The Backyard Astronomer’s Blog

The Great Sky Show of 2012

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:23:38 -0700

The year 2012 promises to be an excellent one for stargazing, filled with wonderful and rare sky events. Here are my picks for the best celestial sights of 2012. Sky charts are from Sky Safari/Southern Stars for MacOS. Most depict the sky for northern latitudes.
February 25 — Venus and the Moon at Dusk 
Venus dominates the evening sky in the first half of the year. The waxing crescent Moon passes Venus each month, with a particularly eye-catching close conjunction on the evening of February 25 when the two worlds lie 3° apart.

Early March — Evening Planets We have an array of 5 naked-eye planets across in the evening sky in early March, with Mercury at its best for 2012 in the evening (for the northern hemisphere) during the first week of March. Mercury can been seen low in the west while Mars, at opposition, rises in the east. Saturn follows later in the east after Mercury, Venus and Jupiter have set. The image shows the sky for the evening of March 3 for northern latitudes.

March 3 — Mars at Opposition
This year brings a once-every-two year close approach of Mars. Mars is at opposition on March 3 and closest to Earth on March 5. However, this is the most distant opposition of Mars in the 30-year period from 1996-2026, with Mars still 100,780,000 km away. The disk of Mars grows no larger than 13.9 arc seconds across, just big enough to show detail in a telescope. The Martian north pole faces us this year, with the polar cap shrinking in the Martian spring. The image above shows Mars late on the evening of March 3 for North America, when the dark feature of Syrtis Major faces us. Image from Mars Atlas software for MacOS.

March 12 and 13 — Venus and Jupiter at Dusk 
By mid-March Jupiter has dropped lower and Venus has risen higher so that the pair of planets, the two brightest, pass each other in the evening sky. On March 12 and 13 they lie 3° apart. This is the best planetary conjunction of the year.

March 26 — Venus and the Moon at Dusk 
On March 25 the waxing Moon appears near Jupiter. The next night it sits 3.5° from Venus, for a fine gathering of worlds amid the setting winter constellations of the late March evening sky.

April 3 — Venus in the Pleiades

January to May brings a wonderful evening appearance of Venus, including a rare passage through the Pleiades star cluster on April 3. For the northern hemisphere, Venus will be high and bright in the western evening sky in March and April, in its best evening appearance since 2004. Venus will set so late it will shine in a dark sky, as a magnificently brilliant object, reaching its brightest, at magnitude -4.7, at the end of April.

May 20 — Annular Eclipse of the Sun 
Be in the right place in the southwestern United States on May 20 and you can see this — the disk of the Moon within the disk of the Sun for an annular eclipse. Not a total eclipse but the next best thing. Most of North America sees a partial solar eclipse. Safe solar filters are a must. See NASA’s Eclipse Website for all the details. Or flip over to our web page for Chapter 7 on Upcoming Eclipses.

June 4 — Partial Eclipse of the Moon 
Western North America sees a 37% partial eclipse of the Moon at dawn on the morning of June 4, as the Moon sets into the southwestern sky. There are no total lunar eclipses until 2014.

June 5 — Transit of Venus 
This is the year for an extremely rare transit of Venus, when Venus will be seen in silhouette in front of the Sun. We saw this in 2004, but before that the last transit of Venus was in 1882. The next is not until 2117! Only six Venus transits have been seen in recorded history, the first in 1639. Note that for North America the transit is late in the afternoon and early evening of June 5. Photo by Alan Dyer.

July 15 — Venus and Jupiter at Dawn  
On the morning of July 15 the waning crescent Moon appears near Venus and Jupiter amid the Hyades star cluster in Taurus at dawn. This is a superb dawn sky conjunction well worth getting up for.

August 11-13 — Perseid Meteor Shower 
The favorite meteor shower of the year, the Perseids, peaks under dark moonless sky conditions this year. The best nights will be Saturday, August 11 and Sunday, August 12. As dawn breaks on the morning of Monday August 13 look for the waning crescent Moon near Venus.

August 13 — Occultation of Venus 
Later in the day on August 13 the Moon covers up Venus in a rare daytime occultation of Venus by the Moon, visible from most of North America. You’ll need a telescope to see this day sky event.

