The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

VOLUME XLII Numbers 3-4 March-April 2017

Fine Prominences by Kaylee UpdeGrave

Pensacola State Student Kaylee UpdeGrave used her smart phone and the Lunt 60 and iOptron adapter to capture this chromospheric activity on February 23, 2017. Pensacon Prominence

Ed Magowan captured this nice prominence while set up for public sun gazing outside Pensacon on February 19th with the Lunt 60 Ha scope. We had hundreds of guests spotting by to get our free AL eclipse glasses, photograph the sun, get maps, and info on our upcoming gazes. We also had presentations on “When Worlds Erupt” space art by Merry Edenton-Wooten, and a panel discussion on Colonizing Mars on Saturday, February 18th at 5 PM in room C of the Grand Hotel. The Pensacon Floor in Bay Center

“Where’s Waldo” Challenge …find Dewey and Ella Barker!

Some of the many costumed guests who loved the displays at Pensacon.

Ed Magowan and Mike Kinser set up Saturday morning for public observing.

Ron Fairbanks helps guests spot Venus in daytime at Pensacon. Hundreds see Venus in Broad Daylight at Pensacon

Here Venus appears about 33% sunlit and at mag. -4.6 on February 18-19, near greatest brilliancy and easy to spot under really clear skies on Sunday during Pensacon. We used a nearby street light pole to help everyone align on it in the mid day sky with their naked eyes, and many also photographed it through Ed’s scope. Many also used their AL eclipse glasses to see just how small the sun appears in the day sky, only .5 degree across, the same size as the disk of the moon, as we will witness most dramatically at 1:38 PM on Monday, August 21, 2017. Ed Magowan and Jon Ellard at Pensacon

Here the Lunt 60 is set up on the SkyWatcher Virtuoso Mount for use with smartphone solar photography. They are using the iOptron Smartphone adapter so the public can capture solar activity. This tracking electronic mount is only $250 with a fine 90mm Makustov-Cassegrain OTA, two nice eyepieces, and a variety of photo mounts for digital SLR and smartphone cameras, and is able to use 8 AA batteries or 12V input for power. It can also be used with any Vixen dovetail OTA up to about 4 pounds in weight. A great value in a portable scope and mount for the August eclipse! Link to these at: https://www.telescopesplus.com/products/sky-watcher-virtuoso-90mm-maksutov- cassegrain- telescope?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=1962309892&utm_ca mpaign=CPCS%20- 20Telescopes%20PLAs%20%5BDesktop%5D&utm_content=All%20Telescopes%2 0Products https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1085660&gclid=CPnMiu- l3tICFQkDhgodFRYCeQ&is=REG&ap=y&c3api=1876%2C92051677682%2C&A=detail s&Q= The Quiet Sun by Nicole Gunter

With solar max now three years behind us, in April 2014, the Sun is often spotless, so we take advantage of any spot or prominence that comes along. In this case, on January 24, 2017 AR 2628 is almost central. A nice prominence display is also evident on the northwestern limb. There have been many days lately that the disk was not only spotless, but also without any prominences, filaments, flares, or faculae. That this may be a long term trend is explored in this new S&T article: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/scientists-recreate-space- weather-400-years-maunder-minimum/ Nick Elliott Captures a rare flare on January 24, 2017

Emily Adams shoots a prominence on the opposite lime

The Sun in Violet Light of Calcium K Line

With even hydrogen alpha revealing little solar action, Wayne Wooten used the Lunt CaK filter on the Eon 72 to show more faculae (bright active areas around sunspots). He used 1/30 second exposure with his Canon SX 150 at 4X to capture the whole disk. Activity at this wavelength gives a forecast of more obvious later activity in both visible and hydrogen alpha images, but Wayne is frustrated that so far, while he has captured sunspots and faculae in the Lunt CaK, no prominences yet!

Earthshine

No telescope needed here. Wayne Wooten captures the slender crescent moon on January 29, 2017 with 12X zoom with Canon SX150, manual mode, 1/20th”. It was Leonadro diVinci who first drew and explained this reflection off the day side of the earth back to the night side of the moon a hundred years before Galileo.

Vasanth Ramachandran’s crescent moon in daylight

The crescent moon passed just south of Venus on the afternoon of January 31st, Venus was then at greatest brilliancy, and the grouping in the clear afternoon sky allowed dozens of PSC students and faculty to step outside about 2 PM and spot both easily with the naked eye! Here the 90mm Mak on the Virtuoso is used to image the daylight view of the crescent with 12mm Plossl, .5X telecompressor, iOptron smartphone adapter, and his iPhone 6. We were also able to easily image the crescent Venus with the same setup.

