Prime Focus (05-19).Pub
Highlights of the May Sky
- - - 2nd - - - DAWN: A very thin waning crescent Moon is about 4.5° to the lower right of Venus.
- - - 4th - - - New Moon 6:46 pm EDT
- - - 6th - - - AM: Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks before dawn. KAS
PM: The Moon is 2° to the upper right of Aldebaran. General Meeting: Friday, May 3 @ 7:00 pm th - - - 7 - - - Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 10 for Details PM: The Moon is less than ½° from Zeta Tauri, with Mars less than 4° to the Observing Session: Saturday, May 11 @ 9:00 pm upper right of the pairing. Moon & Double Stars - Kalamazoo Nature Center - - - 10th - - - PM: The Moon is in the Beehive Cluster (M44). Board Meeting: Sunday, May 19 @ 5:00 pm th - - - 11 - - - Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome First Quarter Moon 9:12 pm EDT
th Observing Session: Saturday, May 25 @ 9:00 pm - - - 12 - - - PM: The Moon is 6° to the Grand Globular Clusters - Kalamazoo Nature Center le of Regulus.
- - - 15th - - - PM: A waxing gibbous Moon is about 8.5° from Spica in Virgo. Inside the Newsletter. . .
- - - 18th - - - Full Moon April Mee ng Minutes...... p. 2 5:11 pm EDT Board Mee ng Minutes...... p. 3 th - - - 20 - - - Observa ons...... p. 3 PM: Jupiter and the Moon are 5° apart. NASA Night Sky Notes...... p. 4
- - - 23rd - - - Exploring Amateur Astronomy...... p. 4 AM: The Moon and Saturn First Image of a Black Hole...... p. 5 are 4° apart. Membership of the KAS...... p. 7 th - - - 26 - - - May Night Sky...... p. 8 Last Quarter Moon 12:34 pm EDT KAS Board & Announcements...... p. 9 General Mee ng Preview...... p. 10 - - - 28th - - - PM: Asteroid 1 Ceres is at opposi on. April Meeting Minutes
The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Joseph Fraunhofer created the first astronomical was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, spectroscope in 1814 and looked at flames of different April 12, 2019 at 7:05 pm EST. Approximately 36 members elements. For the Sun, he saw hundreds of lines. Like and guests were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Math Wollaston, he labeled the sharpest lines with letters, starting & Science Center (KAMSC). with A on the red side of the visible spectrum. Comparing with known elements burned in the lab, he noticed that the D Richard started his President’s Report with a brief review of line doublet matched a bright line for sodium. Fraunhofer the 2019 Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF). He reminded also used his new spectroscope on other objects like the members about the first ever Remote Telescope Training Moon, Venus, Mars, and the stars Sirius, Pollux, Castor, Session on April 26th. The Meade 16-inch SCT OTA for Capella, Betelgeuse, and Procyon. Owl Observatory has been delivered and the Astro-Physics 1600GTO German equatorial mount is on order. A volunteer Using Robert Bunsen’s newly improved laboratory burner, is needed to construct the new observatory pier (Josh Taylor- Gustav Kirchhoff set up an experiment in 1859 that allowed Lehman stepped forward). Scott Macfarlane and Roger him to compare the dark line absorption spectrum from the Williams will be representing the KAS at the Green-A-Thon Sun with the bright line emission spectra from different in Portage on April 13th. Richard concluded by passing out a elements. In his publication, Kirchhoff noted that volunteer sheet for the Rock & Mineral Show on May 4th and Fraunhofer’s lines “exist in consequence of the presence, in 5th at the Kalamazoo Expo Center. the incandescent atmosphere of the Sun, of those substances which in the spectrum of a flame produce bright lines at the Dr. Lauren Woolsey, an Assistant Professor of Physical same place.” This included Na, Fe, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, Ni and Sciences at Grand Rapids Community College, was the guest others, elements also found on Earth. speaker for the April meeting. Her presentation was entitled Unlocking the Sun: Spectroscopy in the 1800s. Using Just as Robert Bunsen worked with Kirchhoff to set up his thermometers, William Herschel measured the temperatures experiments, which many have called the foundations of of all of the colors and of the space beyond the rainbow in astrophysics, he also was a mentor to Sir Henry Enfield 1800. This led to the discovery of infrared radiation. Dr. Roscoe, who studied the spectra of many different Woolsey then reviewed the entire electromagnetic spectrum. astronomical objects in the 1860s. During this same period, From shortest to longest wavelength (or highest to