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SPAC Examiner Inside this Issue: President’s Message 2 SPACE February Astronomical Events 3 Space Exploration 3 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner December Field Report 4-6 The Great Conjunction 8-10 January 2021 Editor – Guy Earle SPAC Astrophotography 10-13 The St. Petersburg Astronomy Club has been the center of NGC literature (part 2 of 2) 14-18 family astronomy in the Tampa Bay Area since 1927. Our 310 adult members are dedicated to promoting and sharing the wonders and Mirror Lab Report 18-19 science of astronomy. We host dark-sky and local star parties, International Dark Sky 19-20 telescope-making workshops, science lectures, astronomy lectures, educational outreach sessions and much more. Astronomy Image of the Month Here is an outstanding collage of images taken by SPAC member Omar Rahman, showing all of his deep sky photos from 2020. Well done, Omar! St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner January 2021 President’s Message Happy New Year!? Well, hopefully it will be soon, anyway. In fact, I know it will be as we gather for our first annual, and hopefully last, New Moon Super Weekend which, with any luck, will return to our annual Star Party next year. Even though this will be an abridged event, we will still have a great time, and I hope to see everyone at Withlacoochee River Park in February to enjoy the night sky. For additional information, please visit our website and don’t forget to grab some raffle tickets for the telescope refurbished by our mirror lab while you are there. As with all our New Moon Weekend events, we will adhere to the recommendation set by the CDC safe practices and social distancing guidelines. For this event you must be a member of the club. Make sure you print out your membership card from the website to access the park. Clear skies. Brad Perryman January General Meeting The club’s New Moon Super observing weekend will be held February 10th-14th at This month’s general meeting will take Withlacoochee River Park. This is a SPAC place on Friday, January 22nd at 8:00 PM. member only event, so the park will be The main program will be by Tom Field, closed to general attendance. who will be presenting, “Spectroscopy for Everyone with Rspec Software.” This meeting will be held virtually with GoToMeeting.com. Please join from your computer, tablet or smartphone by clicking here. New SPAC Members You can also dial in using your phone. United States: +1 (786) 535-3211 We would like to welcome Joseph & Cheryl Access Code: 192-720-429 Brannon, David Navarro, Cara Cooper, Fred & Diane Friedman, Valerie Hyman, Salvador & Karla Puello, Sharon Herman & Melissa Hughes, Keith & Doris Gray, Joanne Bello, David Furmanski, Peter & Rachel Haviland, Will & Jenni Nelson, Curt & Jennifer Walker, Page 2 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner January 2021 David Brewer & Joan Baldwin, Keith & Joshua moving at extreme velocities, some faster than Courter, Ak Scofield, Thomas & Deborah galactic escape velocity. ESA’s GAIA space Boyette, Michael Callahan, and Chris Dollin to probe is, of course, involved, but the our family of members. collaborator might be surprising, China’s LAMOST ground based observatory. They identified 43 stars traveling faster than escape February Astronomical Events velocity. The high percentage of low metallicity Steve Robbins stars indicates that most Milky Way halo stars Wednesday, February 4, the Moon is came from collisions with dwarf galaxies. The at perigee, 370,100 km from Earth. gravitational interactions involved in the Monday, February 8 Mercury is at inferior collisions accelerated these stars to high conjunction between Earth and the Sun. Also velocity. Tracing their movements backwards the Moon is at greatest southern declination: - sheds light on their origin and time of the 25.0º. events. Thursday, February 18, the Moon is at What’s important for a planet to have a apogee,404,500 km from Earth. Also find Mars chance to harbor life? We’re all acquainted 4.1º north of the Moon. with the “goldilocks zone,” that zone where Monday, February 22, the Moon is at water can exist as a liquid. But lately greatest northern declination +25.1º. astronomers have introduced another Tuesday, February 23, the Moon will be criterion: the type of star. Bright OB giant stars 2.5º north of the Beehive Cluster. would not have the lifespan long enough for February’s full moon is called the Full life to form, and their radiation is much more Snow Moon. This may not apply to Florida. energetic than is healthy for life. The most The Moon numerous stars in the galaxy, M dwarfs, would Third Quarter – February 4 have a goldilocks zone very near the planet, New Moon – February 11 and they tend to be unstable stars varying First Quarter – February 19 greatly in energy output