Longmont Astronomical Society March 2019 Newsletter

Vol. 33 No. 3 - ISSN 2641-8886 (web) - ISSN 2641-8908 (print) - March 2019 LAS Meeting - March 21 at 7pm - IHop Astrophotography Excursion to San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations

Pipe Bowl Dark Nebula area in Milky Way taken from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile in October 2018 by Stephen Garretson using Canon 70-200mm Zoom at 115mm Canon 6D on iOptron SkyGuider Pro We describe the trip to Chile by Stephen, MJ, Tally and David in October of 2018. We present the travel, activities at the Atacama Lodge, our tours of local attractions including ALMA, and show off astro-photographs we were able to record from 63° south of Boulder. Notes from the President: Bill Tschumy Our February monthly meeting was a bit chaotic. IHOP bumped us from our normal room because of another meeting there on the same night. I appreciate everyone’s making the best of a bad situation. Of course, this had to happen on the night of a popular speaker, John Bally. We are actively looking for alternate loca- tions for the meetings since IHOP is becoming less and less workable for us.

I hope that many of you can make the March 16th public star party at Rabbit Mountain. We need to show Boulder County Parks and Open Space that we can be counted on to put on a good show for them.

The other big thing on the Board’s plate is figuring out our move to a new web site platform. We’ve looked at a few options but, as usual, nothing seems perfect for us. A few of you have seen suggestions of services that other clubs use. Feel free to keep them coming. I hope to have a decision (or at least a proposal) by our next meeting.

Page 2 Copyright (c) Longmont Astronomical Society, March 2019. All rights reserved. Contents Front “Horsehead and Flame” Nebula by Eddie Hunnell 2 LAS Meeting - March 21 “Astrophotography Excursion to San Pedro de Atacam Celestial Explorations” by David Elmore, Stephen Garretson, Tally O’Donnell, and M. J. Post 2 Notes From the President: Bill Tschumy 3 Contents 3 About LAS 4 Solar System Highlights 5 Lunar Highlights 6-7 Comets 8 Navigating the mid March Night Sky 9 If you could Observe only One Object this Month 9 From Our Newsletter Archives 10 LAS Meeting Notes for February 21 by Joe Hudson 11 Amateur Astronomy Tech - Travel Routers 12 Image Contributors and Details 13-27 Member Images 28-30 Astronomy Headlines 31 Items Available for Purchase at the LAS Store Back “Between Heart and Soul in HOO” by Stephen Garretson About LAS

The Longmont Astronomial Society Newsletter ISSN 2641-8886 (web) - ISSN 2641-8908 (print) is published monthly by the Longmont Astronomical Society, P. O. Box 806, Longmont, Colorado. Newsletter Editor is Vern Raben . Website https://www.longmontastro.org

The Longmont Astronomical Society is a 501 c(3), non-profit corporation which was established in 1987. Our main goal is to promote local amateur astronomy. This is accomplished through regular monthly meetings, star parties and public observing sessions.

Regular meetings are held every month (except December) on the third Thursday. The current location is at the IHop Restaurant, 2040 Ken Pratt Boulevard in Longmont. Meetings are open to the public and begin at 7:00 PM. A group of us have dinner at the IHop before the meeting around 6 pm.

A broad spectrum of topics are covered at the meetings and include such things as deep sky observing, planetary imaging, narrow band imaging, equipment discussions and demonstrations just to name a few. These subjects are presented by both club members as well as special guests who are professional astrono- mers or experts in a particular field.

The Longmont Astronomical Society is affiliated with the Astronomical League (https://www.astroleague.org). The Astronomical League is an um- brella organization of amateur astronomy societies in the United States.

Copyright (c) Longmont Astronomical Society, March 2019. All rights reserved. Page 3 Solar System Highlights Lunar Highlights March 16th at 8:00 pm (10 days after new) Moon Plato New moon: Mar 6 at 9:04 am Promitorium Laplace First quarter: Mar 14 at 4:27 am Sinus Iridum (bay of rainbows) Full moon: Mar 20 at 7:43 pm

