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Inside this Issue: President’s Message 2 SPACE January Astronomical Events 3 November Field Report 3-4 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner Space Exploration 5 Geminids & Great Conjunction 6-7 December 2020 Editor – Guy Earle SPAC Astrophotography 8-10 The St. Petersburg Astronomy Club has been the center of NGC literature (part 1 of 2) 11-15 family astronomy in the Tampa Bay Area since 1927. Our 286 adult members are dedicated to promoting and sharing the wonders and Mirror Lab Report 16-18 science of astronomy. We host dark-sky and local star parties, Arecibo and Chang’e 5 18-19 telescope-making workshops, science lectures, astronomy lectures, educational outreach sessions and much more. Astronomy Image of the Month This outstanding image was done by SPAC member Omar Rahman, showing the Heart Nebula, IC 1805, with narrowband filters (H-alpha, Sii, and Oiii). Total 8 hours of exposure (90 frames). Taken Nov 1-3 from the back yard. ED102 with reducer (436mm), EQ6-R, ASI1600mm Pro. St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner December 2020 President’s Message As 2020 comes to a close, and we peer back at the year, you realize it’s better to look forward and not dwell on the past. The first couple of months were, for the most part, normal. OBS 2020 was a success, thanks to Mike Partain and our volunteers. Then, everything changed. All of our outreach activities had been put on hold. We moved our general meetings on-line, to avoid in person group meetings. The 2021 Annual Star Party was canceled and replaced with a New Moon Super Weekend. In spite of the pandemic, interest in astronomy and the club has grown. More people are showing up to the new moon weekends. On average, we are adding new members every month. As we move into 2021, and life begins to slowly move back to a sense of normality, the club will pick up the projects that were put on hold during 2020. Until then, from my family to yours, have a Safe and Happy Holidays! Clear skies. Brad Perryman December General Meeting The club’s next New Moon observing weekend will be held December 11th-13th This month’s general meeting will take at Withlacoochee River Park. January’s place on Friday, December 18th at 8:00 observing weekend will be the 8th-10th. PM. The main program will be by Tom Field, who will be presenting, “Spectroscopy for Everyone with Rspec Software.” This meeting will be held virtually with GoToMeeting.com. New SPAC Members Please join from your computer, tablet or smartphone by clicking here. We would like to welcome Sandi & Timothy Croughn, Lee Jarvis, Alexie Velez & Yanira You can also dial in using your phone. Hernandez, Kathy & Bob Radler, Joe & Shirley United States: +1 (786) 535-3211 Litton, and Michael Musto to our family of Access Code: 192-720-429 members. Page 2 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner December 2020 January Astronomical Events First Quarter – January 20 Full Moon – January 28 STEVE ROBBINS Saturday, January 2, the Earth is at perihelion, 0.9833 AU from the Sun. Sunday, January 3 is the Quadrantid Meteor Shower with a ZHR of about 120, that’s two per minute with a last quarter moon rising just before midnight. Saturday, January 9 the Moon is at perigee, 367400 km from Earth. Monday, January 11, Venus will be 1.5º north of the Moon. Tuesday January 12, the moon is at lowest southern declination, -24.9º. Thursday, January 21, the moon will be at Field Report: New Moon Weekend, apogee, 404400 km from Earth. November 13-15, 2020 Saturday, January 23, Saturn is at conjunction on the far side of the Sun and KELLY ANDERSON Mercury is at greatest elongation 18.6º east of The November edition of the SPAC New the Sun. Moon Weekend was, like the October session, Tuesday, January 26, the Moon will be at enthusiastically attended with good company greatest northern declination, +24.9°. (safely distanced, of course) enough clear Thursday, January 28, Jupiter will be at skies to make the trip conjunction. Superior planets are always at well worth the effort. superior conjunction, never at inferior Nearly 30 people conjunction between Earth and the Sun. Now attended, along with you know the logic behind the designations of a group of Girl Scouts the two kinds of conjunction! who visited on Saturday night to see January’s full moon is unimaginably called what this astronomy the Full Cold Moon. thing was all about. The early arrivals The Moon on Thursday were Joe Third Quarter – January 6 Canzoneri and your Guy Earle demonstrates New Moon – January 13 Intrepid Field Reporter. to our visitors Page 3 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner December 