Sky & Telescope - November 2022 - 6

VIKTOR ROBERT KIENER / COLLECTION OF ELI MAOR / PUBLIC DOMAIN
FROM OUR READERS
A Stellar Find
After reading Javier Barbuzano's
article " The Real Tatooines " (S&T: July
2022, p. 34), I found in my collection
of astronomical prints a painting
entitled " A World with Two Suns " by
the Swiss artist Viktor Robert Kiener
(1866-1945). The two suns are
evidently a red giant and a bluish
companion star.
I wish to thank my friend and colleague
Eugen Jost for identifying the
artist of this print.
Eli Maor
Morton Grove, Illinois
Planet Semantics
I found Christopher Crockett's " The
Elusive Planet X " (S&T: July 2022, p.
14) very interesting. One irony is if a
mini-Neptune is found out in the Kuiper
Belt, it may not qualify as a planet due
to the current International Astronomical
Union definition, which requires
that such a world must have effectively
cleared out its orbit of debris. This condition
probably would be hard to achieve
in the busy Kuiper Belt and even more so
to verify, since the object would be so far
away. It would be strange to have a world
bigger than Earth out there that's not a
planet because of such a technicality.
Stephen A. Becker
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Saturn in 3D
The article " Saturn's Seeliger Effect " by
Thomas A. Dobbins (S&T: July 2022, p.
52) contains two Hubble Space Telescope
images of Saturn to illustrate the Seeliger
effect. These images also yield a spectacular
3D representation of Saturn.
Simply rotate the page 90° and use
a separator between the pictures (I use
an index card) so that the right eye
sees one image and the left sees the
other. Relax your gaze, and the images
will merge to create a magnificent 3D
image of Saturn and its rings.
Frank Ridolfo
Bloomfield, Connecticut
6
NOVEMBER 2022 * SKY & TELESCOPE
Feline Astronomers
After four decades as an amateur astronomer,
using everything from modest binoculars
in the beginning to, currently,
Go To telescopes with CCD and video
cameras, naked-eye phenomena such as
the June 24th planetary alignment (S&T:
June 2022, p. 48) are rewarding. Fortunately,
a clear sky allowed me and my
wife to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
and the Moon around 6 p.m. local time
in a rural area. Even elusive Mercury
was clearly visible. I located it first with
binoculars and then without optical
aid at only 3.5° above the horizon. We
were accompanied by our cats (Sirius
and Orion), who climbed up a nearby
tree, as if they also wanted to observe
the alignment. Truly, it was a beautiful
experience. Thanks, S&T, for informing
us about these wonderful spectacles.
Florentino Sánchez
Badajoz, Spain
With Pencil and Paper
Congratulations on Howard Banich's
" Drawing in the Dark " (S&T: June
2022, p. 58). Even though I'm not
much of a visual observer anymore,
I have fond memories of sketching
at the eyepiece with black paper and
white pastel pencils under a red light.
As Banich points out, the results may
not be masterpieces, but they are great
reminders of what I actually saw. And
the effort was excellent training for
teasing out subtle details in the view.
No quick glances for us sketchers
- spending an hour staring at a single
field is a real education for the eye and
the mind.
Well done!
Robert K. Buchheim
Lost Gold Observatory
Gold Canyon, Arizona
Pushing Glass in Chicago
Jerry Oltion's " Pushing Glass " (S&T: July
2022, p. 58) was a refreshing break from
the articles about expensive technology.
There are hundreds of thousands
of small villages in the world whose
residents don't have the money to buy
a completed mirror. A first glance at
a planet in an eyepiece should be part
of everyone's education. It completely
changes one's perspective.
The mirror-grinding class at Adler
Planetarium was so popular when I was
in the Chicago Junior Astronomical
Society that it was impossible to get in. I
completely agree with Oltion that a class
or a mentor is " far, far (almost infinitely
far) greater than " trying to teach oneself.
Some of the most famous discoveries
in astronomy were made with homemade
equipment, including lenses. I
await an article on that skill.
Terry Herlihy
Chicago, Illinois
Sky & Telescope - November 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - November 2022
