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THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 45, Number 7 July 2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – Messier 27 2«President’s Note 2«NCRAL’s Season Messier Mini Marathons 3«Calendar of Astronomical Events – July 2020 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4«This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 6«Waynesville Observatory Use Policy Statement 7«CDK 24” Telescope Coming Online at WO 7«Celestron NexStar 11” Telescope Donated to TCAA 8«TCAA Image Gallery 9«Maintenance Work at Waynesville Observatory 10«Did You Know? 11«TCAA Active on Facebook 11«July 2020 with Jeffrey L. Hunt 23«Renewing Your TCAA Membership 23«Online Public Talks for 2020 24«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of June 26, 2020 The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League as well as its North Central Region. For more information about the TCAA, be certain to visit the TCAA website at http://www.tcaa.us/ Visit http://www.astroleague.org for additional information about the Astronomical League and its EDITOR’S CHOICE: IMAGE OF THE MONTH – MESSIER 27 numerous membership benefits, including observing programs. This image of M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) was taken by Scott and Emily Wade and Deva Chatrathi. Scott writes, “Here’s an image of M27 Also, visit the NCRAL website at that was captured on the evenings of 6/23 (Emily & Scott) and 6/25 http://ncral.wordpress.com for in- (Deva & Scott) using the CDK 17” telescope with the QHY600 formation about our North Central camera and RGB filters. We captured thirty-five 300-second Region. Find out about the many exposures (12R, 11G, and 12B) at -20° Celsius with binning set to 2. benefits of your membership from The image was processed by Emily and Scott using PixInsight and this site. Photoshop. Copyright © 2020 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 7 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers July 2020 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER June was as beautiful an astronomy is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin month as the months prior were dismal. City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organiz- Personally, I was able to engage in my ation of amateur astronomers interested in passion for astrophotography on nine studying astronomy and sharing their hobby nights of the month, more nights than I with the public. accumulated since November of last year. It was a joy to see such crystal-clear TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS moonless nights. I even took the President, Director, & Property Manager opportunity to complete the NCRAL Tim Stone 309-531-2401 Summer Mini Messier Marathon. [email protected] Even though I have my Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. Astronomical League Messier Certifi- Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 cate, it was fun to revisit objects I President Tim Stone [email protected] probably haven’t seen since I completed Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent that observing program. When was the last time I visited diminutive M80? What Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 object did I even view for my observation of enigmatic M102? This time, at least, I [email protected] viewed NGC 5907, The Silver Sliver, even though I doubt very much Messier could Assistant Property Manager/ALCor have possibly seen it. In fact, I’ve photographed it several times, but I’ve never seen Scott Wade 309-310-2464 it in an eyepiece. I hope to complete the Autumn, Winter, and Spring programs as [email protected] well. Hopefully I won’t have to freeze to death for the Winter one! 5th Director The point I’m trying to make here is: the weather is warm, clear nights have Sunil Chebolu 678-896-5967 returned, your goto mount is permissible (that’s what I did), and the program is laid [email protected] out for you. There’s NO reason not to dust that telescope off and do the program! Secretary/Historian/Editor Come on out to one of the observatories. If you don’t want to mess with a telescope, Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 then use the club scope in the SGO dome. I completed my observations in less than [email protected] an hour. We are astronomers. Let’s do some astronomy! Technology Coordinator/Assistant Editor Tim Stone Sandullah Epsicokhan 309-828-0227 [email protected] Webmaster NCRAL SEASONAL MESSIER MINI MARATHONS Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] Editor’s Note: The following notice about NCRAL Seasonal Messier Mini Marathons AL Observing