The Astronews July 2021
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The Astronews www.hawastsoc.org July 2021 A word from your editor by Inside this issue: Sapavith ‘Ort’ Vanapruks HAS have decided to cancel public HAS Club Information 2 events for the time being for both public star party at Dillingham and in town star parties President’s Message 2 at Kahala and Geiger, as well as the monthly club meeting. These cancellations will con- tinue while we are still in tier level. As we Observer’s Notebook 3 are now in modified tier 4 on Oahu, we will only have the club member only star party. We will be limiting the club party to the key Meeting Minutes 4 master and 29 extra members. Please check your email and website for an update. Event Calendar 5 I have been trying to capture ISS transit in front of the Sun/Moon for many years. I used ISS Transit Finder website (https:// NASA’s Night Sky Notes 7 transit-finder.com/) to help me find the trans- it near me. Those many times I tried, I failed due to many reasons. Some of the reasons Meteor Log 8 are bad weather, incorrect camera setting, and unstable mount. Treasurer’s Report 9 Upcoming Events: • The next Board meeting is Sun., July 4th 3:30 PM. (Zoom Meeting) • The next meeting is on Tue., July 6th at the Bishop Museum at 7:30 PM. —Zoom Meeting • Bishop Museum’s planetarium shows are every 1st Saturday of the month at 8:00 PM (Online) www.bishopmuseum.org/calendar The latest opportunity was this past Tues- day morning, 6/29/2021, at 1:27 AM. Three weeks ago, the website showed that the cen- (Continued on page 6) Hawaiian Astronomical Society P.O. Box 17671 President ’s Message July 2021 Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 President Many of you (we’re a fairly old bunch) re- Chris Peterson member comet Hale Bopp, the “great comet” of 956-3131 1997. It came to us from the Oort Cloud, a vast [email protected] storehouse of objects that were thrown out there through gravitational interactions with the giant Vice President planets early in our solar system’s history. Because orbiting objects move slowest at their Polly Miao most distant from the body they orbit (in this [email protected] case, the Sun), the Oort Cloud objects spend most of their time far from the inner solar sys- Secretary tem. Hale Bopp was about 60 kilometers in Andy Stroble diameter (~37 miles), and it came closer to the [email protected] Sun than Earth’s distance (although moving almost perpendicular to the plane of the eclip- tic). Treasurer Now we have another Oort Cloud visitor ap- Peter Besenbruch proaching. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein [email protected] (C/2014 UN271) is 20 AU away and won’t reach perihelion for about 9½ years, but it’s Board Members-at-Large already outgassing. And it’s 160 kilometers j Marufa Bhuiyan (100 miles) in diameter! It will only approach [email protected] the Sun to approximately Saturn’s distance, so who knows how it will behave, but it is the biggest Oort Cloud denizen we have been able Astronews Editor to observe well. With so much lead time, I Sapavith ‘ORT’ Vanapruks [email protected] think it is very likely that spacecraft will be sent to observe it. In the meantime, a fun exercise is to spot HAS Webmasters Venus in the daytime. If you know exactly Peter Besenbruch where to look, you can see it in broad daylight. [email protected] You can use a neighbor’s roof or any fixed marker, just pick a place you can return to every evening with a good view to the west and some- School Star Party Coordinators thing distinctive below Venus. Look for it ear- Mark Watanabe lier and higher each night, and before too long [email protected] you’ll see it with the Sun still up! Please also look at and vote on the bylaws on Charles Rykken the HAS web page (http:// [email protected] www.hawastsoc.org/). Click on the “show more” link at the end of the A Short “Who We The Astronews is the monthly news- Are” section and look for the bylaws link. Club letter of the Hawaiian Astronomical Soci- members can send their vote on whether or not ety. Some of the contents may be copy- to adopt these changes to Peter Besenbruch righted. We request that authors and artists ([email protected]) until the end of July. be given credit for their work. Contribu- Last month I