Vanessa McClough Captures the Pair at Sunset

By now, the moon’s .5 degree per hour revolution around us is evident, as the moon is considerably east of their closest conjunction about 2 PM. Moon Occulted Aldebaran on March 4, 2017

A few of us went out to Big Lagoon hoping the clouds wouldn't be too much of a problem. They didn't look like they'd be going anywhere, but I trusted the Clear Sky Clock was off by its usual hour and sure enough the sky opened up. This shot was captured with my cell and David's Orion 8" Newtonian and my Orion 17 mm Stratus eyepiece. I'd estimate about 5 minutes before occultation. Skies stayed clear until 11:00 wrapped up then headed for home. --Dewey Barker

Nicole Gunter’s Galileoscope captures the crescent moon

Telescopes are more fun when you build them yourself. PSC student Nicole Gunter and her daughter Chloe made the Galileoscope from the kit, then tried if out on the evening of January 31st on the crescent moon. She bought her own iOptron adapter for use with her smartphone to take this photo. This view very closely approximates what Galileo showed the Curia at the first public stargaze at the Vatican in August 1609.

Myron Almond catches a nice conjunction on January 31st

As twilight fell on January 31st, Mars appeared just above the earthshine lit crescent, with Venus now well to the lower right of the pair. Venus has now retrograded between us and the Sun on March 25, 2017, and in early April rises before the Sun at dawn. Mars will lose its race with Sun and Earth and disappear behind the Sun as well by the end of April. But Jupiter is coming to opposition this month in Virgo, and Saturn will be out in the summer evening sky by June, so all is not lost!

Venus in the Pines

The crescent phase of Venus was obvious in binoculars as it retrograded between us and the Sun in late March. Wayne Wooten used 4X zoom with Canon SX150 here. Below the Virtuoso reveals how the turbulent atmosphere adds color to the cresent.

The Straight Wall by Dean Covey

Standing out nicely here, this famed lunar scarp is best seen within hours of first and last quarter moon. Dean combined a high resolution video camera and detail enhancing software to give us an image sharper than the human eye can see. We will get great shots of the first quarter moon at our Pavilion Gazes at Pensacola Beach this year, starting on the weekend of March 31-April 1st. Bring your smartphone for outstanding lunar topography!

Chloe Gunter captures a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

Early in the evening of February 10th, as many members were on their way to the monthly business meeting, the northern limb of the full moon was slightly darker than normal. The penumbral eclipse meant that the lighter partial eclipse shadow, or penumbra of earth, was over this upper left part of the full moon. Alas, it never reached the darker umbral shadow, and by the time our meeting ended, even this faint shadow was gone, as the moon revolved out of our shadow entirely. To put this into context for next August, we in Pensacola will lie in the moon’s fainter penumbral shadow, seeing only 82% of the sun covered. You must be about 400 miles north, along the much darker umbral shadow of the moon, to witness the corona and totality.

Nick Elliott’s smartphone captures February’s Hunger Moon

As our EAAA meetings are planned to be on the Friday closest on average to the Full Moons for a given year, we took advantage of clear skies after the February 10th club meeting to use the Galileoscope and iOptron adapter to portray the spectacular rays coming out of the Tycho impact, estimated to be only 80 million years old at lower right.

Not sure, but at very top of this image, just a tiny bit of the penumbral eclipse may still be visible as a slight shading? The large bull’s eye crater ring at top is the famed Mare Orientale basin, about as tilted toward earth is it even gets.

Marshal Coates smartphone shot the same night

While Nick’s smartphone captured the rays nicely, Marshal’s phone did a better job of revealing some of the more delicate detail. Note how vividly the “Lady in the Moon” shows up, looking to the lower left here. Almost looks as if she is bending over to kiss the crater Copernicus? The very bright crater Aristarchus lies still closer to the lower left limb here. And that brings us to the Apollo mission that never flew….

Chelsea Donaldson’s Cape Kennedy Visit Shots

Engines like these powered the Saturn V rocket and our astronauts to the moon. But at a great human price…

It has been 50 years since the Apollo 1 fire killed Roger Chaffee at Cape Kennedy’s Launch Complex 34 in Florida. Chaffee, along with astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Ed White II, died on Jan. 27, 1967, when a blaze erupted in their command module during preflight testing. On that very dark day, I don’t think any of us dreamed that we could be in orbit about the moon with Apollo VIII by the next Christmas. The hard work of NASA over the next 23 months to make this happen is to me “the great American Miracle”.

Jim Lovell’s suit from Apollo VIII

Yes, this is the suit he was wearing when he took the historic “Earthrise” photo from lunar orbit I have above my desk in my office, as you see below…. The most famous photo in history?