and spawning Full Moon – February 27 unfortunate and frequent flares, which could barbecue nearby planets. But stars like our sun, G yellow dwarves, are decent. The best Space Exploration News stars, however would be K types, orange, Steve Robbins slightly smaller and much more long lived than Two telescopes have combined forces our Sun. So now astronomers don’t just look to produce a catalog of 591 Milky Way Stars for a goldilocks zone, they also look for goldilocks stars. Page 3 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner January 2021 New Moon Weekend, December 11-13, 2020 INTREPID FIELD REPORTER, KELLY ANDERSON Our December New Moon Weekend was another great one, with a crowd of devotees of things astronomical attending. As well, the seeing wasn’t too shabby either. The Wednesday sooners were Allen and Betsy Force accompanied by fur babies Smoky and Jack. Allen reported the seeing was “pretty good” Wednesday night. On Thursday our Star Village grew with Joe Canzoneri, Jack & Roni Fritz, Mike Partain, Guy Earle, Jaime Kenas, Mark & Sharon Bruns, David Nolen, Naveen Narayan and your Intrepid Field Reporter arriving. Seeing was good that night, but not great because of relatively high level of moister aloft, but hey! We could see stars all over the place! On Friday we had another population surge, with Tom & Chris Spano, Jack Brockhurst, Tom Sweet, Brad Perryman, Chris Dollin, Mary & Richard Garner, Mike Davis (nice to see the Mirror Lab represented!), Todd Vogt, Kelly McGrew, Joe & Shirley Litton, and Keith & Vicky Carman settling in for the weekend. This brought attendance up to 29, pretty good for a non-OBS event, don’t you think? We were rewarded with another night of clear skies (never mind the morning fog) with drier air for steadier seeing than the night before. Page 4 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner January 2021 On Saturday we were joined by Jeff Tobergte and two more denizens of the Mirror Lab, Allen Maroney and Ralph Craig (not to mention Moose). As it turns out a black dog becomes pretty much invisible on a dark night. That wet nose can be a surprise! The afternoon cleared up nicely, with all the fair-weather cumulus disappearing. Late that evening, though, it not only fogged up but we got completely closed in by a solid overcast. Oh well, I guess three days in a row would be expecting too much. Club president Brad Perryman aligns his Telrad finder on his homemade Dobsonian reflector. Page 5 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner January 2021 In spite of all that we still had enough things to look at earlier that evening that a team from Unistellar, Devin Tierney and Val Lavans, was able to show us the new marvel of astronomical instrumentation, the eVscope. This is an all-electronic imager … no eyepieces, no cables, no attachments or other distractions. Essentially, this device automatically sets itself up, conducts an initial alignment, then plate solves itself to the precision necessary for high-definition imaging, all in about one minute from power up. Focusing is quickly and easily accomplished through the use of the built-in bahtinov mask. Now why didn’t I think of that? The operator can view through a small port on the side of the scope, or use a smart phone, iPad, or some such device. One person is designated the “Operator,” and up to nine others can join as “Viewers” on their devices. The device is completely controlled through an application on a smart device. On the left is an image of the Lagoon Nebula taken by the eVscope in about two minutes. Image credit: Ade Ashford on Astronomy Now’s website (https://astronomynow.com/2020/08/23/telescope- review-unistellars-evscope-the-next-generation-of- telescope/). You can have your very own eVscope complete and ready to go for about $3K, plus about $60 shipping. It’s a pretty amazing piece of gear, and I think it’s a peek at what the future of amateur astronomy might look like. Our next New Moon Weekend, the first of the New Year, will be January 8 – 10. Early arrivers are welcome! Brad Perryman guarantees clear skies. Also, don’t forget our special New Moon extravaganza that replaces 2021’s Orange Blossom Special February 10-14. Page 6 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner January 2021 watch our virtual star party broadcast on Feb Annual Telescope Raffle 8-11, 7pm to 11pm EST. We are still working There is a LOT of buzz out the broadcasting logistics but in the around the St. Petersburg meantime I wanted to provide you with a link Astronomy Club’s mirror lab where your members can sign up for the door 2021 raffle scope, which will be awarded at prize drawings. As soon as we have the online our club’s 2021 New Moon Super Weekend, broadcast information, I will forward it to you February 10th through 14th.
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