The Astronews www.hawastsoc.org June 2020 A word from your editor by Inside this issue: Sapavith ‘Ort’ Vanapruks Covid-19 Notice Club Information 2 HAS have decided to cancel public HAS events for the time being, beginning with the March 14 public star party at Dillingham. Includes the up- President’s Message 2 coming in town star parties at Kahala and Geiger, as well as the monthly meeting. These cancella- tions will continue while we remain on lock down. Observer’s Notebook 3 We don't know yet what will happen with the club star party in June. We will try to update as soon as possible. Meeting Minutes 4 .There were several times in May that ISS came Event Calendar 5 over Oahu with magnitude -3.9 (May 14 20:18) & -3.6 (May 16 05:16). I tried to do a video record- ing from my camera. On May 14, there was just too much movement that I cannot keep the ISS in NASA’s Night Sky Notes 7 Focus. On May 16, I attached the camera to my refractor 80mm triplet. I have hard time keeping ISS in the scope. I also forgot to press record Meteor Log 8 button on my camera. One of this day, I will capture ISS in my camera. I went out to Kalaeloa Boat Harbor on Sunday, Treasurer’s Report 9 May 24, 2020 to take photos of crescent Moon, Mercury, and Venus. The photo did not come as good as I hope for. Enjoy. Upcoming Events: • The next Board meeting is Sun., May 31st 3:30 PM. (Location TBD) • The next meeting is on Tuesday, June 2nd at the Bishop Museum at 7:30 PM.— CANCELLED • Bishop Museum’s planetarium shows are every 1st Saturday of the month at 8:00 PM www.bishopmuseum.org/calendar (Continued on page 6) Hawaiian Astronomical Society P.O. Box 17671 President ’s Message June 2020 Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 President Venus has been the sole representative of Chris Peterson the bright planets in the evening sky for most of 956-3131 this year, but the rest of the gang is about to [email protected] show up. Jupiter and Saturn are rising before Vice President midnight already, so it won’t be long before we Polly Miao can conveniently watch their celestial tango as [email protected] they approach their spectacularly close conjunc- tion in December. Don’t forget about Venus, though, as it is quickly dropping at sunset, its Secretary apparent size in the eyepiece growing as its Tamara Weese phase diminishes. Mars has already raced past [email protected] its more distant neighbors, but we will overtake it in October for its last really good opposition Treasurer for many years. Peter Besenbruch Where can we view these sights? It re- [email protected] mains to be seen how quickly (and safely) the COVID-19 social distancing restrictions will be Board Members-at-Large lifted. It seems to me that face masks will pro- vide pretty good protection at star parties if we j Andy Stroble can keep guests from touching the telescopes, although the lines at the telescopes might be Astronews Editor Sapavith ‘ORT’ Vanapruks quite long with six-foot separations between [email protected] viewers! Club star parties at Dillingham Airfield HAS Webmasters already observe social distancing if people stay Peter Besenbruch at their own telescopes. The pandemic has [email protected] provided a one-year reprieve from our possible loss of observing privileges there, but how soon School Star Party Coordinators we will be allowed to exercise them is uncer- Mark Watanabe tain. Charles Rykken The extension of the Dillingham lease gives us some breathing room, but we must face The the possibility that we will lose the use of that Astronews is the monthly news- letter of the Hawaiian Astronomical Soci- location in little more than a year. This is sure ety. Some of the contents may be copy- to be the focus of much energy within the club. righted. We request that authors and artists If anyone has an idea for an alternate observing be given credit for their work. Contribu- location, please let me or another board member tions are welcome. Send them to the Edi- tor via e-mail. The deadline is the 15th of (Continued on page 4) each month. We are not responsible for unsolicited artwork. Page 2 The Astronews Observer’s Notebook—June 2020 by Jay Wrathall Planets Close To the Moon Other Events of Interest Times are Hawaii Standard Time Times are Hawaii Standard Time June 8, 09h, Moon 2.66⁰ S of Jupiter June 3, 08h, Venus at inferior conj. with sun (142⁰ from sun in morning sky) (Passes into morning sky) June 8, 18h, Moon 2.66⁰ SE of Saturn June 4, 03h, Mercury at greatest elongation 137⁰ from sun in morning sky) (23.6⁰ E of the sun in evening sky.) June 12, 17h, Moon 2.24⁰ SE of Mars June 5, 09:12h, Full Moon (92⁰ from sun in morning sky) June 8, 12h, Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn within a June 12, 18h, Moon 4.2⁰ SE of Neptune Circle of diameter 5.06⁰ (92⁰ from sun in morning sky) ( 140⁰ from sun in morning sky) June 16, 09h, Moon 3.6⁰ SE of Uranus June 20, 21:45h,June or summer solstice. (47⁰ from sun in morning sky) June 20, 20:41h, New Moon June 18, 23h, Moon 0.75⁰ N of Venus June 27, 12h, Asteroid 7 Iris at opposition (23⁰ from sun in evening sky) June 29, 10h, Asteroid 3 Juno at opposition Mercury is closer than 15⁰ from the sun when near the moon in June. Planets in June Mercury Venus Mars Will be visible low in the evening sky the Reaches inferior conjunction on June Rises about 2:00 AM in first half of June. 4 and becomes visi- Aquarius and brightens ble in the early from mag. 0.0 to -0.5 morning sky about during June. the middle of the month. Jupiter Saturn Uranus is in the eastern sky can be viewed near is in the dawn sky before dawn rising close to the sun and will about midnight. It is a Jupiter in the eastern sky in June. On June 8 it be easier to observed spectacular view with a later in the year. magnitude of -2,6. is joined by the moon and Jupiter in a circle of 5.06⁰. Neptune 7 Iris Pluto (Dwarf (Asteroid) is near Mars in Aquar- Planet) ius. reaches opposition on close to Jupiter in the June 7 at magnitude +8.9. pre-dawn sky. This is the 4th brightest asteroid. Page 3 Meeting Minutes H.A.S. Secretary May 5 th,2020 (No Meeting) Tamara Launch America NASA, SpaceX to Launch First Astronauts to Space Station from U.S. Since 2011. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifting off on a Falcon 9 rocket at 3:22 p.m. EDT May 30, from Launch Complex 39A in Florida, for an extend- ed stay at the space station for the Demo-2 mission. The specific duration of the mission is to be determined. As the final flight test for SpaceX, this mission will validate the company’s crew transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, and operational capabilities. This also will be the first time NASA astronauts will test the spacecraft systems in orbit. Behnken and Hurley were among the first astronauts to begin working and training on SpaceX’s next-generation human space vehicle and were selected for their extensive test pilot and flight experience, including several missions on the space shuttle. Behnken will be the joint operations commander for the mis- sion, responsible for activities such as rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as Demo-2 activities while the space- craft is docked to the space station. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000 and has completed two space shuttle flights. Behnken flew STS-123 in March 2008 and STS-130 in February 2010, and he performed three spacewalks during each mission. Born in St. Anne, Missouri, he has bachelor’s degrees in physics and mechanical engineering from Washing- ton University and earned a master’s and doctorate in mechani- cal engineering from California Institute of Technology. Be- fore joining NASA, Behnken was a flight test engineer with the U.S. Air Force. Hurley will be the spacecraft commander for Demo-2, responsi- ble for activities such as launch, landing and recovery. He was selected as an astronaut in 2000 and has completed two space- flights. Hurley served as pilot and lead robotics operator for both STS‐127 in July 2009 and STS‐135, the final space shuttle mis- sion, in July 2011. The New York native was born in Endicott but considers Apalachin his hometown. He holds a Bachelor of Sci- ence degree in Civil Engineering from Tulane University in Loui- siana and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. Before joining NASA, he was a fighter pilot and test pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. (Continued on page 6) (Continued from page 2) President’s Message know. Fortunately, we now have enough time to scout and consider possible alternative locations. Our first task, though, is to investigate whether an agreement can be made to continue our activities at Dillingham after the lease ends.