Many think this view of our lovely, lively planet, with the barren starkness of the lifeless moon in the foreground, played a big role in the development of our environmental awareness and the movement it spawned. It led to the EPA, the green movement, Earth Day (I was one of the organizers of the first one at U of Fla. in 1969!), and of course a lot of government regulations that Trump wants to reverse, at great peril to the planet and all its inhabitants. Pray, as both Carl Sagan and the Bible stress that we, as a nation and species, indeed learn to be “good stewards” of this pale blue dot, right now the only place in the universe where we know for sure that life has arisen.

This print was signed by Jim Lovell when he was the guest celebrity at Saint Anne’s Roundup back in 1995, while the movie Apollo XIII was still in theaters. I led a group of Boy Scouts from Troop 608 in cleaning up the garbage for the church as our service project, and Jim was kind enough to sign similar NASA prints for all the scouts and their adult leaders helping that evening. Wonder how many other scouts kept their copies?

Remember Apollo XVIII?

Probably not, but I sure do, with great regret. It was planned to land at the bright crater Aristarchus, at the right edge of this image by Emily Adams on February 10th. This is the brightest region of the moon, and may be the site of still active lunar volcanism and outgassing…certainly the most interesting place for our astronauts intended to land. But the Apollo missions ended too soon, even though initial plans included three more landings. The Vietnam War funding took precedence, and the capsule was used instead in the pioneering Apollo-Soyouz mission of cooperation with the Russians. A good project, but still would have rather we went to Aristarchus!

The Shuttle Tank with boosters attached

Space exploration is dangerous. The solid fuel boosters’ seal failure would doom Challenger and seven more astronauts one cold morning in January 1986. The Next Step Outward?

With its reusable boosters working well lately, perhaps by next year its manned version of the Dragon capsule will carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Here RODP student Joel Madigan proudly shows his family the ISS rising in Tennessee, the brightest object in the sky after Venus.

Jeremy Murdock and family watch the ISS

I was on the way to Orange Beach with my wife and two children and told my wife all day that I needed to photograph the space station when we got to our hotel. We drove halfway and stopped in Prattville Alabama. By the time I got the car unloaded and got the laptop out to double check the flight path I had run down to the parking lot of our Hilton Garden Inn and set up my camera. I had just got it set up when I saw the ISS appear just above the horizon. On 3/26/2017 @2016 hours I got to show the ISS to my wife and two younger children. My two year old was convinced it was an airplane. I believe the the bright star in my photograph to the right is Cannis Major. I was aimed just to the left of Orion's belt as that was the most familiar and fastest thing for me to orient my camera to. I definitely need a little practice and research (and probably a better tripod) when shooting the but attached is a 30 sec time lapse of the ISS, shot from a hotel parking lot. Ha ha. My wife and I were amazed at the comparative brightness to surrounding stars. This gave some tangible value to what a -3.6 magnitude really means. This was a VERY interesting experience. I am going to photograph some more and try some stuff out on my farm with less ambient light. Thank you for this assignment! Best Regards, Jeremy Murdock

Jupiter and Moons with the C-8 and smartphone by Nicole Gunter

Taken after the EAAA meeting at 9:20 PM on March 10th with Ed Magowan’s C-8 and Nicole’s iOptron adapter and smartphone. Callisto is top right, then Ganymede closer to Jupiter. Io is the bump on the lower left corner of Jupiter’s disk, emerging from shadow, and Europa lies a ittle lower at bottom. As you see here, Jupiter is bright enough to badly overexpose with most smartphones, so Ed tried adding a “moon” filter to allow the disk detail to show up without sacrificing aperture. It works, as Nicole shows here!

A NEO buzzes past

Tom Haugh captured the rapidly moving near earth asteroid 2017 BS 32 as it whizzed by us in January 2017. Note the irregularly shaped body is tumbling, hence the variations in its brightness as it flies past us.

Malone Calvert captures a close Comet pass as well

Malone Calvert used his new big refractor to capture the close approach of this comet to earth on March 20th. It was moving overhead through the Big Dipper, and into Hercules in April; it should be observable in binocs for another month?

Arizona Skies

Reminding us of dry air we in Florida never experience, club founder Robert Blake sends this shot of a recent campout with his club near Flagstaff, taken by club member Robbie Lemmer. But when we head out to Fort Pickens in April, with the support of the NPS and their control of light pollution, our view to the south at least is pretty good, and we do get to see a little more of the southern sky.

