June 2018 Volume 25, Number 6
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June 2018 Volume 25, Number 6 Monthly Newsletter of the NORTHERN COLORADO ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY webpage: http://nocoastro.org/ facebook http://www.facebook.com/NoCoAstro Established in 1995 as a non-profit organization, the Northern Colorado Astronomical Society is dedicated to promoting the art and science of astronomy, and encouraging and coordinating activities of amateur astronomers. The society meets the first Thursday of each month to discuss interests and experiences in the universal world of astronomy. Monthly meetings are free, open to the public, and feature lectures from professionals in the field. 2018 NCAS OFFICERS President . Ann Donoghue . [email protected] Vice President . Greg Halac . [email protected] Secretary . Carla Johns . [email protected] Treasurer . Charlie Davis . [email protected] Newsletter Editor . Patrick Fitzhorn . [email protected] Outreach Coordinator . Greg Halac . [email protected] Web Master . Paul Fleming . [email protected] JUNE NCAS MEETING Date: Thursday, June 7, 2018 Time: 6:15 pm Location: Otterbox Digital Dome Theater Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 408 Mason Ct., Fort Collins Speaker: Scott Francis, EDL Analyst, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Topic: Overview of the InSight Mars Lander Mission Abstract: InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, launched on May 5th and will arrive at Mars on November 26th of this year. It will be the first mission to study in-depth the interior structure of Mars, measuring seismic activity, interior heat flow, and the precise motion of the planet in its orbit. This presentation will give an overview of the science goals and engineering of the mission. TABLE OF CONTENTS NEWS OF THE NCAS ...................................................................................................................... 2 OUR NIGHT SKY IN JUNE ................................................................................................................. 2 ASTRONOMY IN NORTHERN COLORADO ................................................................................................ 3 ASTRONOMY ACTIVITIES .................................................................................................................. 3 ASTRONOMY NEWS........................................................................................................................ 4 CORRESPONDENCE ........................................................................................................................ 4 “WHAT’S OUT TONIGHT” - STAR CHART FOR THIS MONTH ........................................................................ 5 NCAS CALENDAR ...................................................................................................................... 6 1 | P a g e CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE Image Reflected in the Front Page Objective NEWS OF THE NCAS NEWSLETTER Please send articles, information, reviews, NCAS member Charlie Davis, Omega Centauri, news, astrophotos, etc. that are of interest NGC5139. Taken at the Texas Star Party 2018 – see to NCAS members. Desired contributions Correspondence section in this newsletter for further MAY NCAS MEETING NOTES include: information. Treasurer’s report was given. There are • Reports on NCAS outreach activities 59 paid members of the NCAS with a total • Descriptions of upcoming NCAS Why write about this seemingly of $4,259.93 in the society’s accounts. events Greg Halac gave an outreach report with nondescript galaxy out of the myriad of • Announcements of local and regional 3 of the 5 April events cancelled due to galaxies viewable that night? There’s events of interest to members inclement weather. The other two hosted more to NGC 5247 than meets the eye. • Photos of members, events, outreach 148 visitors total. There were 5 events It’s a member of a gravitationally bound activities, astro-photos… scheduled for May. It was noted that the group of about 100 galaxies, 110 million • Descriptions of star parties, private or June newsletter will be late due to some light-years in diameter, named the Virgo public viewing sessions, tours of adventuring on the part of the newsletter supercluster. Since NGC 5247 is only 60 editor. Several news items were observatories or planetariums and other activities of general interest. million light-years away from us, two discussed including launching of the galaxies near and dear to our own hearts InSight Mars lander from the West coast – are also members – our own Milky Way, the first ever launch from there. Solar NCAS LOAN ITEMS and M31 (the Andromeda galaxy) right cycle 24 is declining much more rapidly Items belonging to the club may be next door at a distance of 2½ million