Third quarter: Mar 27 10:10 pm Promitorium Herculides Use a small telescope to spot a woman’s profile with Image credit: Brian Kimball flowing hair. In the 1670s Mercury at the following times this month Giovanni Cassini named this Mercury is visible for only a few assuming a longitude of 303° (see feature the “moon maiden” days early in March. http://jupos.privat.t-online.de/rGrs. htm). That is based on my linear Venus interpolation from plot; I have not Begins the month in Capricornus imaged Jupiter this year to confirm. Copernicus is 58 miles at magnitude -4.1 in brightness across and has walls that and has a 16 arc sec wide disk. It Date Time Altitude rise 12,400 feet above the dims to -4 in brightness by April March 2 5:43 am 27° crater floor. and its disk to 13 arc sec. March 7 4:52 am 25° Mars March 12 5:00 am 22° Mars is in the constellation Aries March 14 6:38 am 29° until the 23rd when it moves to Tau- rus. It decreases in brightness from March 29 5:46 am 27° +1.2 around the first of the month March 24 4:54 am 25° to +1.4 by month end. Its apparent disk shrinks form 5.3 arc to 4.6 arc March 26 5:33 am 29° sec across. March 29 4:02 am 22° Jupiter Gassendi is one of the Saturn Moon’s most interesting and Saturn is in constellation Sagittar- beautiful objects. It has a ius all month. It is magnitude +0.6 fractured floor, crisscrossed in brightness and its disk is 16 arc by rilles. It also has a nice set sec across. of central mountain peaks. David Elmore Uranus Jupiter is constellation Ophiuchus Uranus is visible early in the eve- all month. It increases in bright- ning in constellation Aries. It is ness from magnitude -2.1 on the magnitude +5.9 in brightness and 1st to -2.3 on the 31st. It increas- its disk is 3.4 arc sec across. es in size from 36 to 40 arc sec Neptune across. The Great Red Spot should cross the center of Jupiter’s disk Neptune is not visible this month.

Promitorium Laplace

Mare Seranitatis Mare Mare Imbrium Crisium

Mare Tranquilitatis

Mare Fe- cunditatis

Gassendi is one of the Mare Nubium Moon’s most interesting and beautiful objects. It has a fractured floor, crisscrossed by rilles. It also has a nice set of central mountain peaks.

NASA Scientific Visualization Studio Comets

Created with SkyTools3

Path of comet C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) during March

Created with SkyTools3

Comet 2018 Y1 (Iwamoto). The comet reached magnitude 5.5 in mid February and is fading now. On March 1 it is in the constellation Auriga and is 9.3 magnitude in brightness. It moves into constellation Perseus on the 13th . Its expected to fade to magnitude 11.7 near end of this month.

Comet 46P Wirtanen is magnitude 9.1 in brightness and is in the constellation Ursa Major on March 1. It moves into Leo Minor on March 13. By the 31st it dims to magnitude 11.2.

C/2018 L2 (AtlasT) duringT March

Comet 2018 L2 ATLAS in Lacerta on March 1 and is 10th magnitude in brightness. It moves into Andromeda on the 14th. It is expected to dim to magnitude 10.7 by end of the month. Its coma is about 5 arc min across.

March 2009 March 1999 March 1989 The speaker at the March 19, 2009 Article by Jane Houston about March 15, 1989 meeting at Long- meeting will be Dr. Bob Stencil LAS member Bob Michaels who mont HS was called to order at from University of Denver Depart- was a retired 747 UAL captain 7:30 pm by president Jim Getson. ment of Physics and Astronomy. who is known on line as “Two Jennifer Getson read minutes He will talk about the International Dob Bob”. He split his time be- from a FRASC meeting in Denver Year of Astrononomy activities and tween Boulder and Honolulu. In last January. the peculiar variable star Epsilon his Boulder Garage he has two 20 Auriga. inch diameter mirrors mounted Steve Albers talked about the as binoculars. The mirrors were Sunday occultation which 20 of us Shuttle and ISS are both visible made by LAS member Jerry attended. during deorbit March 25 to 29. Wilkerson. He also has a 20 inch Obsession which was retro-fitted Greg Dickenson gave a very tech- Comet Lulin is in Gemini and is by Randy Cunningham who was nical talk on celestial coordinates, magnitude 7. also a LAS member. Both Jane right ascension, declination, and Star party at Sandstone Ranch Houston and John Dobson spent other associated information. parking lot for Skyline High a two week visit with Bob in Ho- School. nolulu. Copyright (c) Longmont Astronomical Society, March 2019. All rights reserved. Page 9 LAS Meeting Notes for February 21 by Joe Hudson