Club Coordinator was taken from the Northern Lights newsletter: Lisa Wentzel unlisted number [email protected] Don’t overlook the NCRAL Seasonal Messier Marathons! The Seasonal Messier Marathon observing programs are NCRAL’s introduction to viewing the Messier The OBSERVER objects. This program is intended to serve as motivation to get NCRAL-affiliated Carl J. Wenning, Editor members out under the stars to observe. Submission deadline two days before The program permits the use of goto telescopes to find the objects and, as such, the end of each month. the program must not be seen as proof of observing prowess. NCRAL will permit Astronomical League’s Messier observing program to serve that purpose. MEMBERSHIP DUES Up-to-date details about the Region’s four seasonal observing programs and Individual Adult/Family $40 helpful observing record sheets can now be found on the NCRAL website: Full-time Student/Senior $25 https://ncral.wordpress.com/awards/. (Senior status equals ages 60+) Summer Objects: M83, M102, M5, M13, M92, M9, M10, M12, M14, M19, M62, To join, send your name, contact info, and M107, M4, M6, M7, M80, M16, M8, M17, M18, M20, M21, M22, M23, M24, M25, dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA M28, and M54. (28 objects). Note per the NCRAL observing program chair that M51 Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL will be accepted in lieu M83 that disappears very early during the summer months. 61761-1471. Copyright © 2020 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 7 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers July 2020 CALENDAR OF ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS – JULY 2020 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (7/15): Mercury (☿), Venus (♀), Mars (♂), The following individuals have paid dues for new or renewed memberships as of June 26, 2020. (Others who Saturn (♄), Uranus (⛢), and Neptune (♆) paid after that date will appear in the August 2020 issue EVENING PLANETS (7/15): Jupiter (♃) of The OBSERVER.) The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! important astronomical events for this month. All events are given in Central Daylight Time. New: James Wolf Renewing: Mark Boulware, Sunil Chebolu Day Time Event Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! 03 22:18 Moon at Descending Node 04 08 Earth at Aphelion: 1.01669 AU DUES BLUES 04 23:30 Pen. Lunar Eclipse; mag=0.355 If you have received a dues statement email along 04 23:44 FULL MOON with this issue of The OBSERVER, please send your dues 05 16:37 Jupiter 1.9°N of Moon to Mr. Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 06 03:45 Saturn 2.5°N of Moon Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for seniors 10 07 Venus at Aphelion (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 11 07:10 Venus 1.0°N of Aldebaran SUBSCRIBING TO THE TCAA EMAIL LIST 11 14:36 Mars 2.0°N of Moon 12 14:27 Moon at Apogee: 404201 km Welcome to the [email protected] group at Groups.io. 12 18:29 LAST QUARTER MOON This is a free, easy-to-use group email service set up for 14 02 Jupiter at Opposition the TCAA’s communication purposes. You can subscribe, visit your group, read and post messages here: 16 20:21 Aldebaran 3.8°S of Moon https://groups.io/g/tcaa 17 02:26 Venus 3.1°S of Moon The email address for this group is [email protected]. 18 07:33 Moon at Ascending Node After you successfully subscribe, please add this email 18 22:54 Mercury 3.9°S of Moon address to your safe sender list in your email client’s 20 12:33 NEW MOON contacts, so emails from this list are not classified as junk 20 17 Saturn at Opposition mail. Once subscribed, you can set your subscription 22 10 Mercury at Greatest Elong: 20.1°W settings here: https://groups.io/g/tcaa/editsub. You can 22 15:50 Regulus 4.3°S of Moon opt to receive all messages in individual emails, collections 24 23:54 Moon at Perigee: 368367 km of messages in a digest, a daily summary, or only special 27 07:32 FIRST QUARTER MOON notices. If you do not wish to belong to this group, you 27 16 Delta-Aquarid Meteor Shower may unsubscribe by sending an email to [email protected] 31 04:32 Moon at Descending Node If you have general questions about the group, email This Calendar of Astronomical Events courtesy of Fred Espenak. [email protected]. For questions not answered there, http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2020cst.html contact the moderators of this group (Deva C., Tim S., and Carl W.) by emailing [email protected]. EVENING SKY MAP Get the current evening sky map along with a more detailed celestial events calendar at the following URL: http://www.skymaps.com/ Copyright © 2020 TCAA 3 All rights reserved.