lowest Angelo Secchi built a catalog of over 4,000 stars using a energy) the order is gamma-rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible series of spectroscopic instruments of his own invention. light, infrared, microwave, and radio waves. In 1868, J. Norman Lockyer commissioned a spectroscope William Hyde Wollaston, in 1802, was the first to notice that that could study the outer layers of the Sun (the corona) sunlight actually has dark lines in it. He noted seven separate without waiting for a solar eclipse. On October 20, 1868, he dark lines. This led to the review of the different types of made an observation which noted a bright yellow/orange spectrum. A continuous spectrum has no absorption or emission line that had never been seen before. The same day emission lines. An absorption spectrum results when Lockyer presented his results to the Royal Society in radiation passes through a gas. Atoms in the gas absorb England, the results from Pierre Janssen’s expedition to view photons of certain wavelengths, which we see as dark lines. the Aug. 18th eclipse in India reached the French Academy. An emission spectrum is produced by photons emitted by an He had seen this same new yellow/orange emission line. excited gas. The year after Lockyer and Janssen discovered that new line, named Helium after the Greek word for Sun (Helios), William Harkness and Charles Augustus Young each independently observed an eclipse in the U.S. and found a bright green emission line. Even after Helium was discovered on Earth, the new bright green line (named coronium) remained a mystery. In 1939, Swedish spectroscopist Bengt Edlèn was able to identify the “coronium” line as a very high ionization state of iron: Fe- XIV a.k.a. Fe13+. This level of ionization requires a temperature of millions of degrees This identification wrapped up the mystery of the 1800s but created a new mystery that we are still solving today.
During observing reports, Aaron Roman said he’s completed about 95% of the A.L. Messier program. The big news item discussed was the first ever image of a black hole (see page 5 Dr. Lauren Woolsey, an Assistant Professor at Grand for more). Israel’s Beresheet mission crashed on the Moon Rapids Community College, was the guest speaker at our on April 11th. After discussing upcoming KAS activities, the general meeting on April 12th. meeting concluded at 9:07 pm.
Prime Focus Page 2 May 2019 In New Business, the Board set prices on several telescopes to be sold. This includes the 12-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope from Owl Observatory ($1,200), the Celestron 8- inch NexStar mentioned earlier ($800), and the 8-inch SCT on a Super Polaris EQ mount currently available for loan ($800). A donated Celestar 8-inch SCT will become a new loan telescope. On another topic, Richard suggested some preliminary plans for the “Quintuple Conjunction” gathering The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Board met on April of area astronomy clubs in Kalamazoo on September 14th. 14, 2019 at Sunnyside Church. Before the meeting was convened, the Board spent some time assembling and In the Other category, Don reported that Kiwanis CraneFest checking out an 8-inch Celestron NexStar telescope recently will be on October 12th & 13th, and he would like to offer donated to KAS. The meeting was then called to order by solar viewing for this event. He also mentioned that Kiwanis President Richard Bell at 5:22 pm. Board members present and Kingman Museum will be collaborating on an event with were Joe Comiskey, Jean DeMott, Scott Macfarlane, Rich an astronomy theme. Some presentations may be desired. Mather, Jack Price, Don Stilwell, and Roger Williams. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:15 The Treasurer’s Report was still missing because of a pm. The next meeting was set for May 19th, with a caution problem with Rich’s computer. He said that the data were all from Jack that he might not be available on that date. present on the hard drive, but have yet to be recovered and used to generate the usual report format. A summary was Respectfully submitted by Roger Williams provided of the amounts present in all of our Advia accounts, however. In discussion of the current state of treasury funds, concern was expressed about the amount of time elapsed since the last complete report (May, 2018) and about the method for backing up files. Don moved that he and Rich proceed to access the treasury files and to generate reports for January - April, 2019 (seconded by Joe). Jean offered an amendment to include June - December, 2018 in the time period to be reported. A deadline of May 19th was also set. All voted in favor of the amended motion. One aspect of this effort was understood to be copying the files to a thumb We have yet to hold the first Public Observing Session of drive as soon as possible. For the future, Rich will e-mail 2019. Skies were beautiful up until about sunset on April 7th, Don and Richard treasury files for back-up on a monthly but then thin clouds moved it and spoiled our view of the basis. heavens. I did see a nice halo around the Moon, so that was something! The session planned for April 27th was even One other item in this category (raised by Richard) was the worse as a light snowfall covered our lawns. Let’s hope the Remote Telescope fee to be paid by those few granted sessions on both May 11th and 25th coincide with clear skies lifetime membership status in KAS. After a brief discussion, and moderate temperatures. I’m anxious to once again share there was consensus that the lifetime membership frees one views of the nearby worlds of the solar system and distant from paying membership dues but that the Remote Telescope deep sky objects of the Universe. fee would be due the same as with other members. If you’ve been keeping up with your reading of Prime Focus A very brief summary of April/May events included a and/or perusing the pages of KAS Online, then you know our Remote Telescope training session at KAMSC on April 26th th guest speaker was supposed to be Dr. Jim Ashley from the (9:30 pm), Public Observing Sessions on April 27 and May Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Ashley had planned to update 11th, and a general meeting on May 3rd. Richard was awaiting rd us on the progress of the Mars InSight mission, for which he final confirmation that the May 3 meeting would be by serves as the Deputy Science Operations Coordinator. Skype, since the speaker could not come in person as Unfortunately, his responsibilities for the mission required planned. [Note added in proof: More recent information is him to stay in California. We had hoped for at least a Skype that the planned speaker will not be able to keep this presentation, but now that’s impossible. Instead, Dave commitment, and Richard is looking for alternatives.] It th DeBruyn, from the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical appeared that the June 7 meeting would also use Skype. Association, will present a travelogue of his recent excursion to dark skies of the Atacama Desert in Chile. Please join In the follow-up category Richard reported on further your fellow members at the meeting on May 3rd. examination of cloud storage accounts for the Remote Telescope image files. The cost for this item will be The Owl Observatory Upgrade Project is coming right along. significant. Concerning the Owl Observatory upgrade, things We now have the appropriate funds to purchase everything were proceeding swiftly for the telescope and mount needed to adapt the 16-inch SCT OTA and the Astro-Physics replacement, and the pier had moved to a high priority. The 1600GTO equatorial mount. We still need to raise an Board agreed that a 10-inch diameter pier would be required. additional $5,000. This will go toward the motor for the roll- Plans were in place to cover the Rock & Mineral Show on th th off roof, the high-quality eyepieces, and filters. Please May 4 & 5 , and alternatives were considered to obtain less contribute and help make Owl Observatory one of the best expensive dry ice for comet-making. equipped observatories in Michigan.
Prime Focus Page 3 May 2019 feet above the surface of the Moon before returning safely to NASA Night Sky Notes... the orbiting Command Module. Their success paved the way for the first humans to land on the Moon later that year with nd Watching the Late Spring Skies Apollo 11. Look for the Moon on the morning of May 22 , before or after dawn, and contemplate what it must have felt by David Prosper like to hover mere miles above the lunar surface. You’ll also see the bright giant planets Saturn and Jupiter on either side of the Moon before sunrise. When will humans travel to Late spring brings warmer nights, making it more comforta- those distant worlds? ble to observe a good showing of the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Skywatchers can also look for the delicate Coma This article is distributed by NASA Night Sky Network. Visit Star Cluster, and spot the Moon on the anniversary of nightsky.jpl.nasa.org to find local clubs, events, and more! Apollo 10’s “test run” prior to the Moon landing in 1969.