The Dusty Pleiades by Malone Calvert

Malone uses his new refractor to capture the beautiful wisps of gas and dust that the nicest of the open clusters is moving through currently. Whether this reflection nebula is left over from the formation of this nearby young cluster, or if the cluster is just now moving through a particularly dusty arm of the Milky Way is still in debate. I personally like the former, saying to my classes that “The Pleiades are such a young cluster, they are still running around in their diapers”.

M-35 and NGC 2158 by Don Meyer

Located at the feet of Gemini in the winter milky way, the closer M-35 is faintly visible with the naked eye in our own Cygnus-Carina Arm of the . It is easily resolved with binoculars. However, almost ten times more distant NCG 2158 is far beyond, in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, and only a faint smudge in most amateur instruments. It takes good long exposure photos like this to resolve its stars.

M-3 of the Spring Sky by Chris Gomez

Near Arcturus in the spring sky, M-3 is an easy binocular object, and the first of over 100 of the fine star balls in the summer sky.

M-15 of Autumn Skies by Don Meyer

While M-3 lead the parade of globulars clustered around the core of the Galaxy in Sagittarius, M-15 in the head of Pegasus marks the back end. Over 100 globulars within range of amateur scopes lie on the summer side of the sky, only six on the winter side.

Heart and Soul Nebulae by Chris Masdson

One of the most photogenic of stellar nurseries, this region lies in Cassiopeia, and includes the famed “Bubble Nebula”.

M-42 by Marc Glover

For beginners, this is the brightest and easiest of the stellar nurseries to see and shoot. M-42 by Chris Madson

I rate it after Saturn, the next most beautiful thing in the sky for telescopic observers.

M-42 by Don Meyer

The Great Nebula in Orion is a cinch to find. I tell my classes to “hit him below the belt”, and there just south of the three in a row, you will see the faint blur of the emission nebula with your naked eye, handing like a “sword in sheath” below the hunter’s belt.

M-42 by Malone Calvert

Are refractors ruling the universe now? Malone Calvert was one of the last holdouts, but even he is now addicted to the fine images his new Astro-Tech makes….He joins Jon Ellard, Rick Johnston, Chris Gomez, and even Ed Magowan as owners of new refactors for astro imaging.

Horsehead and Flame Nebulae by Don Meyer

Located at the eastern edge of Orion’s belt, the larger Flame Nebula is much easier to see than the more famous but elusive Horsehead.

Horsehead Close Up by Ed Magowan

Believe Ed used his new 4” refractor for this closeup in hydrogen alpha light of the most famous dark nebulae.

Iris Nebula, NGC 2327, by Ed Magowan

A contrast in colors, the red here is ionized hydrogen, from the 3-2 transition of the electrons orbiting the proton in hydrogen’s nucleus. The blue is just Raleigh scattering off of dust motes that approximate the ones overhead that make our own sky blue as well.

Iris Nebula by Chris Madson

Chris Madson’s shot makes the blue color of this flowery stellar nursery more evident.

NGC 281, the Pac Man Nebula, by Chris Madson

The interplay of bright hot hydrogen and cold dark dust motes makes for the hungry mouth of this popular photo target.

The Cone Nebula by Chris Gomez

See here in hydrogen alpha light, this region of Monoceros is one of active star formation, with a lot of dust and gas moving rapidly in the stellar winds of new stars. Inside the Rosette Nebula by Chris Gomez

Here to the top left is the young cluster, NCG 2244, visible to the naked eye and great in binoculars just east of Betelguese. It is blowing thin clouds of dust away from the center. The darkest, densest ones are called Bok Globules, and probably have the mass and density needed to complete the collapse into protostars. But the thinner ones will just evaporate into the interstellar medium, to be recycled some other eon into a new star somewhere else in the spiral arms.

Tadpoles by Chris Gomez

IC410 is a dusty emission nebula located in the of Auriga at about 12.000 ly from Earth. It is part of a larger star forming region that also contains the Flaming Star Nebula. The gas structures i IC410 is a dusty emission nebula located in the constellation of Auriga at about 12.000 ly from Earth. It is part of a larger star forming region that also contains the Flaming Star Nebula. The gas structures in this picture are lit by the radiation from the open NGC1893 that lies in the center of the nebula. This star cluster is about 4 million years old, but in astronomical terms it is still very young, with hot, massive starsn this picture are lit by the radiation from the open star cluster NGC1893 that lies in the center of the nebula. This star cluster is about 4 million years old, but in astronomical terms it is still very young, with hot, massive stars (S&T).

