The W.A.S.P the Warren Astronomical Society Paper
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Vol. 49, no. 2 February, 2018 The W.A.S.P The Warren Astronomical Society Paper President Jeff MacLeod [email protected] The Warren Astronomical Society First Vice President Jonathan Kade [email protected] Second Vice President Joe Tocco [email protected] Founded: 1961 Treasurer Ruth Huellmantel [email protected] Secretary Parker Huellmantel [email protected] P.O. Box 1505 Outreach Diane Hall [email protected] Warren, Michigan 48090-1505 Publications Brian Thieme [email protected] www.warrenastro.org Entire board [email protected] Astronomy at the Beach Star trails around Polaris, circa mid-1970s - Joe Tocco 1 Society Meeting Times February Discussion Astronomy presentations and lectures twice Group Meeting each month at 7:30 PM: Come on over, and talk astronomy, space news, and whatnot! First Monday at Cranbrook Institute of Science. Joe Tocco will host the February Discussion Group on Tuesday, the 27th, 6:30-8:30: Third Thursday at Macomb Community College - South Campus Building J (Library) MCMI Corporate Office Note: for the summer, we are meeting in 6540 Diplomat Drive room 151, lower level of the library. Sterling Heights, MI 48314 [email protected] Snack Volunteer 586-634-6240 cell Schedule • WiFi Feb 5 Cranbrook Mike O’Dowd • HD Projector with 5.1 Sound System Feb 15 Macomb Gerald Voorheis • Water, coffee, and selection of sodas and M a r 5 C ran b r o o k Ruth Huellmantel snacks provided • Adult beverages are welcomed BYOB If you are unable to bring the snacks on your scheduled day, or if you need to reschedule, Office is located just south of M-59 and just please email the board at board@ East of Mound Road. warrenastro.org as soon as you are able so that other arrangements can be made. Email or call for directions...or ask Siri Park in the lot behind the building and enter back door next to the large roll-up door. In this issue: 3 FAAC Astronomy Conference info. 4 President’s Field of View 5 Astrophotography 6 Presentations 8 Over the Moon 9 Object of the Month 10 Cranbrook monthly skychart Space Pirates 12 Stargate Officer’s report 13 Outreach Officer’s report Tune in to Captains Marty Kunz and 14 Treasurer’s report Diane Hall for live radio Wednesday 15 History S.I.G. 16 GLAAC nights at 9:00pm ET 17 Meeting Minutes 18 NASA Space Place 2 FAAC Astronomy Conference & Swap Meet Saturday, April 7, 2018 9:00 am - 3:00 pm General Astronomy Technical Talks 9:30 am: Deep Sky Wonders – Tony Licata, FAAC 9:30 am: Ideas in Equipment – Clay Kessler, TSS 10:45 am: Meteorites – Todd Slisher, Longway Plt. 10:45 am: How it is Really Made - Tim Cambell, FAAC 12N: Eclipses, Geysers and Stars – Axel Mellinger, CMU 12N: The Road to Totality – Liam Finn, FAAC 1:30 pm: TBD? 1:30 pm: TBD? Planetarium Shows Interactive Solar System Tour 10:00am, 11:30am & 1:00pm FAAC Members 10:45am John McGill – NASA Solar System Ambassador Swap Meet All Day…Earn Cash by Selling Those Items Sitting Around Collecting Dust! Telescopes, Eyepieces, Cameras, Binoculars, Mounts, Software, Books, and Accessories, etc. Participating Vendors Telescope Support Systems, Wood Wonders, Sirius Astro Products, LX-200 Electronics Exchange Admission: $5.00 (children 15 and younger – Free / must be accompanied by an adult) Sales Table: $15 in advance, or $20 at the door as available, (one admission ticket included). Advanced Table Registration ends Mar 29, 2018 Doors Open: 8:00am for setup. Make Checks Payable: to FAAC for advance table registration. Send payment to: Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, P.O. Box 7527, Dearborn, MI 48121-7527 Location: Henry Ford College, 5101 Evergreen Rd, Dearborn, MI 48128 (Andrew A. Mazzara Admin. & Conference Center… See X on map, Staff Parking Lots 11 & 12 will be open) For More Contact Jim via email: [email protected] or call (734) 751-6280 or Information: Frank Ancona via email: [email protected] or call (248) 345-0176 3 President’s Field of View We are now a month into 2018, so? Where a meteor expert! I deferred them to Mr. Meteorite, are we? Well, the club is good, Dale Partin’s Bob Trembley. The next bolide I might keep for presentation on the Moon was so engaging that myself but it was great to see Bob and other it ran very long, so long in fact, that he is going members talking and sharing their knowledge to come back in February to finish it. A time slot with the wider community. That is what we are Jonathan was