The Eta Aquarids meteor shower should make a good showing this year, peaking the morning of May 6th. This me- teor shower has an unusual “soft peak,” meaning that many meteors can be spotted several days before and after the 6th; Complete More Observing Programs many may find it convenient to schedule meteor watching for the weekend, a night or two before the peak. You may be able to spot a couple dozen meteors an hour from areas with Have you ever wanted to start and complete more of the As- clear dark skies. Meteors can appear in any part of the sky tronomical League’s observing programs but just didn’t and you don’t need any special equipment to view them; just know how? Mike Hotka’s new book, Exploring Amateur find an area away from lights, lie down on a comfy lawn Astronomy – Goal Oriented Observing, will not only help chair or blanket, relax, and patiently look up. These brief you start more observing programs, but will also share an bright streaks are caused by Earth moving through the stream observing methodology to help you get more out of your of fine dust particles observing sessions. Mike is a Platinum Master Observer and left by the passage of has completed all but three of the currently existing observ- Comet Halley. While ing programs. In his book, he we have to wait anoth- shares tips and tricks he learned er 43 years for the throughout the years of how to famous comet grace overcome some of these pro- our skies once more, gram’s learning curves, so that we are treated to this you can start recording observa- beautiful cosmic post- tions sooner. He wrote this card every year. book because of his love of astronomy and his desire to While you’re up mete- share his knowledge of observ- or watching, try to ing celestial objects with others. find a delightful naked eye star cluster: the Coma Star Clus- ter (Melotte 111) in the small constellation of Coma Bereni- Mike’s book explains the con- ces. It can be spotted after sunset in the east and for almost cept of setting SMART goals to the entire night during the month of May. Look for it inside ensure you observe on a regular the area of the sky roughly framed between the constellations basis. The book goes on to ex- of Leo, Boötes, and Ursa Major. The cluster’s sparkly mem- plain a methodology that Mike bers are also known as “Berenice’s Hair” in honor of Egyp- has developed and refined over the years of how to plan an tian Queen Berenices II’s sacrifice of her lovely tress- observing session, find the resources you will need in the es. Binoculars will bring out even more stars in this large field and the importance of keeping a good observing log of young cluster. your observations.
May marks the 50th anniversary of the Lunar Module’s test The remainder of the book contains a chapter for each of the run by the Apollo 10 mission! On May 22, 1969, NASA observing programs that Mike has completed. These chapters astronauts Thomas describe how Mike approached each observing program and Safford and Eugene he shares the techniques that were effective in completing Cernan piloted the the observations for each program. With this knowledge, you Lunar Module - nick- will be able to start making observations from the very be- named “Snoopy” - on ginning for even the most difficult of observing programs. a test descent towards the lunar surface. Un- This book emphasizes learning and refining astronomical docking from “Charlie observing techniques. It is designed to aid the beginner as Brown” - the Com- well as the experienced amateur astronomer to train their eye mand Module, piloted to see faint celestial objects. This book is dedicated to those by John Young – they that would like to start and complete more Astronomical descended to 47,400 League observing programs.
Prime Focus Page 4 May 2019 Astronomers Capture First Image of a Black Hole
An international collaboration presents paradigm-shifting most extreme objects in the Universe predicted by Einstein’s observations of the gargantuan black hole at the heart of dis- general relativity during the centennial year of the historic tant galaxy Messier 87 experiment that first confirmed the theory [4].