2020 On Saturday we welcomed Tom & Chris Spano, Annual Telescope Raffle Kelly McGrew, Doug Sliman, Jamie Kenas, Roy The St. Petersburg Astronomy & Elizabeth Wood, and Leeann Muszynski, Club mirror lab would like to bringing the crowd up to full strength. Great present our 2021 raffle scope to be levity ensued. Cloud cover was pretty much the awarded at our club’s 2021 New Moon Super same as Friday, with a couple of two-hour Weekend, February 10th through 14th, 2021. windows of clear skies, but humidity was way The raffle scope is a tradition here at SPAC down, visibility was up, and the temperature and this year’s telescope is a club refurbished was a bit lower. Overall a very comfortable 12-inch Meade Lightbridge. Tickets are $10 night, although we wouldn’t have complained donation/each or 3 for $25. All donations go had the openings had been a bit longer. Shortly to the St. Petersburg Astronomy Club. after dark we hosted a covey of Girl Scouts and The raffle will be their leaders. As usual, exclamations of conducted on February “Wow!” were heard as our young guests were 13th and the winner will treated to their first views of the heavens be announced via email through Guy’s telescope. Astronomy never to all participants. fails to impress. Apparently, neither does Guy. Online Raffle OBS Cancellation MIKE PARTAIN With a heavy heart I write this article to inform everyone that our 2021 OBS has been officially cancelled due to ongoing Western Veil Nebula – Joe Canzoneri pandemic. In lieu of the OBS star Party, we will Make sure you note on your calendar that have a club member only New Moon Super the next New Moon Weekend will be Weekend between February 10th and February December 11 – 13, conveniently not close to 14th. This event requires no pre-registration the Holidays. No doubt the skies will continue and is a first come first served basis subject to to become clearer as we approach the depth park regulations and fees. Please see the of Winter, such as it is in Florida. Be safe, stay club’s website for exact details. healthy, keep looking up! I also remind everyone that our 12” mirror lab raffle scope is currently open to purchase Page 4 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner December 2020 tickets and will be raffled on Saturday https://www.livescience.com/fastest-all-sky- February 13th 2021. map-ever-askap.html In 300 hours just over a month ago, they mapped 83% of the known universe, 3 million galaxies, a million of which Space Exploration News were previously unknown in a mere 300 STEVE ROBBINS hours. Now they promise to take their time We’ve moved. We’re moving faster. and obtain much deeper results. We are NOT headed toward a black hole as CNN so imaginatively reported. Star Party Apparel https://scitechdaily.com/earth-16000-mph- faster-2000-light-years-closer-to- Star Party Apparel: We would like to take supermassive-black-hole-in-the-center-of- a moment to recognize Doug Sliman, who the-milky-way/ Breaking entirely new ground was the winner for the 2021 OBS logo design. Japan’s VERA, yes, an acronym, but this time We instituted a new process involving the an acronym containing an acronym, the V club membership to vote for a logo design. standing for VLBI, Very Long Baseline We will not be taking orders for the t-shirt Interferometry Exploration of Radio since the OBS is cancelled, however, Doug Astronometry, say that fast five times, has has provided us with a link to order a shirt for enough resolution to detect a penny on the those who nonetheless want this ultra-cool surface of the Moon. Mapping the locations design! and space motions of 99 deep space objects in version one of their catalog. This had the effect of replacing our old value of distance to Sagittarius A* from 27,700 ly to a closer 25,800 ly, and since we are closer to the galactic center than we thought our orbital velocity has been updated from 220 km/s to 227 km/s. This was not an emergency. You may resume your normal activities. Not to be outdone by upstarts, such as GAIA or VERA, the Australians have their own T-Shirts must be ordered by th Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder January 4 (ASKAP) radio telescope, 36 radio telescope Click on this link to order: Apparel Order array in Western Australia’s outback. Page 5 St. Petersburg Astronomy Club Examiner December 2020 The Geminids Meteor Shower & the Great Conjunction GUY EARLE I made a mention in last month’s newsletter of both the Geminids Meteor Shower and the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. First, let’s talk a bit more about the Geminids, which will likely be the best meteor shower of 2020.
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