Celestial Highlights LAS Meeting Thursday September 18Th at 7 Pm the Topic Will Be “Daniel K

LAS Newsletter Sept. 2014

Celestial Highlights LAS Meeting Thursday September 18th at 7 pm The topic will be “Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope and its Instrumentation” presented by David Elmore, Optical Systems Scientist and Instrument Scientist, DKIST, National Saturn Solar Observatory.

Saturn is still visible low in the southwest around 10 pm. It is +0.6 magnitude in brightness and 17 arcsec across.

Mars

When operational in 2019 the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), formerly Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, will be by far the largest solar telescope in the Mars is also still visible low in the southwest. world. With its 4meter diameter mirror, offaxis Gregorian design, adaptive optics, and It is magnitude 0.7 in brightness and 7 advanced thermal control, DKIST will produce diffractionlimited solar images that for arcsec across. the first time will resolve the ‘natural’ solar image scale of less than 20km. DKIST will be equipped with five firstlight instruments to provide high spatial, spectral, and Mercury polarimetric accuracy observations over the wavelength range of 380nm to 5000nm. Mercury is lost in the evenIng glare setting The presentation will show slides of the Telescope design, stateoftheart solar about 20 minutes after the sun this month.

Copyright © 2014 by Longmont Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. images, and the telescope's instruments that will improve upon those images. Uranus Uranus is visible in the evening in the David Elmore is Optical Systems Scientist for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope constellation Pisces. It is 5.7 magnitude in (DKIST) working with international partners to deliver firstlight instrumentation for brightness and 4 arcsec across. It will be at DKIST. Mr. Elmore has developed and designed instruments used for research in opposition on Oct. 7th. solar physics at the National Solar Observatory and previously for the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His expertise includes Neptune design of groundbased, balloon born, and spacedbased spectropolarimeters that Neptune is visible in the morning sky in the measure polarized spectral line profiles to infer solar magnetic field strength in the constellation Aquarius. It is 7.8 magnitude in solar photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. brightness and 2.5 arcsec across. It was at opposition with Earth on Aug. 29th. The meeting will be at the IHOP Restaurant. 2040 Ken Pratt Boulevard, Longmont, Please join us for for coffee, dinner or just desert around 6 pm; The general meeting Jupiter and presentation will begin at 7 pm Jupiter is visible in the morning sky in the constellation Cancer. It is 1.8 magnitude in August Meeting brightness and 32 arcsec across. The August meeting was about “Solar Astronomy” presented by Vern Raben. Vern talked about the Sun’s properties, structure, and magnetic field. He reviewed some Venus important solar astronomers, the sunspot cycle, aurora, and the upcoming total solar Venus rises in morning twilight around 5:30 eclipse in Wyoming in 2017. am in the ENE and resides in the constellation Leo. It is 3.9 magnitude in September Dark Sky Objects brightness and 10 arcsec across. September is a great time for observing the heavens especially here in Colorado. The mosquitoes are mostly gone, the nights are getting longer, but not yet cold. There are Moon many great objects to observe this month. Our summer favorites are still around and some fall objects are coming into view here are just a few of mine: First quarter: Sept. 2 5:11 am MDT Full moon: Sept. 8 7:38 pm MDT Galaxies

Third quarter: Sept. 15 8:05 pm MDT M31 (mag 3.4), M32 (mag 8.1), M110 in Andromeda New moon: Sept. 24 0:14 am MDT M33 in Triangulum (mag 5.7) NGC 7331 in Pegasus (mag 9.5) Near NGC 7331 is Stephan’s quintet in Pegasus. You’ll need at 10 inch or larger scope to see them all. The quintet of galaxies is NGC 7317 (mag 14.7), 7318A (mag 14.3), Dark Sky 7318B (mag 14), 7319 (mag 14.2), & 7320 (mag 13.3). NGC 7479 (mag 11)

At the beginning of the month astronomical darkness begins at 9:12 pm MDT and ends Nebula at 5:00 am MDT. By the end of this month astronomical darkness begins at 8:17 pm The ‘Ring Nebula’ M57 (mag 8.8) in Lyra and ends at 5:33 am mdt. The ‘Snow Globe Nebula’, NGC 6781 in Aquila (mag 11.4) NGC 6804 (mag 12) in Aquila The ‘Blinking Planetary’, NGC 6826 in Cygnus Comets The ‘Dumbbel Nebula’, M27 (mag 7.3) in Vulpecula NGC 6894 (mag 12.3) in Cygnus C2014/E2 (Jacques) is now high overhead The ‘Helix Nebula’, NGC 7293 in Aquarius moving through Cygnus. It should be about The ‘Blue Snowball’, NGC 7354 in Cygnus magnitude 7 in brightness. Globular Clusters C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) is now about magnitude 7 in brightness. It should reach M2 in Aquarius (class 2) M15 (mag 7.3) in Pegasus between 5 and 6 by about midmonth but will NGC 6981 (mag 9.2) in Aquarius disappear into morning twilight.. M30 (mag 6.9) in Capricornus

Comet C/2014 E2 (Jacques) location in September 2014

8/31 9/1 9/2 9/3 9/4 9/5 9/6 RA: 21h40m 21h22 21h06m 20h52m 20h40m 20h29m 20h20m Decl: 58°23’ m 53°50’ 51°26’ 49°01’ 46°38’ 44°17’ 56°10’

9/7 9/8 9/9 9/10 9/11 9/12 9/13 RA: 20h12m 20h05 19h59m 19h53m 19h48m 19h44m 19h40m Decl: 42°00’ m 37°42’ 35°41’ 33°47’ 31°58’ 30°14’ 39°48’

9/14 9/15 9/16 9/17 9/18 9/19 9/20 RA: 19h37m 19h34 19h31m 19h29m 19h27m 19h25m 19h23m Decl: 28°36’ m 25°37’ 24°14’ 22°56’ 21°43’ 20°33’ 27°04’

9/21 9/22 9/23 9/24 9/25 9/26 9/27 RA: 19h21m 19h20 19h18m 19h17m 19h16m 19h15m 19h15m Decl: 19°28’ m 17°27’ 16°31’ 15°39’ 14°48’ 14°01’ 18°26’

9/28 9/29 9/30 10/1 10/2 10/3 10/4 RA: 19h14m 19h13 19h12m 19h11m 19h11m 19h11m 19h11m Decl: 13°16’ m 11°52’ 11°14’ 10°37’ 10°02’ 09°28’ 12°33’

8/31 9/1 9/2 9/3 9/4 9/5 9/6 RA: 7h05m 7h10m 7h16m 7h22m 7h28m 7h36m 7h44m Decl: 0°50’ 1°51’ 2°57’ 4°08’ 5°26’ 6°51’ 8°22’

9/7 9/8 9/9 9/10 9/11 9/12 9/13 RA: 7h53m 8h04m 8h15m 8h28m Difficult Difficult Difficult Decl: 10°02’ 11°49’ 13°45’ 15°48’

NGC 7331 galaxy by Gary Garzone

NGC 7331 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It is one of the brighter galaxies missed by Charles Messier. It is sometimes compared to our own Milky Way galaxy as it fairly close in size and once thought to have a similar structure. However, the central bulge of the galaxy rotates in the opposite direction to the outer parts of the galaxy. Nearby galaxies NGC 7340 (center far left in Gary’s picture), NGC 7336 (above left),NGC 7335 (just below 7336), and NGC 7337 (lower left) form the Deer Lick Group. The grouping is accidental; the other galaxies are much further distant.

The name “deer lick group” was coined by amateur astronomer Tom Lorenzin when he observed them from Deer Lick Gap in North Carolina.