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array "We have taken the first picture of a black hole," said EHT of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through inter- project director Sheperd S. Doeleman of the Center for As- national collaboration — was designed to capture images of trophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. "This is an extraordi- a black hole. On April 10th, in coordinated press conferences nary scientific feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 across the globe, EHT researchers reveal that they have suc- researchers." ceeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of a super- massive black hole and its shadow. Black holes are extraordinary cosmic objects with enormous masses but extremely compact sizes. The presence of these This breakthrough was announced in a series of six papers objects affects their environment in extreme ways, warping published in a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal spacetime and super-heating any surrounding material. Letters. The image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87 [1], a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the nearby "If immersed in a bright region, like a disc of glowing gas, Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light we expect a black hole to create a dark region similar to a -years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the shadow — something predicted by Einstein’s general relativ- Sun [2]. ity that we’ve never seen before, explained chair of the EHT Science Council Heino Falcke of Radboud University, the The EHT links telescopes around the globe to form an Earth- Netherlands. "This shadow, caused by the gravitational bend- sized virtual telescope with unprecedented sensitivity and ing and capture of light by the event horizon, reveals a lot resolution [3]. The EHT is the result of years of international about the nature of these fascinating objects and allowed us collaboration, and offers scientists a new way to study the to measure the enormous mass of M87’s black hole."
Multiple calibration and imaging methods have revealed a ring-like struc- ture with a dark central region — the black hole’s shadow — that persisted over multiple independent EHT observations.
"Once we were sure we had imaged the shadow, we could compare our observations to extensive computer models that in- clude the physics of warped space, superheated matter and strong magnet- ic fields. Many of the fea- tures of the observed im- age match our theoretical understanding surprisingly well," remarks Paul T.P. Ho, EHT Board member Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, and Director of the East Asian Observatory [5]. "This makes using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center of the galaxy M87. The image shows a bright ring formed us confident about the interpretation of our observations, as light bends in the intense gravity around a black hole including our estimation of the black hole’s mass." that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun. This long-sought image provides the strongest evidence to Creating the EHT was a formidable challenge which required date for the existence of supermassive black holes and upgrading and connecting a worldwide network of eight pre- opens a new window onto the study of black holes, their existing telescopes deployed at a variety of challenging high- event horizons, and gravity. altitude sites. These locations included volcanoes in Hawai`i
Prime Focus Page 5 May 2019 and Mexico, mountains in Arizona and the Spanish Sierra is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and Nevada, the Chilean Atacama Desert, and Antarctica. measures just under 40 billion km across.