August 13 — Saturn, Mars and Spica 
August 13 is a busy day. As dusk, look for a conjunction of Mars and Saturn near the star Spica in Virgo, as they set into the southwestern twilight.

October 3 — Venus and Regulus at Dawn 
Before dawn on October 3 look for Venus close to the star Regulus in Leo. Very close! They will appear just 16 arc minutes apart, close enough to be contained in the telescope field of a medium power eyepiece.

November 14 — Total Eclipse of the Sun

Travel to northern Australia or the southern Pacific to stand in the path of the Moon’s shadow and you can witness a total eclipse of the Sun. The local date is November 14. The total eclipses of 2013, 2015 and 2016 will be remote and expensive to get to. However, the United States does get a total eclipse on August 21, 2017. Image courtesy Jay Anderson.

November 26 and 27 — Venus and Saturn at Dawn 
At dawn on November 26 and 27 look for Venus very close to Saturn. The two worlds will be separated b about 45 arc minutes. Mercury shines below in its best morning appearance for 2012, for northern latitudes.

December 11 — Venus, Mercury and the Moon at Dawn 
Venus spends the last half of 2012 in the dawn sky as a brilliant morning star. The last dawn sky conjunction between the waning Moon and Venus in 2012 is a good one, with the Moon 3° from Venus and 5° from Mercury.

Auroras — Spring and Fall 2012?
 With the Sun picking up in activity we are sure to see a number of good displays of auroras — northern lights in the northern hemisphere and southern lights in the southern hemisphere. Sometimes these come with a day or two warning Check www.spaceweather.com regularly for notices and news. Often spring and fall bring the best displays. Photo by Alan Dyer.

Clear skies in 2012!

— Alan Dyer

Tips for Time-Lapse Shooting

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:06:09 -0600

I’ve learned of a new technique for creating time-lapse movies that I wanted to pass along.
Time-lapse imaging is an entirely new area of astrophotography previously accessible only to those who had access to expensive custom-made movie cameras, at least in the film days. Now anyone with a Digital SLR camera can take time-lapse movies of the night sky and landscapes with lots of Wow! factor. The Chapter 7 area of our book’s website has lots of examples. You can also see more time-lapse movies at my Amazing Sky channel on YouTube.
One of the other wonderful, if not breathless, aspects of the digital technology is how tools and techniques are always improving. Thanks to a new tutorial at Adobe, I realize there is a better way to assemble the hundreds of frames that make up a typical time-lapse movie, using a tool I already had, Adobe Photoshop. For years I had been using Apple’s Quicktime Pro software to string together movie frames — each frame being a time-exposure still image. Quicktime works very well but any processing of the frames had to be done while they were still images, before stringing them together into a movie.
Adobe’s tutorial, linked to below and here from Adobe TV, demonstrates how to use the special “Extended” version of Adobe Photoshop — that’s the extra-cost scientific edition of Photoshop — to do the same thing: pick a folder of images and then automatically string them into a movie at a frame rate you pick. The secret is selecting the “Motion” workspace to reveal the motion picture timeline.
The beautiful thing about this technique is that the entire movie can then be processed using Adjustment Layers and other usual Photoshop processing methods. By turning the movie layer into a Smart Object you can even apply filters like Sharpening and Noise Reduction to the entire movie, but do it non-destructively. Anyone who has taken my DSLR Astrophotography workshops will know my penchant for non-destructive editing using the superb tools that Photoshop provides. Non-destructive editing is my mantra.
Being able to stay within Photoshop for working on movies, as well as the original still images, is a tremendous advantage. Again, I am a big proponent of simplifying the workflow by staying within the one software package as much as possible.
Yes, Adobe Photoshop is costly, and the Extended Edition more costly still, but it is worth it for what it can do for us demanding astrophotographers. For example, the Extended Edition also has superb but little-known tools for stacking, registering and combining images in one fell swoop, essential for deep-sky photography. Now I know it handles time-lapse movies as well, all the more reason to get it. You learn something new every day!
LINK TO ADOBE TV EPISODE

— Alan Dyer

Sailing The Cosmic Sea

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:24:16 -0600

In March I had the great pleasure of serving as one of the guest experts on a “sail-and-learn” cruise in the Caribbean. Yes, a tough assignment to be sure, but someone has to do it!

