March 2015 The Sidereal Times Southeastern Iowa Astronomy Club A Member Society of the Astronomical League Club Officers: Minutes February 19, 2015 Executive Committee President Jim Hilkin President Jim Hilkin the checking account is snow on the observatory Vice President Libby Snipes Treasurer Vicki Philabaum called the meeting to or- $1,895.92 which includes dome. Dave announced Secretary David Philabaum th th Chief Observer David Philabaum der at 6:30 pm with the $160.89 in grant funds. that a group of 4 and 5 Members-at-Large Claus Benninghoven following members in at- Vicki will send out dues grade Girl Scouts is Duane Gerling Blake Stumpf tendance: Judy Smithson, notices as they come due. scheduled to come to the rd Board of Directors Paul Sly, Claus Benning- Dave reported that he had observatory on March 3 . Chair Judy Hilkin Vice Chair Ray Reineke hoven, Duane Gerling, received some brochures Jim reported that the Secretary David Philabaum Members-at-Large Bill Stewart, Carl Snipes, about the 2015 Nebraska Witte Observatory will be Frank Libe Blake Stumpf and Dave Philabaum. Star Party. It will be held painted this spring. A Jim Wilt Three guests were also in July 12-17 at the Merritt grant has been submitted Audit Committee Dean Moberg (2012) attendance. Jim ex- reservoir near Valentine, to Diamond Vogel for the JT Stumpf (2013) John Toney (2014) pressed condolences to Nebraska. Jim reported paint. In preparation for Newsletter Carl on the recent death that a group of Girl Scouts this the bushes on the Karen Johnson of his mother. Dave pre- was at the observatory on north side of the class- sented the Treasurer's February 3 rd , but the only room will be removed. A report in Vicki's absence. viewing was through a couple of evergreens have Inside this issue: The current balance in portable scope because of already been cut back. (Minutes continued on page 3) In The News 2 Mutual Events 2 Upcoming Dates Convention Letter 3 ~ Dues are due in April ~ First Friday Public Viewing, April 3 (weather Minutes (cont.) 3 ~ Nominations for club permitting) Looking Back 4 officers in April ~ Deadline for the April ~ Election of officers in Treasurer’s Report 4 newsletter is Wednesday, May Observer’s Report 5-6 April 8, 2015 ~ The next meeting will ~ April meeting on the Calendar 7 be Thursday, March 19, at 17 th the Burlington Public Li- Sky Maps 8-9 brary, 6:30—7:30 Page 2 The Sidereal Times In The News The Maven spacecraft has served by the Hubble exposed them to ultravio- detected a high-altitude Space Telescope. It’s esti- let radiation, and have dust cloud and aurora in mated to be 60 miles thick produced uracil, cytosine, the atmosphere of Mars. and buried under an icy and thymine. All three crust 95 miles deep. are found in RNA and Amateur astronomers can DNA, showing that these now help discover new Four new spacecraft, the components of life can be asteroids by analyzing im- MMS, launched on March made non-biologically in a ages using a desktop soft- 12, will study magnetic lab under conditions ware application devel- reconnection, a process found in space. oped by NASA and Plane- where magnetic fields tary Resources, Inc. The connect and disconnect software is free and can be and reconnect in new con- Sources: downloaded at http:// figurations, converting http://www.nasa.gov/news/ topcoder.com/asteroids magnetic energy into ki- releases/latest/#.VQntQI7F_K1 netic energy, thermal en- On Friday, March 27, the ergy, and particle acceler- http://www.nasa.gov/topics/ first one-year crew will ation, resulting in bursts universe/ launch for the Interna- of energy. index.html#.VQop147F_K0 Did You Know? tional Space Station. Scientists at the Ames Re- Ganymede is only Evidence for an under- search Center in Califor- slightly smaller than ground saltwater ocean on nia have taken ice samples Ganymede has been ob- containing pyrimidine, Mars. Although Gali- leo called it Jupiter III, it was renamed in the mid-1800s. a er Gan- Deep Mutual Events of Jupiter's Moons ymede , a Trojan Begin End prince in Greek my- Date Type ∆m thology. (Local) (Local) 3/20/2015 0:39:59 0:44:44 1E2 0.6 3/24/2015 1:03:35 1:11:24 3E2 0.5 3/27/2015 2:53:22 2:58:18 1E2 0.6 4/11/2015 20:41:15 20:50:37 2E3 1.0 4/13/2015 20:28:20 20:33:36 1E2 0.6 4/17/2015 20:27:45 20:37:01 4O3 1.0 Type - type of the event is given in the form "nEm" or "nOm" where n is the number of eclips- ing or occulting satellite, m is the number of eclipsed or occulted one. "E" denotes an eclipse and "O" denotes an occultation. 