The EHT observations use a technique called very-long- [2] Supermassive black holes are relatively tiny astronomical baseline interferometry (VLBI) which synchronizes tele- objects — which has made them impossible to directly ob- scope facilities around the world and exploits the rotation of serve until now. As a black hole’s size is proportional to its our planet to form one huge, Earth-size telescope observing mass, the more massive a black hole, the larger the shadow. at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. VLBI allows the EHT to achieve Thanks to its enormous mass and relative proximity, M87’s an angular resolution of 20 micro-arcseconds — enough to black hole was predicted to be one of the largest viewable read a newspaper in New York from a sidewalk café in Paris from Earth — making it a perfect target for the EHT. [6]. [3] Although the telescopes are not physically connected, The telescopes contributing to this result were ALMA, they are able to synchronize their recorded data with atomic APEX, the IRAM 30-meter telescope, the James Clerk Max- clocks — hydrogen masers — which precisely time their well Telescope, the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso observations. These observations were collected at a wave- Serrano, the Submillimeter Array, the Submillimeter Tele- length of 1.3 mm during a 2017 global campaign. Each tele- scope, and the South Pole Telescope [7]. Petabytes of raw scope of the EHT produced enormous amounts of data — data from the telescopes were combined by highly special- roughly 350 terabytes per day — which was stored on high- ized supercomputers hosted by the Max Planck Institute for performance helium-filled hard drives. These data were Radio Astronomy and MIT Haystack Observatory. flown to highly specialized supercomputers — known as correlators — at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astrono- The construction of the EHT and the observations announced my and MIT Haystack Observatory to be combined. They today represent the culmination of decades of observational, were then painstakingly converted into an image using novel technical, and theoretical work. This example of global team- computational tools developed by the collaboration. work required close collaboration by researchers from around the world. Thirteen partner institutions worked to- [4] 100 years ago, two expeditions set out for the island of gether to create the EHT, using both pre-existing infrastruc- Príncipe off the coast of Africa and Sobral in Brazil to ob- ture and support from a variety of agencies. Key funding was serve the 1919 solar eclipse, with the goal of testing general provided by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the relativity by seeing if starlight would be bent around the limb EU's European Research Council (ERC), and funding agen- of the Sun, as predicted by Einstein. In an echo of those ob- cies in East Asia. servations, the EHT has sent team members to some of the world's highest and isolated radio facilities to once again test "We have achieved something presumed to be impossible our understanding of gravity. just a generation ago," concluded Doeleman. "Breakthroughs in technology, connections between the world's best radio [5] The East Asian Observatory (EAO) partner on the EHT observatories, and innovative algorithms all came together to project represents the participation of many regions in Asia, open an entirely new window on black holes and the event including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, horizon." Malaysia, India and Indonesia.
Notes [6] Future EHT observations will see substantially increased [1] The shadow of a black hole is the closest we can come to sensitivity with the participation of the IRAM NOEMA Ob- an image of the black hole itself, a completely dark object servatory, the Greenland Telescope and the Kitt Peak Tele- from which light cannot escape. The black hole’s boundary scope. — the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name — [7] ALMA is a partnership of the European Southern Obser- vatory (ESO; Europe, representing its member states), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan, together with the National Research Council (Canada), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST; Taiwan), Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA; Taiwan), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI; Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. APEX is operated by ESO, the 30-meter telescope is operated by IRAM (the IRAM Partner Organizations are MPG (Germany), CNRS (France) and IGN (Spain)), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is operated by the EAO, the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano is operated by INAOE and UMass, the Submillimeter Array is operated by SAO and ASIAA and the Submillimeter Telescope is operat- ed by the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO). The South Pole Telescope is operated by the University of Chicago with specialized EHT instrumentation provided by the University of Arizona.