These are great ways to learn about a favourite subject, mingle with experts, and enjoy a vacation to exotic climes.

In this case, the tour was organized by Sky and Telescope magazine and by Insight Cruises, who specialize in such programs. If you are Mac fanatic, you might try their Mac Mania cruises, and their “Bright Horizons” programs with Scientific American look fascinating as well.

In our case, we cruised from Fort Lauderdale to St. Maartens in the southeastern Caribbean, with stops at Grand Turk, Puerto Rico and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

But with 2 or 3 days at sea, there were lots of hours to fill with educational talks. Science writer Ivan Semeniuk (at right), Hal McAlister (from Mt. Wilson), Ray Villard (from Hubble Space Telescope Institute), and celestial navigation expert Steve Miller all provided a packed program of instruction and elucidation. I added the hobby side, providing talks on how to choose and use telescopes and on astrophotography.

As part of the tour, we were able to visit the Kennedy Space Centre (right) and by sheer good fortune, actually watch a launch, of an Altas V launching the Air Force’s X37B secret spaceplane.

But the astronomical highlight was the trip to Arecibo Radio Observatory on Puerto Rico (right). This colossal 1000-foot dish is the largest radio dish in the world. The photo depicts the view from the bottom, underneath the suspended metal mesh dish, looking up toward the receiving antennas. It is an iconic structure, featured in movies such as Contact.

If you are an astronomy addict, I highly recommend seeking out cosmically-oriented vacations such as cruises and overland excursions to observatories. They are great ways to get away and learn.

— Alan Dyer

Fighting Clouds in Oz

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 11:12:40 -0700

Think of Australia and you tend to think of endless expanses of dry, sunburned land, with vast open skies above. For two weeks in December 2010 I experienced a very different Oz. After years of drought, the skies opened up alright — to torrential rains and perpetual cloud.

During their southern summer of 2010/11 Australia has endured some of the worst rains and floods the country has experienced. I was in the middle of much of it, at my usual observing site near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, a town which bills itself as “the Astronomy Capital of Australia.” It earns that title due to the presence there of the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia’s major optical observatory. It’s where I usually make for, once a year if I can, though it had been well over two years, since March 2008, when I had last been to Oz and “Coona.”

This year, I wanted to head back in November/December, to get bits of the sky and objects I had not seen and shot well during my usual March/April trips. That was the plan!

I arranged for a 15-night stay at a cottage a few miles out of town where the skies would be dark and I’d be able to set up gear for the duration. I spent most of the time inside, out of the rain, working on writing projects. The rain rarely stopped. Entire towns were flooded or cut off.

But, at the end of the stay, with the Moon now in the early evening sky, skies finally cleared, allowing me two superb nights, albeit with dew an issue. But when skies are clear in Oz, they are fabulous, as clear and transparent as you’ll find anywhere in the world.

I was able to get shots of some top-priority targets in the austral summer sky. But a few more nights would have been ideal. So be it. Friends there were complaining of having very few clear nights in the previous few months.

Sounds a lot like Canada! So if you’ve been complaining of getting very few clear nights of late, join the crowd!

— Alan Dyer

Taking It To The Streets

Sat, 4 Sep 2010 12:34:50 -0600

As amateur astronomers we’re always seeking out the best skies and best sky viewing experiences. But for the public, just seeing anything through a telescope – and having it explained – is a treat, even under the glaring lights of a city sidewalk.

As many clubs, planetariums and science centres did over the last many months, we conducted several “sidewalk astronomy” events around Calgary, for the Year of Astronomy and into 2010. The philosophy is to go where the people are and not where the skies are, and show stuff regardless of lights and distractions.

Just the other night we set up several telescopes right at the science centre where I work, to show the sky to people coming and going from the immensely popular BodyWorlds exhibit during some extended late-night hours.

Despite conditions that make us astronomers cringe (setting up literally under streetlights) we could still pick out some choice double stars, and Jupiter. Well, the public loved it! Most people stopped for a look, but more than that, stopped for a conversation. Twitters, Facebook, and texting not withstanding, people still crave for real live communication with real live people!

