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March 2020 OBSERVER THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 45, Number 3 March 2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – NGC 7120 2«President’s Note 3«Calendar of Celestial Events – March 2020 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«TCAA Calendar of Events for 2020 4«Report on the Annual Banquet & Business Meeting 5«Images of the 60th Anniversary Banquet 7«Message from NCRAL Chair Carl Wenning 7«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 8«March 2020 with Jeffrey L. Hunt 16«TCAA Image Gallery 17«Renewing Your TCAA Membership 18«Public Viewing Sessions for 2020 18«TCAA Active on Facebook 18«Did You Know? 19«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of February 27, 2020 The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League as well as its EDITOR’S CHOICE: IMAGE OF THE MONTH – NGC 7120 North Central Region. For more information about the TCAA, be This image was taken by Tim Stone. Tim comments, “Here is a certain to visit the TCAA website at necklace (NGC 2185, 2183, and 2182) of beautiful star-forming regions tcaa.us/ with an incredible brooch (NGC 2170) hanging at the end. These objects, NGC 2170 in particular, show a later stage of star formation. Here enough powerful stars have formed and have driven off much of the hydrogen Visit Astroleague.org for additional nursery in which they formed. There is just a hint of the original hydrogen information about the League and its reservoir, to the left of 2170. We can already see what this new cluster numerous membership benefits, will look like in a few hundred thousand years. Its primary constituents including observing programs. shine brilliantly, some of them illuminating the remaining dust. This dust is being blasted away as well; it is just a lot heavier than hydrogen atoms, and thus more resistant to the radiation pressure from these massive Also, visit the NCRAL website at stars. We can clearly see the streams of dust, all seeming to emanate from ncral.wordpress.com for information the still obscured center of the cluster. “This patch of nebulosity is often overlooked in favor of its nearby about our North Central Region. Find neighbors: The Rosette, Cone, Horsehead, and Orion nebulae. While it out about our next Regional isn’t as pompous as those in its neighborhood, it is very reminiscent of convention during May 2020. another nearby nebula, M78. The larger nebulae nearby are earlier in the process of stellar formation, so while we can see fantastic hydrogen emission, we can’t yet see deeply into the heart of these nebulae. Fortunately for us, we have these examples of what those younger nebulae will look like down the road.” Copyright © 2020 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 3 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers March 2020 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER If you were there, you know we had is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin th a wonderful 60 anniversary banquet City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a th registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational on February 8 . The food was excellent, organization of amateur astronomers inter- the company was great, and the ested in studying astronomy and sharing presentation was awesome. I learned their hobby with the public. more about neutron stars in that presentation than I’ve learned in my life TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS to date! All-in-all, the night was one President, Director, & Property Manager well spent, and if you couldn’t make it, I Tim Stone 309-531-2401 hope you can make it next year. We aim [email protected] to make each annual meeting better Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. than the last in at least one way. If you Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 have suggestions for improvement, President Tim Stone [email protected] please do forward them to one of our Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent Board of Directors. Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 [email protected] Speaking of Board members, we elected the new board at the meeting. Tom 4th Director/Assistant Property Manager Willmitch, Dave Osenga, Scott Wade, Sunil Chebolu, and I were elected by Scott Wade 309-310-2464 acclimation because there are five positions and only five nominations. I’d like to [email protected] personally welcome Sunil to the Board as this is his first time on the Board. This is 5th Director Scott’s second year, and the rest of us… Well, we’ve been on the Board a little Sunil Chebolu 678-896-5967 longer. [email protected] Secretary/Historian/Editor You’ll notice, for the first time in many years, that Carl Wenning is no longer on Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 the Board. It was his desire to step down and make room on the Board for some [email protected] newer members, and that goal was met! Carl will still be involved in the club, and Astronomical League Correspondent for that I’m glad. Robert Finnigan 309-846-9533 [email protected] I don’t know about you, but I’m itching to do some astronomy. I did get some Technology Coordinator imaging time at Waynesville the week of February 17th. December 21st was the last Justin Meyer 630-649-0611 [email protected] night I’d been out there before that. Two months! Let’s hope the spring is more kind to us astronomers than the winter has been. Webmaster Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] Yearning for clear skies, Lighting Educ. & AL Observing Club Coordinator Lisa Wentzel unlisted number Tim Stone, President [email protected] The OBSERVER EDITOR’S NOTE: AT THE NEXT BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING ON TUESDAY, Carl J. Wenning, Editor TH MARCH 10 THE BOARD WILL APPOINT OFFICERS AND CHAIRS. THE MEETING WILL Submission deadline two days before BE HELD AT THE WENNING RESIDENCE BEGINNING AT 7:00 PM. the end of each month. MEMBERSHIP DUES Individual Adult/Family $40 Full-time Student/Senior $25 (Senior status equals ages 60+) To join, send your name, contact info, and dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL 61761-1471. Copyright © 2020 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 3 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers March 2020 CALENDAR OF CELESTIAL EVENTS – MARCH 2020 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (3/15): Mercury (☿), Mars (♂), Jupiter (♃), The following individuals have paid dues for new or Saturn (♄), and Neptune (♆) renewed memberships as of February 27, 2020. (Others who paid after that date will appear in the February 2020 EVENING PLANETS (3/15): Venus (♀) and Uranus (⛢) issue of The OBSERVER.) The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! important astronomical events for this month. All events are given in Central Standard Time. New: None Renewing: Anthony Harris, Lee Green, Mark and Bryce Heiniger, Sharon MacDonald, Dave Osenga, Brian Barling Day Time Event Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! 02 09:16 Aldebaran 3.3°S of Moon 02 13:57 FIRST QUARTER MOON DUES BLUES 04 08:58 Moon at Ascending Node 05 17:26 Pollux 5.2°N of Moon If you have received a “your dues are due” 06 15:08 Beehive 1.1°S of Moon statement along with the email that brought you this 08 02:00 Daylight Saving Time Begins issue of The OBSERVER, please remit your dues to Mr. Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 08 02:23 Regulus 3.8°S of Moon Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for 08 06 Neptune in Conjunction with Sun seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 09 11:48 FULL MOON 10 00:33 Moon at Perigee: 357123 km SUBSCRIBING TO THE NEW TCAA EMAIL LIST 16 03:34 LAST QUARTER MOON Welcome to the [email protected] group at Groups.io. 16 19:00 Moon at Descending Node This is a free, easy-to-use group email service set up for 18 02:19 Mars 0.7°N of Moon: Occn. the TCAA’s communication purposes. You can subscribe, 18 04:18 Jupiter 1.5°N of Moon visit your group, start reading and posting messages 18 18:04 Saturn 2.1°N of Moon here: https://groups.io/g/tcaa The email address for this group is [email protected]. 19 21:50 Vernal Equinox After you successfully subscribe, please add this email 19 22 Venus at Perihelion address to your safe sender list in your email client's 21 11:48 Mercury 3.6°N of Moon contacts, so emails from this list do not end up getting 23 20 Mercury Greatest Elong: 27.8°W classified as junk mail. 24 03:28 NEW MOON Once subscribed, you can set your subscription settings here: https://groups.io/g/tcaa/editsub. You can 24 09:23 Moon at Apogee: 406690 km opt to receive all messages in individual emails, 24 16 Venus at Greatest Elong: 46.1°E collections of messages in a digest, a daily summary, or 26 23 Mercury at Aphelion only special notices. If you do not wish to belong to this 29 15:52 Aldebaran 3.6°S of Moon group, you may unsubscribe by sending an email to [email protected] 31 10:51 Moon at Ascending Node If you have general questions about the group, check http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2020cst.html email [email protected]. For questions not answered there, contact the moderators of this group (Deva C., Tim EVENING SKY MAP S., and Carl W.) by emailing [email protected].
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