is where Dobsonian mount shines. It’s so simple and easy to use. I can’t stress how cool it is to see your 7 year old take control and push the scope around and locate just about anything she can see with her naked eye. Mary had located Saturn and soon we were shuffling through eyepieces to get better views. It was about this time that Mary asked if we could listen to AstronomyCast while we were observing. I got out the ipod and flicked on the episode about Globular Clusters and let it play in the background while we looked around the sky. AstronomyCast is awesome. If you have any interest whatsoever in this subject I highly recommend checking it out. The hosts are knowledgeable and friendly and explain very complex ideas in ways anyone can understand.

The seeing on Friday night wasn’t ideal, but it was good enough to get some good views of Saturn. Mary was getting a little cold and I noticed some yawns here and there. I asked if she wanted to head back to the house but she insisted she was fine. I gave her the ipod and she used StarMap Pro to look around finding constellations first on the Ipod, then in the sky. I have some concerns about the boredom factor here. I really love taking her out but I understand that hunting galaxies isn’t the most exciting thing in the world for someone with a 7 year old attention span. I want this to be a fun and educational experience as well as quality time spent with ole dad, but I also don’t want to push too hard and risk her losing interest. I let Mary take control of the scope and just start pointing and looking at anything she wanted. We looked at a few bright stars and Saturn a few more times and before I knew it my observing partner was sound asleep next to me curled up in a folding chair. Cute stuff. I capped the telescope and picked her up and brought her home. She was worn out and it was getting late.

When I got back to the Barnyard the skies were better and I started looking around to see what I could see. Just then Barnwood Bob and his friend Bonnie showed up for some post General Store stargazing. I told him I would be there and I was hoping he would stop out. I went straight to Saturn and gave them a look. Always a crowd pleaser! I know it probably sounds like all I look at is Saturn, but it just never gets old. Especially for people who have never had the chance to see it. There is always an extended “wow” or maybe a “oh, hell yeah!” the first time you see it. Bonnie’s brother Bill arrived shortly after and we showed him the same thing. Bill was hooked. Bob and Bonnie left and showed Bill his bed for the night on the third floor of the big barn. That’s deluxe. I can think of no better place to get a good nights sleep within a 300 mile radius, than the soft feather bed on the third floor of the big barn. Then it was just Bill and me and the sky. We found a M81 and M82 and Bill was looking at his first galaxies. I thought it was cool that we had only known each other for 5 minutes and here I was with this perfect stranger observing objects that were upwards to 25 to 40 million lightyears away. Even better was that he seemed to be interested and not the least bit underwhelmed with the faint fuzzy factor. You would be surprised how many people expect Hubble quality views through an 8″ telescope. I wish that were true, but the fact of the matter is that sometimes you have to use your imagination a little bit. I see a faint fuzzy ball but in my mind I know its a bright cluster containing hundreds of thousands of stars. Next we checked out the great globular clusters in Hercules, M13, Serpen’s M5, and M4 in Scorpio.

It was getting late and the following day was going to be a big one. I had plans to be in the Barnyard all day cooking and hanging out playing music into the night so I packed up the scope, said goodbye to my new friend and headed home for bed.

Here are some pics from the next day and night. We had a blast!! Thanks to Barnwood Bob for making this town a truly better place to live. Check out some of his artwork here and buy something while you’re there!

American Gothic is the most parodied painting this side of the Mona Lisa. Here is our own little take on it.

Get out the fiddle, rosin up the bow.

Doug & Lisa Frey take the stage while Mary listens from the best seat in the house.

Harriet with Barnwood Bob and Bonnie looking on.

Hold on tight!

Mary on the Barnyard sized Drum Riser.

Matt & Andrew hanging out “back stage”

Barnwood Bob silhouetted by his bonfire.