I’m also amazed at the level of interest people show, especially from young people – not just kids but the teens and 20-somethings. We heard lots of “Wows!” and “Cool!” Having an iPad there to show people constellation patterns, and for clicking on information for instant answers, has also proven a huge hit. People love seeing the sky maps move around as you swing the iPad to different parts of the sky. It serves as a magical window onto the real sky. Lots of people remark that they want to buy an iPad just to get the astronomy apps. Some people with iPhones download an app right then and there and start trying it. Amazing!

I’m sure anyone who was wrapped up in IYA events in 2009 and who continues to do outreach hears the same positive reactions. I’ve said it before, but the pessimists who decry that no one is interested in astronomy now and that the younger generation just want to play video games, etc. simply haven’t hit the streets to actually talk to people. The interest is there, and inevitably, a small percentage might take that interest and run with it to pursue it as a hobby. — Alan Dyer

The Elusive Red Planet

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:22:07 -0700

What a pity we don’t get to see Mars more often. The celestial clockwork keeps Mars far out of sight and a mere telescopic dot for most of our lives. But every 26 months we get a brief window of opportunity to see this elusive planet up close.

Last Thursday, January 26, was one of those special Mars nights. We get at least one every time Mars comes around, but you have to work for them. Skies don’t have to be very clear -- they weren’t as you can see -- but they do have to be steady. Bump up the power on a sharp large-aperture telescope (like our 8-inch refractor) and there it is. A world like no other. The only planet on which we can see surface markings with any detail and assuredness. But even then Mars always tantalizes.

On our fine Mars night, the evening after Mars was closest to Earth, the polar cap was plainly visible, as was the dark collar surrounding it, long thought to be caused by moisture from the retreating ice cap. Ah, the lure of Mars. We now know the “melt band” is really dark sand dunes being uncovered after a winter under cover of carbon dioxide ice.

We could see wispy clouds on the morning and evening sides of the planet. But not too much in the way of prominent surface details. As so often happens when Mars is closest to Earth, the nearly blank side of Mars was facing us. Mars is such a tease. Still, we could see the vaguest hints of surface mottling.

What we could see was that this was a world, a real solid-surface planet, with deserts, ice caps and morning clouds. Perhaps we’ll have another night or two when it all comes together for a few hours, for Mars to tantalize us before it once again recedes from view for another two years. — Alan Dyer

What a Wonderful Year It Has Been!

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 12:25:08 -0700

What a great year it has been. Around the world astronomers have been taking to the streets, to parks, to pubs, to concert halls — every venue possible — to promote astronomy. The result has been the most successful science outreach program in the history of the universe.

As everyone in the hobby likely knows all too well, 2009 was the “International Year of Astronomy,” marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope, an event that began modern astronomy.

Here in Calgary we ended IYA with a bang, by setting up telescopes at the Zoo for their annual family New Year’s Eve party, Zoo Year’s Eve. The plan was to set up scopes outside, to look at the Full “Blue” Moon also in the sky that night. But the frigid temperatures forced us inside for a “Plan B” indoor program. There, we improvised and had some scopes looking through the windows at the Moon. Not a recommended technique, I know, but it’s better than freezing at -20°C!

Hundreds of people, and a few creatures (as at right) looked though our telescopes and took home star charts and handouts. Then we all enjoyed the fireworks and the Full Moon to cap the evening ... and the year.

Earlier in the week, with warmer temperatures, we had solar scopes going at the Science Centre where a few hundred people were able to see sunspots! Yeh! The Sun had something interesting to see for a change!

What strikes me from all the many IYA events we did this year is the tremendous enthusiasm and interest in astronomy from so many members of the public, of all ages. Sure, the young kids are excited to look through a scope, but so are the teenagers and young adults. The Facebook generation is just as excited at seeing the Moon or Jupiter as was the generation of the 1960s. Today, people have access to lots more information about the sky (yes, some of it questionable or outright wrong) so they know a lot more. But ... people still have limited opportunities to actually see the sky for themselves, especially through telescopes. So the chance to do so is still a special moment. And it evokes the same “wows!” and “that’s so cool!” comments as it has always done.

The other special aspect of the Year was the chance to take astronomy to unlikely places. It was great partaking in concerts and cafés (at right), sporting events, fireworks festivals, street parties and other places you might not expect to find an astronomer and a telescope. It has been quite a year for astronomy.