February 21, 2019 the club was like - a very warm following Dr. Bally’s presentation 1900 hours MDT welcome is extended to Paul! very difficult -- so no notes. 2040 Ken Pratt Boulevard Current members we haven’t seen Longmont, Colorado for a while: Mike Fellows was in the Business Meeting house tonight!!! Great to see you! Finance Report by Marty Butley - Bill Tschumy, President, opens and report accepted as presented. moderates: Presentation: “Imaging HII regions, protostellar outflows, Please pick up your pre-paid Introductions and transients” by Dr. John calendar or buy a couple more. Newsletter next month will also Officers Bally, University of Colorado, CASA. be a paper edition - please send • Bill Tschumy, President Vern an email if you want one. • Stephen Garretson, Vice Presi- dent Bill Tschumy would like to add a • Marty Butley, Treasurer section to the monthly meeting • Joe Hudson, Secretary that addresses the entry level / be- Board of Directors ginner who have only a short time in the hobby. He will draw upon • David Elmore the membership for the content • Brian Kimball and presentations. Bill suggested • Gary Garzone some educational observing ses- • Tally O’Donnell sions for new members on topics • Vern Raben such as scope selection, polar Announcements alignment, collimation, eyepiece • Lunar Eclipse Star Party at Rabbit Speaker Introduction: selection / optics , history of as- Mountain on Jan 20, 2019 - sky Dr. John Bally received his under- tronomy, and constellation of the was somewhat clear and it turned graduate degree from the Uni- month. It was suggested that we out to be a good event with large versity of California at Berkeley in have a “This month in Astronomy” group attending (about 70) 1972. In 1980 he received his Ph.D. topic for say 100 years ago with • Sandstone Star Party Feb 9, 2019 from the University of Massachu- links to external content. Many weather didn’t cooperate; only 7 setts at Amherst. For 11 years he opportunities exist for member folks in the audience worked with the group at AT&T involvement. • There will be a joint LAS / Boul- Bell Laboratories that discovered der County Parks and Open the Cosmic Microwave. He re- Bill announced that a new web site Space Star Party on Mar 16, 2019 - searches the interstellar medium, platform investigation and analysis 7:45pm at Rabbit Mountain Park star formation, feedback and the is underway. A couple products • Boy Scout Chapter 190 Star Party self-regulation of star formation. are front runners with function- Apr 13, 2019 - 8:00pm Bill will His other research interests in- al and usability comparisons by try to interest them in going to clude the formation of clusters and multiple Board members. Some Rabbit Mountain, if not he’ll make massive stars, protostellar outflows of the criteria are having a portal other arrangements and jets, molecular clouds, astrobi- and blog , discussion and forum • There will be another LAS / Boul- ology, black-holes and cosmology. support, and ‘near’ unlimited im- der County Parks and Open Space age hosting for members to post Star Party Apr 13, 2019 - 8:00pm The IHop manager set us up in a images. corner which made it very crowd- Visitors and New Members ed and viewing the presentation Paul has joined us this evening as very difficult; a number of us could a visitor, interested in seeing what not see the screen which made

During a star party someone will er/hot spots available and most On the plus side, a fair number try to use their cell phone to snap of them are not very expensive of people have difficulty viewing a picture through our telescopes ($30-$100). A search on Amazon or through an eyepiece. Nearly every so they can post on some social Walmart will yield half a dozen or object can be seen more easily by media platform and share with so that would probably work great. a camera rather than by naked eye. their friends. A few of them who You can show much fainter ob- have great hand and eye coordina- I selected one called the “Ravpow- jects. Also you can point out tion manage to get some amazing er Plus” for about $40. It is very details on a monitor so interaction pictures of the moon or planets. It pocket-able device measuring only with the public is better. is often a difficult and time con- 3-3/4” x 2” x 1” and weighs about 5 suming process for them and for oz. those in line behind them at the scope.

Several vendors offer products that attach a cell phone to an eyepiece. Rosette by Glenn Frank They work fine but unfortu- nately it takes a few minutes RAV Power Plus to attach them to the cell and to the eyepiece. It then takes several Keep in mind that small and black more minutes to find the image in items are hard to find in the dark. the camera and capture it. With So -- get a white one! Orion Nebula by Gary Garzone lots of people in line at your scope it is not a great solution. The instructions are fairly good and it is not difficult to set up. It occurred to me that perhaps I could attach a camera to my Other than adding yet another scope and then transfer the device, the downside with this images from it to the people’s approach is nearly the same as us- cellphones that nearly everyone ing video for any star party -- you carries now-a-days. have lots of things to set up: Horsehead by Gary Garzone • Telescope I did some searching and came • Mount across devices which are known as • Power supplies “travel or hot spot routers”. These • Camera are used by photographers and • Notebook other travelers to transfer photos • Lots of cables between their cameras and note- • Travel router and power books when no network is avail- Instead of a half an hour to setup it able. will take more like hour. There are IC 2177 by Glen Frank many more things to forget and There are quite a few travel rout- set up is much more complex.