mischaracterized the lunar tions are welcome. Send them to the Edi- eclipse conditions. Because the Sun was pass- tor via e-mail. The deadline is the 15th of ing nearly overhead, the Full Moon was nearly each month. We are not responsible for at its southernmost point at zenith. My apology unsolicited artwork. for that error. Page 2 The Astronews Observer’s Notebook—July 2021 by Ort Planets Close to the Moon Other Events of Interest Times are Hawaii Standard Time Times are Hawaii Standard Time Jul 4, 8h, Uranus 1.94° NNW of Moon; 59° Jul 3, 17h, Venus at northernmost latitude from from the Sun in the morning sky; magni- the ecliptic plane, 3.4° tudes 5.8 and -8.6 Jul 9, 22h, Moon 6.7° S of Castor; 5° and 10° Jul 7, 18h, Mercury 3.7° S of Moon; 21° from from the Sun in the evening sky the Sun in the morn- ing sky; magnitudes Jul 10, 3h, Moon 3.2° S of Pollux; 7° and 8° 0.1 and -5.9 from the Sun in the evening sky Jul 12, 2h, Venus 3.1° SSW of Moon; 28° and Jul 12, 2h, Moon, Venus, and Mars within circle 29° from the Sun in the evening sky; of diameter 3.63°; about 29° from the Sun magnitudes -3.9 and -6.6 in the evening sky Jul 12, 3h, Mars 3.6° SSW of Moon; 29° from Jul 12, 23h, Moon 4.6° NNE of Regulus; 39° the Sun in the evening sky; magnitudes from the Sun in the evening sky 1.8 and -6.7 Jul 17, 0h, Moon 5.7° NNE of Spica; 90° and Jul 24, 9h, Saturn 3.7° NNW of Moon; 171° 89° from the Sun in the evening sky and 170° from the Sun in the midnight Jul 21, 0h, Moon at perigee; distance 57.15 Earth sky; magnitudes 0.3 and -12.5 -radii Jul 25, 19h, Jupiter 3.9° NNW of Moon; 153° Jul 29, 22h, Southern Delta Aquarid meteors; and 152° from the Sun in the morning ZHR 25; peak 2 days before Last Quarter sky; magnitudes -2.8 and -12.0 Jul 29, 22h, Alpha Capricornid meteors; ZHR 5; Jul 27, 12h, Neptune 3.8° NNW of Moon; peak 2 days before Last Quarter 132° from the Sun in the morning sky; magnitudes 7.8 and -11.4 Planets in July Mercury Venus Mars Morning planet rising one hour before sunrise at the start of Evening planet poorly posi- Evening planet poorly July. Lost by the end of the tioned. Half a degree from placed. Venus nearby on 13 month. Mars on 13 July. July. Thin waxing lunar crescent near on 11 and 12 July. Jupiter Saturn Uranus Rises five hours before sunrise Well positioned morning Morning planet slowly on 1 July. The bright waning planet approaching opposi- crawling out of the Sun’s gibbous Moon is nearby on 26 tion. Rings brighten at the glare. Not especially well- July. end of July due to the Seel- placed during July. iger effect. 1—Ceres Neptune (Asteroid) Pluto (Dwarf Planet) Morning planet seen in the morning sky, rises at under dark sky conditions in Sagittarius, is at opposition 3.36am on the 1st and at 2.25 at the end of July, alt- on the night of 17/18 July am on the 31st when it will hough unable to reach when it will be almost 5 transit at 7.39 am It moves peak altitude. billion km from the Earth. from Aries to Taurus on July 6. Page 3 Meeting Minutes H.A.S. Secretary June 1st, 2021 7:30 PM (Zoom Meeting) Andy Stroble Meeting called to order at 7:34 pm by President Chris Peterson with 15 participants. Minutes from the May meeting were approved without changes, motion by Chris, seconded by Ort. Dillingham Airfield businesses have reportedly been granted six-month extensions, so perhaps we will be alright in the short-term. COVID-19: We may be moving to Tier 4, but for the June 5th star party we are still limited to ten participants, with usual pandemic precautions. New people: Fred and Carla Dauer are returning members. Pat Munoz, Elena Dobrica, and Jan and Jim were attending for the first time. Several members shared photos of the recent lunar eclipse, including some amazing cell- phone astrophotography, and an fantastic composition of the entire eclipse by Ort Vanapruks. Ort treated us to an exposition of the tools and method he used at the end of the meeting. Tom showed comparisons of the eclipse and a more total one previous. Dee shared an por- trayal of the thousands of human-made satellites orbiting the Earth. Changes to the by-laws have been in the works for a year. The Board would like to have a vote on the changes during the July meeting. A copy of the revised by-laws will be posted on the HAS website. Votes will be via email.