Prime Focus Page 6 May 2019 Membership of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. . .
1. Thomas Abraham Senior 2020 69. Srinivasa Kota Family 2020 2. Jan Andersen Senior 2019 70. Zosha Kuiper Student 2019 3. Paul Asmus Senior 2019 71. Jim Kurtz Regular 2020 4. Harold Ballen Senior 2019 72. Tim Kurtz Regular 2020 5. Richard Bell Life me n/a 73. Cal & Jean Lamoreaux Senior Family 2020 6. Jonathan Berndt Senior 2019 74. John Lee Family 2020 7. Karen & Peter Berzins Senior Family 2019 75. Nancy Wood & Dale Lighthizer Senior Family 2020 8. Charles Bibart Senior Family 2020 76. Teresa Lindsey-Houston Family 2019 9. Be y Bledsoe Senior 2019 77. Keith Longjohn Senior 2019 10. Jack & Lorrie Bley Family 2019 78. Andrew Loveless Family 2020 11. Joseph & Pa Borrello Family 2019 79. Gary & Phyllis Lubbert Family 2019 12. Ma hew Borton Regular 2019 80. Chuck Lund Senior 2020 13. Tommy Brown Regular 2019 81. Sco Macfarlane Family 2019 14. Jason Burke Regular 2019 82. Dale E. Mais Senior 2020 15. Phyllis Buskirk Life me n/a 83. Phillip & Linda Marshall Senior Family 2020 16. Michael Bussey Senior 2019 84. Jon Towne & Bobbi Mar ndale Family 2019 17. Beverly Byle Senior 2020 85. Richard Mather Senior 2020 18. Joseph Cain Family 2019 86. Randy & Michelle Matson Family 2020 19. Dale A. Campbell Family 2020 87. Joe McJilton Regular 2019 20. David Carpenter Family 2019 88. Paul McKinley Senior 2019 21. Adam Castle Regular 2020 89. Michael J. Melwiki Regular 2019 22. Bonnie Covert & Mike Chaffee Family 2020 90. Chris Miller Regular 2020 23. Tonya Chase Regular 2019 91. John Miller Regular 2019 24. Joe & Ellen Comiskey Family 2019 92. Mark & Ninah Miller Family 2020 25. Roark Consola Senior 2019 93. Dave & Carol Mitchell Senior Family 2019 26. Michael Cook Family 2019 94. Ka e Morgan Regular 2019 27. Harry Co erill Senior Family 2019 95. David Murphy Family 2019 28. Greg Cowles Family 2019 96. Bill Nigg Life me n/a 29. Brian Cri endon Regular 2019 97. Richard Olsen Regular 2019 30. John Dillworth & Dorilee Crown Family 2020 98. Jim & Christene Oorbeck Family 2020 31. Sco & Lisa Crummel Family 2019 99. Amy Ohrstrom Regular 2019 32. Kalman & Becky Csia Senior Family 2020 100. Charles Overberger Regular 2020 33. Jean DeMo Senior 2020 101. Mike Pa on Senior 2020 34. Sue DeNise Regular 2019 102. Thomas M. Peters Regular 2019 35. Ma hew DePriest Family 2020 103. Jack & Ruth Price Family 2019 36. Srinivas Dhara Family 2019 104. Sam & Tina Qualls Family 2020 37. Richard Dirrenberger Senior 2020 105. Michael Quinn Senior Family 2019 38. Kris & Steve Durbin Family 2019 106. Jonathan Reck Regular 2020 39. Fred E. Du on Senior 2019 107. Christopher Roberts Regular 2019 40. James Dyer Senior Family 2020 108. Andrew C. Robins Regular 2019 41. Cli on E. Ealy Jr. Regular 2020 109. Aaron & McKenzie Roman Family 2019 42. Fred Espenak Honorary n/a 110. Eric Schreur Senior 2020 43. Joseph Evankovich Regular 2019 111. Robert Secor Regular 2020 44. Bill Finger Regular 2019 112. Frank & Susan Severance Senior Family 2020 45. Bradley Franks Student 2019 113. Diane Schear Regular 2021 46. Dave Garten Family 2020 114. Rick Shields Senior 2019 47. Ma Garten Regular 2020 115. Lloyd Simons Family 2019 48. Brendan & Dee Gauthier Senior Family 2019 116. Michael & Karen Sinclair Family 2020 49. Kalina Angell & Rob Gauthier Family 2020 117. Greg Sirna Regular 2019 50. Tom George Regular 2019 118. Don S lwell Family 2019 51. Jaimy Gordon Senior 2019 119. Stephanie Stra on Regular 2019 52. Tony Gurczynski Senior 2019 120. Brian & Terri Swisher Family 2019 53. Alexander Hanchar Senior 2019 121. Renée Szostek Regular 2019 54. Robert & Barbara Havira Senior Family 2020 122. David Taylor Regular 2019 55. David Heinrich Family 2019 123. Josh Taylor-Lehman Family 2019 56. Geoffrey Hickok Senior Family 2020 