light- than forecast. The All-Sky Fireball borrowed at no cost by NCAS members in years at RA 00h 42m 44s; Dec +41o 16’ 09”. Network is operation now with 17 campers good standing. New members (less than capturing meteors. Data is available at 6 months) need approval from a club To quote Lewis Carroll, it gets “curiouser their website for public use. officer to borrow some high-valued items. and curiouser.” On 4 Sep 2014 in the The list of items and loan process can be journal Nature (vol 513, issue 7516), four JOIN THE NCAS reviewed on the NCAS web site HERE. cosmologists published a paper showing Visit http:// NoCoAstro.org/join or pay a that the Virgo supercluster is just a club officer at a monthly meeting. Dues nondescript lobe of the mighty Laniakea are $20 for the year, prorated for those supercluster of some 100,000 galaxies joining after March 31. Membership spanning over ½ billion light-years. This automatically enrolls you in the strange galactic structural web is bound Astronomical League (along with their (maybe) by an even stranger unknown quarterly publication, The Reflector). OUR NIGHT SKY IN JUNE Patrick Fitzhorn gravitational source whose scientific You also receive discounts on Sky & name, the “Great Attractor,” seems pretty Telescope and Astronomy magazines. Three interesting deep-sky objects will be underwhelming considering that it’s “an close to our local meridian on the ides of apparent gravitational anomaly” in a “zone CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS June (the middle of the month) at about of avoidance” described as “a Greg Halac 11pm: two galaxies and a globular cluster. concentration of mass thousands of times Member volunteers are always NGC 5247, a magnitude 10.5 unbarred more massive than the Milky Way” appreciated at outreach events. (NCAS spiral galaxy tilted about 25o face-on to according to Wikipedia. The Great members are welcome to attend all Earth and locked in our night sky’s great Attractor indeed! Predictably, it didn’t take outreach events, including "private" galactic clockwork 60 million light-years long before people asked if the Milky Way events.) Even if you don't bring a from Earth, is the southernmost of the is doomed to be lured into this monstrous telescope, you can really improve our three. Its past our present, the light we see siren’s gravitational song. Thankfully, public interactions by: from its billions of stars emanated when astrophysicist Dr. Paul Sutter published a • talking with people about astronomy evergreens, redwoods, grasses and other 2016 paper on Space.com with title asking • sharing views with binoculars modern plants were just starting to get a that very question: “Will the Great • discussing the constellations (eg, roothold on Earth, and early mammals Attractor Destroy Us?” I quote: mythology in your culture-of-choice) were beginning to scatter footprints and “Slowly, inevitably, it is pulling. Over • answering questions about the club feces amongst the forests. h m s the course of billions of years, it draws Astronomically, it’s at RA 13 38 03 ; Dec o us and everything near us closer to it. If you don't feel "qualified," just hang out -17 53’ 02” with an angular diameter of The only force that acts over such with scope volunteers to learn by listening about 7’. In my telescope (250mm f/8 with o immense distance scales and through in and enjoying views thru the a 6.7mm 82 FOV eyepiece resulting in cosmic periods of time is gravity, so telescopes. (That's how all the scope about 300x magnification and a resultant whatever it is, it's massive and volunteers learned.) We maintain a FOV of 14’) I can generally see both major unrelenting. separate email list for volunteers covering arms. If your aperture is larger and/or event logistics details. If you’d like to be your viewing conditions better (or you’re His analysis? Yep – we’re astronomical added to that list please email an astrophotographer), you’ll probably toast. But only if a host of other anomalies [email protected]. see a third arm less distinct than the other (like getting ripped apart in the upcoming two along with intricate interior structure collision between the Milky Way and the and detail. It’s a truly lovely sight in a Andromeda galaxy in about 5 billion universe of many such lovely sights. years) or cosmic killers (like being swallowed by our own Sun in its red giant 2 | P a g e phase in about 7 billion years) don’t The summer solstice is on June 21st. Schmidt-Cassegrain catadioptric telescope on obliterate us first. A reassuring thought! Nope. It’s not the longest day ever a Paramount ME mount. measured due to tidal friction from the After viewing NGC 5247 and Moon and Earth’s oceans slowing THE STARGAZER OBSERVATORY contemplating the frailty of this rock we rotation. That, scientists say, was in June Front Range Community College operates