1=Io, 2=Europa, 3=Ganymede, 4=Callisto ∆m - expected maximum drop of the combined magnitude. MarchNovember 2015 2013 Page 3 NCRAL Convention Cancelled "We of the Fargo-Moorhead Astronomy Club regret to inform you that we are unable to host the NCRAL 2015 convention, and the June 5-6 event in Fargo is cancelled. We apologize for any disappointment or inconvenience this causes you. Our club has had a trying year with a series of setbacks. Economic circumstances have affected our university partners and mem- bership; half of our core members are gone due to job relocations out of our metro area, the state, and even the country. The remaining members have been discussing what the future of the FMAC will be. We wish your clubs the best for the future, and that they may live long and prosper. Sincerely, Scarlet Gray Bernard President, Fargo-Moorhead Astronomy Club" Did You Know? The bright stars in Gemini are Castor and Minutes (continued from page 1) Pollux, which are also the names of the Jim said he has postponed sending some photos and then gave a presentation brothers in the movie working on the panels for posters. She reported that on the constellation Gemi- “Face/Off.” the south end of the Prugh the Rand Foundation ni. After his presentation -Carver Observatory until would like to sponsor a Jim said that former mem- warmer weather returns. talk by Dr. Stone, possibly ber Terry Durbin was sell- Jim reported that he and this fall, and asked if the ing his 18" Obsession tele- Dave met with Kent Rector SIAC would like to help. scope and passed around to go over the cooperative She told them that we pictures of it. Carl passed agreement with the Con- would. Jim reported that around a binder of pic- servation Board to see if Dr. Steven Spangler of the tures that Libby Snipes there are any issues that University of Iowa would has recently taken for the need be addressed. No like to come sometime and members to look at. Libby changes were made. The look through the Clark. He wasn't able to be at the Conservation Board ap- would also be available to meeting. With no further proved and signed the give a talk. He is from the business to discuss, Duane agreement, but Partner's Houghton, IA area. Jim moved to adJourn, Bill se- for Conservation did not went over the list of up- conded, and the meeting sign. Jim reminded every- coming dates noting that was adJourned. one that nominations for the next meeting will also Respectfully submitted, club officers will take place be at the Burlington Public Dave Philabaum in April and elections will Library on March 19 th at be in May. Judy reported 06:30 pm. Dave gave the that Dr. Stone will be Observer's report. Jim Page 4 The Sidereal Times Looking Back in the Sidereal Times 25 Years Ago—March 1990 The March 1990 Sky & was four megapixels and as and a 50 megapixel Telescope magazine had a most observatories were astronomical CCD cam- picture of the largest CCD using one megapixel im- era is available to ama- made. It was a 16 mega- agers. A spokesperson for teurs. The Large Synoptic pixel chip made by Ford JPL said that the new Survey Telescope (LSST) Aerospace. It took over 11 chip is "too new and too will contain a 3.2 gi- minutes to read out the big for serious considera- gapixel camera made data from the chip and tion at this time". (Today up of an array of CCD took up 32 megabytes of it is not unusual to find chips. It will begin sur- storage. At that time the 20 megapixel chips in veying the heavens from largest astronomical CCD consumer digital camer- Chile in 2022.) Looking Back in the Sidereal Times 10 Years Ago—March 2005 In the Observer's Report Titan’s atmosphere and Huygens probe descend- it was noted that the Cas- 35 hydrocarbon lakes ed through Titan's at- sini Space Probe had and seas have been mosphere and landed on Did You Know? made its fourth flyby of named . The surface tem- the surface. The mission Saturn's moon Titan, fly- perature on Titan is - has been extended until According to Greek ing within 982 miles of its 290 °F and the surface 2017 which will include mythology, the surface. (Since then Cas- pressure is almost 50% over 50 more flybys of sini-Huygens mission has Titan.) Olympians overthrew more than on Earth. In identified 17 molecules in addition to flying by, the the elder gods that ruled the earth. Those elders, brothers of Saturn, were called Treasurer’s Report Titans.