trying to fill, crisis averted. The First here for, isn’t it? open-house of the year was quite the success, I was unable to attend but it was a cold clear night Jeff MacLeod for those that made it out to the observatory, President check out the observatory report for more. We have lots of outreach events coming up and spring is tantalizingly close, as far as I am concerned the club is right where it needs to be. For me, things are crazy but very exciting Astronomical Events right now. I need to learn Python (a computer for February 2018 coding language) ASAP for my physics lab, it’s not ideal but I am looking forward to what I might be Add one hour for Daylight savings. able to do after I understand some basic coding. Source: I am very close to having some content for my http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2018est.html Youtube channel, creating good content is much Day EST (h:m) Event more work than I was expecting it to be, but such is life. The great thing is just about any project could 01 13:24 Regulus 0.9°S of Moon be turned into a short talk in the future. Aside 07 10:54 LAST QUARTER MOON from the stress school is pretty darn cool, we are looking at the quantum theory of light in Modern 07 14:47 Jupiter 4.3°S of Moon Physics. I had been leaning away from physics 09 00:12 Mars 4.4°S of Moon ever since I started at Wayne State, but now that 11 09:16 Moon at Apogee: 405701 km I’ve started Planetary Astronomy, a course that is more math based then conceptually based, I am 11 09:46 Saturn 2.5°S of Moon loving the physics that I’m doing. The semester 11 11:40 Mars 5.0°N of Antares is only a month in and I can now estimate some 14 16:11 Moon at Descending Node really cool things, right now the focus is on stellar nebulae. Another project that I will have to start 15 15:51 Partial Solar Eclipse; mag=0.599 working on is a research paper on NASA’s Psyche 15 16:05 NEW MOON mission to a metal asteroid, Presentation to follow 17 07 Mercury at Superior Conjunction (I don’t know when, Jonathan) I also finally got my book on Astrodynamics! The Mathematics of 23 03:09 FIRST QUARTER MOON orbital mechanics, it is a subject that has always 23 12:07 Aldebaran 0.7°S of Moon fascinated me, how do you navigate in space? 27 09:48 Moon at Perigee: 363938 km It is beginning to sink in that I am 27 12:28 Beehive 2.3°N of Moon President of this club. Now, when I get a call 28 00:03 Moon at Ascending Node from an unknown number I cannot assume it is a telemarketer, because it might be Fox 2 asking for 4 W.A.S. Astrophotography W.A.S.P. Photo and Article Submissions We’d like to see your photos and articles in the W.A.S.P. Your contribution is ESSENTIAL! — This is YOUR publication! Send items to: [email protected] Documents can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), Open Office (.ods), or Text (.txt) formats, or put into the body of an email. Photos can be embedded in the document or attached to the email and should be under 2MB in size. Please include a caption for your photos, along with dates taken, and the way you ’d like your name to appear. 5 Monday, February, 2018 Cranbrook Presentations Main presentation: “Life on Other Worlds, 1947 to Seventeenth Century With Excursions into Antiquity” The author says: “Serious regard for life on other worlds did not begin around the turn of the twentieth century. The possibilities have captured the finest minds in and outside of astronomy, good- natured atheists as well as devout Christians. The current conservatism around S.E.T.I. had no place in earlier thinking in times of spectacular scientific advance.” In this talk, Gary Ross and Clayton V. Carey will dive into the speculations and scientific efforts Above: Gary M Ross with Raymond B Larson of earlier generations regarding life on other worlds. Photo credit: James Steele Foerch Gary Ross is a past president of the Warren Astronomical Society and an active member of both W.A.S. and the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association. He has observed the skies with everything from a 50mm refractor to a 28 inch reflector, from the light pollution of Royal Oak to the darkest skies northern Ontario has to offer. His presentations to the W.A.S. often center around the moral superiority of the analog unit (the human brain) to the computers and iThings and contraptions many of us rely on. He also specializes in the history of professional and amateur astronomy, and humankind’s relationship with the cosmos generally.