We — and many others I’m sure — will continue in 2010 with a “Beyond IYA” program of outreach. Perhaps at a less frantic pace to be sure but with no less enthusiasm. Clear skies! — Alan Dyer

“I Want to Shoot Deep-Space Objects!”

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:11:16 -0700

“I have a camera. I plan to buy a telescope. I want to connect them and shoot deep-space objects. My budget is $1,000. What should I buy?”

How many times has anyone well-versed in the hobby heard this!

The reality is, shooting deep-sky objects through a telescope, as we outline in Chapter 13 of our book, is the most difficult task in astrophotography. It demands a good equatorial mount, a high-quality telescope (though it does not have to be large), and, for the best results, autoguiding equipment. (See our web section on this.)

We outline the gear you need, along with recommended models, in Chapter 13 of the book, but a setup similar to what’s shown at top is a good starter system for deep-sky imaging. But the SkyWatcher HEQ-5 Pro mount alone is about $1,200. Add the apo refractor ($800), and guiding gear ($400 to $600) and you’ve spent $2,500 or more. And don’t forget the camera! Anything less simply won’t produce much in the way of results worth the effort and expense.

We absolutely do NOT recommend buying a $1,000 Schmidt-Cassegrain, nor some low-cost imager, and expect to be able to get great deep-sky shots with the combination. For more on this, see our Blog for June 21, 2009. SCTs and similar compact scopes are great instruments but are fraught with issues for deep-sky imaging.

Beginners can certainly get great shots of the Moon though a telescope (with a hookup such as shown at right), even using a scope without tracking ability. And, as we outline in Chapter 13, long exposures of the night sky taken with the “piggyback method” can produce stunning results. These wide-angle shots are taken with the camera’s own lens, with the camera riding along on an equatorially-mounted telescope (as shown at top right). The short focal lengths involved don’t require guiding and the mount doesn’t have to be super accurate for tracking. But users still need to know how to polar-align their mount. And it needs to be a motor-driven German-style equatorial mount, not an alt-azimuth mount like many GoTo scopes have.

As a much less complex alternative, the basic camera-on-a-tripod (right) is capable of producing wonderful night sky images at likely little extra expense, assuming the buyer already has a good DSLR camera, a tripod, and a remote release. With astrophotography, start slow and easy, and work your way up to the demanding subjects requiring complex, specialized gear. In the meantime, get a good general-purpose telescope you can have fun looking through. Worry about taking photos later.
— Alan Dyer

Coming Together under a Common Sky

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:27:52 -0600

Imagine a community where everyone gathers at night to hear stories about the sky. You’re expected to learn these stories by heart and pass them on to the next generation, because these are stories about where you came from — the stars — and how you should live your life on Earth.

In the past few months we’ve had several opportunities to hear some of these stories and to connect with that culture, one that has existed for thousands of years right here in Canada. Here in the Calgary area we’ve used the Year of Astronomy as an opportunity to connect with local First Nations people, the Siksika, to organize several native skylore nights. And they’ve been fabulous.

After a lifetime learning about ancient legends from Greek and Roman mythology, it’s wonderful to hear first hand about the living legends from our own native traditions right here at home.

And what a rich legacy of star legends we have in North America. Yet most of us know little about it and seldom have the opportunity to learn. These stories are a vital part of First Nations culture, one we should learn because it opens up a new sky to us all, and provides us with a “local connection” to the stars.

In April we held our first stargazing evening at the stunning new Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park (at top right). I’ve been eyeing that location for some time, as I watched the interpretive centre being built, thinking this would be a great spot for public astronomy. The April event was so successful we returned in September for an even more spectacular night under the Milky Way (right).

At these evenings, Siksika elder Clement Bear Chief (right) told us about the Woman Who Married Morning Star (Venus) and was eventually turned into the stars we know as Cassiopeia. He told us the story of how in the days of creation, the buffalo offered themselves to the Creator as he sought animals who would feed, clothe and house his people. The trail of dust the buffalo herd made as it descended out of the sky became the Buffalo Trail, still in the sky today to remind us of the buffalo’s service to the Siksika. We know it as the Milky Way.