Front Cover Back Cover “Horsehead and Flame” by Eddie “Between Heart and Soul SHO” by Hunnell on Feb. 5 using M. J.’s Ultra Stephen Garretson. 2 hrs Ha, 2 hrs Triad filter. OIII, & 1.5 hr SII. William Optics Star 71 Gen II f/4.9 Astrograph, ZWO ASI1600 MM on Paramount MyT mount. Page 13 Page 21 “Heart and Soul” Nebula by M. J. Post. “Orion Nebula with Running Man” by Mosaic covering 4.1 by 3.2 deg. One Glenn Frank. C9.25, Hyperstar, ZWO hour exposure with Ha and SII filters 1600MM, Ha and O3 filters. using only red pixels. Page 22 Page 14 - 15 “Area around Bernard 37” by Stephen Monkey Head, NGC 2174, by M. J. Garretson. [18] Ha 600s, [12] OIII 600s, Post. Thirty min each of Ha, SII, and [12] SII 600s. William Optics Star 71 OIII. Gen II f/4.9 Astrograph. ZWO ASI1600 MM Cooled Page 16 -17 Page 23 “Rossette” Nebula by Tally O’Donnell. “Barnard 37” by Stephen Garretson. Two hrs using an SVS130 telescope 9 hours integration, 3 each of Ha, OIII, and an ASI183 monochrome camera and SII. William Optics Star 71 w/ ASI using Ha and OIII using HOO process- ZWO 1600MM Cooled, Baader NB ing. Taken near Kenton, OK. filters. Page 18 Page 24 Stephen Garretson, NGC 7822 in SHO. Thor’s Helmet” by Marty Butley. Ha About 9 hours integration, 3 each of 45 x 5 min subs, OIII 31 x 5 min subs Ha, OIII, and SII. William Optics Star 71 Takahashi FSQ 130 with FLI 16200 ASI ZWO 1600MM Cooled Baader NB Monochrome camera. filters Page 19 Page 25 Cocoon Nebula and Barnard 168 by Seagull and Gum1 Nebula (IC 2177) Stephen Garretson. [12] 600s Ha, [44] by Stephen Garretson. 1 hr for each 120s & [4] 180s Red, [22] 180s Green, RGB. William Optics Star 71 w/ ASI [26] 180s Blue. William Optics Star 71 ZWO 1600MM Cooled camera. Gen II Astrograph,ZWO ASI 1600 MM Page 20 Page 26 Horsehead by M. J. Post. One hr with M33 by Marty Butley. Ha:22x5min, Baader fast narrowband filter with a R:21x5 min, G:19x 5min, B:21x- OSC camera (red pixels only) and my 5min,Lum:31x5 min. Tak FSQ 130, MyT 11” RASA scope (f/2.2) mount & FLI Microline 16200 camera. Page 21 - M1 Crab Nebula by Gary Page 27 Garzone. M81 by Marty Butley. 50 five minute subs in Ha. Taken with a Takahashi FSQ 130 using an FLI 16200 monochrome camera in Hygiene, CO.

Caroline Herschell Born March 16, 1750 Happy Birthday Lina !!!

Celestron RASA Telescope like M. J. used to capture images for the picture above.

Copyright (c) Longmont Astronomical Society, March 2019. All rights reserved. Page 23 “Thor’s Helmet” by Marty Butley Page 24 Copyright (c) Longmont Astronomical Society, March 2019. All rights reserved. IC 3277 by Stephe Garretson

On February 28, Canada was the first to ioin the United states in the establishment of an “Outpost” orbiting the Moon. Construction of the lunar outpost will begin in 2022 with launch of the power and propulsion element. Human habitation capabilities will be added in 2024.

Credits: NASA

Lunar swirls shown in images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter may be caused by solar wind interact- ing with local magnetic field variations.

Please join LAS this year! If you are already a member don’t forget to renew. Cost for new members or renewing your membership is $21 for you and your family. See https://www.longmontastro.org/ membership

The first ever LAS Calendar. Monthly astro-photos were contributed by LAS members. The calendar is localized to the Denver time zone. It shows LAS meetings and star parties as well as celestial events. Price: $5.00 (pickup at meeting) or $8.00 (mailed). About 40 are still available. See https://www.longmontastro.org/membership#2

Price: $4 (pick up at meeting) or $7.00 (mailed).

See https://www.longmontastro. Thus far LAS has placed 21 tele- org/membership#3 scopes in local libraries. Donate to the LAS telescope program at https://www.longmontastro.org/ membership#1

The March edition of the LAS Newsletter will be printed on very high quality 100# paper. If enough people are interested we may publish a paper edition every quarter. Louisville Solar Event by Jim Elkins Copyright (c) Longmont Astronomical Society, March 2019. All rights reserved. Page 31 Longmont Astronomical Society PO Box 806 Longmont, CO 80506 www.longmontastro.org

“Between Heart and Soul in HOO” by Stephen Garretson