Three vehicles packed with students left the Alfaisal University campus on March 17 to drive to the desert about 20 kilometers north of Riydah.  The trip was set up for students in Astronomy class, taught by Mr. Gary Fitt, but other students and faculty attended the trip.  Despite a partially obscured sky from a recent dust storm, the students were able to see enough stars.

The plan for the observation was to point out basic information about the sky and to locate some of the familiar constellations and stars.  The most notable feature observed was the Orion constellation descending high in the western sky.  Orion is easily found by first looking for the three stars lined up in a row close together that make up a feature called “Orion’s belt”.  The stars in this constellation are bright, and two of them, Betelgeuse and Rigel, serve as good examples of contrasting star colors, a phenomena due to differing star temperatures.  Hotter stars are typically bluer, and cooler stars fall in the red portion of the visible spectrum.  

The students were asked to locate several features and areas in the sky that were described in class (the celestial equator, the ecliptic, the north celestial pole, observer’s meridian, etc.)  and to give local horizon and celestial sphere coordinates for several objects.  The students were quizzed on the motion of the earth and the apparent motion of the stars. 

A few of the students confessed they have never seen a clear night sky full of stars!  Hopefully, this was just the first of many UPP star gazing outings, and in future trips students will get to see much more of the amazing creation above us. 

Thanks go to Robert DesChamp, who  brought his high-powered flashlight which was used for pointing out objects in the sky.  Thanks go to the astronomy class for planning the trip and getting the word out about it, with an added thanks to those attendees who drove vehicles:  Mr. Robert, Math Instructor; student Nassir, and student Khalid.  Also, special thanks go to Faith Fitt, wife of Mr. Fitt, for providing chocolate chip cookies for the sky watchers.