Constellations
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Contact information: Inside this issue: Info Officer (General Info) – [email protected] Website Administrator – [email protected] Page Julyl Club Calendar 3 Postal Address: Fort Worth Astronomical Society Young Astronomer News 4 c/o Matt McCullar Tandy Hills Star Party Info 4 5801 Trail Lake Drive Fort Worth, TX 76133 Celestial Events 5 Web Site: http://www.fortworthastro.org (or .com) Interesting Objects 6 Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3eutb22 Twitter: http://twitter.com/ftwastro Abbreviations/Classifications 6 Yahoo! eGroup (members only): http://tinyurl.com/7qu5vkn Cloudy Night Library 7 Officers (2015-2016): Constellation of the Month 9 President – Si Simonson, [email protected] 10 Vice President – Tom Roth, [email protected] Monthly AL Observing Club Sec/Tres – Michelle Theisen, [email protected] ISS Visible Passes for DFW 11 Board Members: Monthly Planet Visibility 12 2016-2018 Monthly Sky Chart 12 Bill Nichols Fed Klich Moon Phase Calendar 13 2015-2017 1st/Last Crescent/Ephem 14 Matt Reed Phil Stage Conjunctions:Lunar/Planet 15 Mercury/Venus Data 16 Cover Photo: NGC 6543 - Cats Eye Nebula in June Meeting Minutes 17 Draco, RCOS 16” RC F9, SBIG Fundraising/Donation Info 18-19 STXL-11002 20 That’s A Fact Photo by Eric Coles Full Moon Name 21 Observing Site Reminders: FWAS Fotos 21 Be careful with fire, mind all local burn bans! Dark Site Usage Requirements (ALL MEMBERS): • Maintain Dark-Sky Etiquette (http://tinyurl.com/75hjajy) • Turn out your headlights at the gate! Edi to r : • Sign the logbook (in camo-painted storage shed. Inside the door on the left- hand side) George C. Lutch • Log club equipment problems (please contact a FWAS board member to inform them of any problems) • Put equipment back neatly when finished Issue Contribu- • Last person out: Check all doors – secured, but NOT locked to rs : Make sure nothing is left out E r i c Co l e s The Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS) was founded in 1949 and is a non-profit 501(c)3 scientific educational organization, and incorporated in the state of Texas. This publication may Pa m K l i ch be copied and distributed for free only. This publication cannot be uploaded or distributed into any media unless it is in its original, full, unaltered, published form. All rights reserved by FWAS. PAGE 2 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY July 2017 J u ly 2 0 1 7 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 FQ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 FQ FWAS Monthly Tandy APSIG Meeting Hills Starts @ 7pm Prairie Sky Star Party Moon Apogee Ferdinand von Zeppe- lin Birthday (1838) 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Young Astronomers Meeting Starts @ 7pm-9pm George Eastwood Erno Rubik Birth- FM Birthday (1854) day (1944) 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 FWAS Monthly Meeting Starts @ 7pm LQ Moon Perigee Roald Amundsen Sir Edmund Hillary Birthday (1872) Birthday (1919) 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Amelia Earhart NM Birthday (1897) 30 31 See our full FWAS Event Calendar at: http://www.fortworthastro.com/meetings.html for the latest updates on what our club has scheduled Click calendar icons above to see details of bright ISS passes this month. July 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 3 Young Astronomers Light pollution is so important I wanted to publish more on it. Light pollution is excessive and inappropriate artificial light. The four components of light pollution are often combined and may overlap: • Urban Sky Glow—the brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas. • Light Trespass—light falling where it is not in- tended, wanted, or needed. • Glare—excessive brightness which causes visual discomfort. High levels of glare can decrease visi- bility. • Clutter—bright, confusing, and excessive group- ings of light sources, commonly found in over-lit e urban areas. The proliferation of clutter contrib- utes to urban sky glow, trespass, and glare. We need to educate our neighbors on it. Check out the Young Astronomers Web Page at: http:// www.fortworthastro.com/young_astronomers.html Tandy Hills Prairie Sky/Star Party: Astronomy—Community Engagement After many years at the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, the well-attended, monthly public star parties presented by the Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS) have moved to Tandy Hills Natural Area. Established in 1949, FWAS is one of the first adult amateur astronomy clubs formed in the country and one of the largest with more than 200 active mem- bers. Members will have several telescopes set up at Tandy Hills for viewing the night sky. Free & open to the public. All ages wel- come. Family/kid-friendly - No dogs - Cool- ers welcome - Steel City Pops will be on hand More details at the NASA website: https:// nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/event-view.cfm? Event_ID=76024 Star party Etiquette: h t t p : / / www.fortworthastro.com/etiquette.html WHEN: Second Saturday of every month http://www.tandyhills.org/events/prairie- sky-star-party PAGE 4 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY July 2017 CELESTIAL EVENTS THIS MONTH Jul 01 Sa 02:28 Moon-Jupiter: 2.9° S Jul 01 Sa Venus: 43.7° W Jul 03 Mo 19:59 Aphelion: 1 . 