These are wonderful stories! Why don’t we all know them? Of course, they are stories from an oral tradition, and everyone tells them a little differently. And they are meant to be passed on through storytelling, not through books and web pages. So hearing them from an elder is a rare opportunity not to be missed.

By a very great fortune we were able to use the April night to celebrate the discovery of Comet Cardinal by local astronomer Rob Cardinal (speaking at right), himself a member of the Siksika First Nation. This was the first comet discovered in Canada by an aboriginal astronomer and it was wonderful to have Rob present to tell us all about the discovery. It made for an inspiring evening that blended tradition with modern science.

What strikes me about these native sky stories is that they are morality tales, designed to teach young people how to live life correctly, as opposed to the western Greek star legends which are very much ribald tales of immorality — the misdeeds of gods behaving badly.

I hope one of the great legacies of the Year of Astronomy will be to bring us all together under that one sky we all share. As one of our storytellers told us, “We believe we call came from the stars.” Science and skylore agree on that!

For more about what we’re doing around here for the Year of Astronomy, I invite you over to our dedicated Calgary Year of Astronomy website, www.astronomycalgary.com.

— Alan

Eclipsed In The South Pacific

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:26:10 -0600

In our “Wow Factor” scale in Chapter 1 of our book, and expanded in the Chapter 1 segment of this website, we rate total eclipses of the Sun as a 10 out of 10 for spectacle. A few days ago, I experienced an event that I’d rate as 12 out of 10!

The eclipse of July 21/22, 2009 was the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, with a maximum duration of totality of over six and a half minutes. But to experience that, you had to be in the East China Sea south of Iwo Jima. Most eclipse chasers elected to see it from China.

But for this eclipse the path also extended into the South Pacific, which for me made it an easy choice. Not only that, but I could get there by sailing on the
m/s Paul Gauguin, the same ship I had sailed on in 2005 to see the hybrid eclipse north of Pitcairn Island. This time, the Gauguin would sail west and north from its home base in Tahiti to intercept the Moon’s shadow in the Northern Cook Islands, another remote stretch of the South Pacific. Indeed, on eclipse morning we sailed within hailing distance of the island of Pukapuka, home to 600 people who had never had a cruise ship pass so close to their island. That event, and the deep partial eclipse they would see later that day, we were told by our on-board cultural experts, would likely make such an impression on the islanders that they would write a song about the day, to be handed down to the next generation.

The eclipse certainly impressed us! I’ve seen a dozen total eclipses and this one was among the best. Our position at sea put us near the end of the path, placing the Sun low in the west about to set. That, and the scattered clouds, heightened the amazing display of colour. The clouds were backlit with an eerie dim light from the crescent Sun, and glowed with iridescence, making the partial phases almost as beautiful as totality.

But totality itself was astonishing. As it does at any total eclipse, the last bit of sunlight disappeared in a brilliant diamond ring (right, top) leaving just the Sun’s corona visible surrounding the black disk of the Moon. But when it appeared this time, my first impression was how huge that disk was. That was from the “moon illusion” that makes anything near the horizon look bigger than it really is.

The Sun and Moon sat at the apex of a cone of dark blue (wide-angle photo at top), the elongated shadow of the Moon on our atmosphere. Its low altitude allowed us to take in the eclipsed Sun and the horizon in one view. You could not believe what you were seeing was real. The scene appeared so suddenly as totality began, then disappeared just as quickly a few minutes later. As the far end of the Moon’s shadow (at right, centre) raced toward us, the horizon below the Sun brightened with orange twilight. At the same time, sunlight began to appear at the bottom of the Moon’s disk.

Then in another brilliant diamond ring (right, bottom) the Sun reappeared, the corona faded, and the clouds lit up again with iridescent hues from a starlike Sun. No photo or video can properly record the visual experience. So my (any!) description and photos fail to provide convincing evidence of just how powerful an event an eclipse can be.

So ... want to see it in person? Plan to be in the South Pacific next year, July 11, 2010 when, remarkably, another total eclipse passes over the same area of the world. The Sun won’t be as low but that does mean the risk of being clouded out isn’t as great as it was this time. We took that risk and were rewarded with an astronomical experience that, while it might be matched by future eclipses, will certainly never be surpassed. How can you beat 12 out of 10 for “Wow Factor!”
— Alan