124. Gary & Karen Theisen Family 2020 57. Christopher & Lydia Hodshire Family 2019 125. Henry & Martha Upjohn Family 2019 58. Lydia Hoff Regular 2019 126. Michael Vandeveer Senior 2019 59. Nicholas & Nancy Hotra Senior Family 2020 127. Patricia Villalobos Family 2019 60. Arya Jaya laka Family 2021 128. Jim Vukelich Senior 2019 61. Eric Jeska Regular 2019 129. Robert Wade Suppor ng 2019 62. Dean Johnson Senior 2020 130. Brian Walesh Family 2019 63. Kevin Jung Regular 2020 131. Ka e & Duane Weller Family 2019 64. Daniel Keto Regular 2019 132. Bob White Senior 2019 65. Rodney & Marlene Kinne Senior Family 2019 133. Roger & Molly Williams Family 2020 66. Mark Kinsey Family 2019 134. Ma hew Wimsa Family 2020 67. Melissa Kohler Family 2019 135. Klay & Karen Woodworth Family 2019 68. Kirk & Angela Korista Family 2019 136. David Woolf Family 2020
Prime Focus Page 7 May 2019 — May Night Sky —
This star map is property of the This map represents the sky at the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. NORTH following local mes: However, you may make as many • Late April 12 am copies as you wish free-of- • Early May 11 pm charge, so long as it is for non- profit educa onal purposes and • Late May 10 pm full credit is given to the KAS. • Early June Dusk www.kasonline.org EAST WEST
SOUTH
ook toward the east just before phase, moves to within 2° of Aldebaran, The Moon, a day past full, forms a wide sunrise on May 2nd and you’ll Taurus the Bull’s orange-red eye, at dusk triangle with planet Jupiter and supergiant have no difficulty spotting Venus, on May 6th. star Antares, in Scorpius, on the night of L th th the brilliant Morning Star. If both air and May 19 - 20 . Jupiter and the Moon will horizon are clear you might be able to The Moon, now one day short of first come within 5° of one another on the spot a thin waning crescent Moon 4.5° to quarter, buzzes through the Beehive morning of May 20th. Venus’ lower right. Cluster (M44) in Cancer on the evening of May 10th. You’ll need binoculars to Asteroid 1 Ceres will be at opposition on The Moon, now in a thin waxing crescent spot the stars of the Beehive. May 28th. It’s easy to spot in binoculars. May 2019 Page 9 PRESIDENT Richard S. Bell @ VICE PRESIDENT Volunteers Needed Jack Price The KAS has been invited to par cipate in TREASURER the Kalamazoo Geological & Mineral Society’s 60th annual Rock, Gem, Fossil and Rich Mather Mineral Show at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center. We’ll par cipate on May 4th (10am - SECRETARY/ALCOR 6pm) and May 5th (10am - 5pm). We need at Roger Williams least two volunteers inside and one solar observer outside (from 12 - 4pm, weather PUBLICITY MANAGER permi ng). Please contact us if you’d like to volunteer for one or more dates. Joe Comiskey
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Jean De Mo Sco Macfarlane NEW ITEMS IN Don S lwell
E-MAIL a BOARD MEMBER
KAS Lapel Pin Miller Planisphere KAS Embroidered Caps $5.00 $13.00 $20.00 each ORDER ONLINE AT: skyshop.kasonline.org
Public Observing Sessions Saturday, May 11th
Saturday, May 25th
Kalamazoo Nature Center ─ 7000 N. Westnedge Ave. ─ General Meeting Preview
Dave has just returned from a "bucket list" trip that he has been an cipa ng for decades. With several long me stargazing buddies, he traveled to the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, to observe under ideal condi ons features of the sky that never rise over Michigan. These included the fabled Magellanic Clouds, Tarantula Nebula, magnificent Omega Centauri cluster, and other sky wonders. At an eleva on of close to 10,000 feet, and absence of any serious urban light pollu on, the Atacama has become the place for both amateur and professional astronomy. The group used a 22-inch Dobsonian telescope over four amazingly dark nights, and Dave will show representa ve images from this adventure of a life me during the presenta on. Friday, May 3 @ 7:00 pm Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center
600 West Vine, Suite 400 • Use Dutton St. Entrance ─ Dutton Entrance Locked by 7:10 pm ─
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society c/o KAMSC STAMP 600 West Vine, Suite 400 Kalamazoo, MI 49008
© May 2019, Stargazer Productions