0 16 7 AU Jul 04 Tu 19:21 Venus-Pleiades: 6.7° S Jul 05 We 23:27 Moon Apogee: 4 0 5 90 0 km Jul 06 Th 22:34 Moon-Saturn: 3.6° S Jul 08 Sa 05:49 Moon S outh Dec. : 19 . 4 ° S Jul 08 Sa 23:07 Full M oon Jul 09 Su 20:33 Mercury-Beehive: 0 .1 ° N Jul 12 We 00:17 Moon Des cending Node Jul 13 Th 13:06 Venus-Aldebaran: 3 .1 ° N Jul 16 Su 14:26 Last Quarter Jul 19 We 18:37 Moon-Aldebaran: 0.4° S Jul 20 Th 06:13 Moon-Venus: 2.7° N Jul 21 Fr 12:09 Moon Perigee: 3 6 1 20 0 km Jul 21 Fr 17:11 Moon N orth Dec. : 19 . 4 ° N Jul 23 Su 04:46 New M oon Jul 24 Mo 19:47 Moon As cending N o de Jul 25 Tu 03:49 Moon-Mercury: 0.9° S Jul 25 Tu 05:14 Moon-Regulus: 0 ° Jul 25 Tu 12:07 Mercury-Regulus: 0.9° S Jul 26 We 18:59 Mars Conjunction Jul 27 Th 21:41 Delta Aquarid S how er: ZHR = 20 Jul 28 Fr 15:15 Moon-Jupiter: 3.4° S Jul 29 Sa 22:59 Mercury Elongation: 27.2° E Jul 30 Su 10:23 First Quarter Data Source: NASA SKYCAL - SKY EVENTS CALENDAR (* Times are Local) July 2017 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PAGE 5 INTERESTING OBJECTS Deep Sky* - (NGC 6943) Cat’s Eye Nebula –DSO, (NGC 5866) Galaxy - GLX, (NGC5879) Galaxy—GLX, (NGC5907) Galaxy-GLX, (Abel 2218) Galaxy Cluster-GLX, Double/Multiple Stars** - η Draconis , Mu Draconis , Nu Draconis , Omicron Draconis, Psi Draconis , 16 Draconis , 20 Draconis, 39 Draconis, 40 Draconis Constellations* - Draco, Boötes, Ursa Major, Leo, Centaurus, Ursa Minor, Virgo Asterisms*** - Engagement Ring, Kemble’s Kite, Broken Engagement Ring, Jaws, Do Dz 6, Backwards 5 Lunar Features**** - Archimedes (12,22), Hipparchus (44, 45), Ariadaeus Rille (34) PAGE 6 FORT WORTH ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY July 2017 Media Reviews their nighttime hemispheres. Media reviews by Matt J. McCullar, FWAS Lights of Mankind: The Earth at It may seem strange to point an astrophotography camera down instead of up, but that's what astro- Night as Seen from Space nauts on board the ISS do. Particularly interesting by L. Douglas Keeney is what we learn about the “Cupola,” a special 360- degree observation platform on the ISS. It was de- “Every book surprises me in some way, but _Lights signed to allow astronauts to look at the Earth, of Mankind_ really threw me for a loop: As long as with seven perfectly flat, ultra-clear borosilicate people have been going into space, we never had windows of 95% transmittance. (Why have a cam- any good photographs of era lens worth thousands the ground taken by as- of dollars if you can only tronauts at night. Any point it through a rotten manned spacecraft in low window?) The windows Earth orbit is traveling so are protected by external fast that it's impossible to shutters when not in use. get a good, steady picture The main window is 31 of nighttime objects; all inches in diameter, mak- you see is a smeared im- ing it the largest window age. All that changed, in space. fortunately, when the In- ternational Space Station (ISS) finally got the tech- Astronauts provide de- nology advanced enough tailed captions for each to solve the problem: ultra-sensitive digital camer- photo. Their work schedules and ground-based as, a capable camera tracking system (similar to weather sometimes conspire against good photos those used on telescopes), and large, crystal-clear of certain regions. Some cities appear here from windows. Now we finally an overhead oblique angle; satellites can't do that, get to see what the astro- Published by Lyons Press – because their cameras point nauts see. only straight down. The ISS's 2012 orbit can't take it everywhere, ISBN 978-0-7627-7755-6 so in some cases the astro- _Lights of Mankind_ shows 282 pages nauts must point and shoot not only cities and metropol- “sideways.” Some captions itan areas all over the world, but also grids of high- provide brief histories of certain regions, explain- ways lit by streetlights, fishing boats at sea, oil ing how the local geography affected human wells, etc. It's difficult to tell if intelligent life exists settlement over time and what created the illumi- on a particular planet by looking at the daytime nated shapes we see.