Thor’s Helmet by Chris Gomez

Mr. Garber’s favorite is NGC 2359, an emission nebula[3] in the constellation Canis Major. The nebula is approximately 3,670 (11.96 thousand light years) away and 30 light-years in size. The central star is the Wolf-Rayet star WR7, an extremely hot star thought to be in a brief pre-supernova stage of evolution. It is similar in nature to the Bubble Nebula, but interactions with a nearby large molecular cloud are thought to have contributed to the more complex shape and curved bow-shock structure of Thor's Helmet. (Wiki)

Seagull Nebula by Don Meyer

Certainly appropriate for our beach gazes, IC 2177 is a region of nebulosity that lies along the border between the Monoceros and Canis Major. It is a roughly circular H II region centered on the Be star HD 53367. This nebula was discovered by Welsh amateur astronomer Isaac Roberts. (Wiki)

The Witch’s Head by Ed Magowan

Just SW of Rigel in Orion’s heel and lit by its intense blue light, this dust cloud reminds us there are many more like it in the ISM, but not apparent as no superluminous star lights them up as in this case. Long exposure photos often reveal “interstellar cirrius”. M-57, the Ring Nebula by Marc Glover

The easiest of the planetary nebula to find, it lies mid-way between the two southernmost stars in the trapezoid of Lyra, and can be seen in binoculars.

Commented [WW1]:

M-97, The Owl Nebula, by Chris Gomez

Faintest of the Messier objects, this planetary in the bowl of Ursa major reminds up why William Hershel used that term for these often round stellar strip teases. The origin of the two “eyes” is still a mystery.

Supernova Remnant IC 443 by Chris Gomez

While planetary nebulae represent relatively quiet “whimpers” of dying red giants, the more massive supergiants blow their guts out into space as supernova remnants like this one. Of course, as Carl Sagan stressed, we are such stardust.

Andromeda Galaxy with Globulars by Malone Calvert

Who is bigger, us or Andromeda? Still not sure, but Malone captures plenty of globulars orbiting its central black hole here.

M-33 in Triangulum with its NGC objects by Malone Calvert

Why so many NGC numbers for just one galaxy? As M-33 in Triangulum was one of the closest spirals, and easiest to resolve, in the days before we knew it was a galaxy in its own right, observers would think each emission nebula they resolved was a separate entity.

M-33 by Chris Madson

Compare Malone‘s view with Chris’ big SCT scope’s image. M-51, by Marc Glover

The first spiral to have its arms resolve in Lord Rosse’s 72” Leviathan, this famed interacting pair is a highlight for even visual observers at our Fort Pickens gazes in scopes 8” and bigger.

M-81 and M-82 by Don Meyer

West of the bowl of the Big Dipper, this famed interacting pair are both binocular objects, and great targets for both small telescopes and astrophotographers.

M-81 by Chris Gomez

Called the prototype “Grant Design Spiral”, this galaxy shows us much new star formation in the many pink H II regions in its spiral arms.

M-82 by Chris Gomez

But things are much more turbulent in its neighbor. Now the galactic nucleus is active and we see striking bi-polar jets, glowing in the same red of ionized hydrogen, coming out perpendicular to the disk in this fine image by Chris Gomez.

M-84 and Virgo Cluster of by Ed Magowan

Our own Local Group of Galaxies is in fact gravitationally bound to the much larger Virgo SuperCluster, with its center about 60 million light years distant.

M-101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, by Marc Glover

Seen face on near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper, this nice spiral has a very faint surface, and is often easy to miss visually if there is any light pollution.

Going deep on the Pinwheel by Chris Gomez

This luminence shot of M-101 was with his RC-8 scope, I believe.

The Whale Galaxy by Chris Gomez

NGC 4631 is a barred in the constellation . This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape gives it the appearance of a herring or a whale, hence its nickname. Again, note the many H II regions, all comparable to M-42, evident here.

M-106 by Chris Gomez

Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is also a Seyfert II galaxy; note the unusually bright core here. Due to x-rays and unusual emission lines detected, it is suspected that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive black hole in the center. NGC 4217 to lower right is a possible companion galaxy of .

IC 342 by Chris Madson

IC 342 (also known as Caldwell 5) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis. The galaxy is near the galactic equator where dust obscuration makes it a difficult object for both amateur and professional astronomers to observe, though it can readily be detected even with binoculars. The dust of the Milky Way makes it difficult to determine the precise distance; modern estimates range from about 7 Mly to about 11 Mly. The galaxy is one of the brightest two galaxies in the IC 342/Maffei Group of galaxies, one of the galaxy groups that is closest to the Local Group. The galaxy was discovered by William Frederick Denning in 1895. Edwin Hubble first thought it to be in the Local Group, but later it was demonstrated that the galaxy is outside the Local Group. In 1935, Harlow Shapley declared that this galaxy was the third largest spiral galaxy by angular size then known, smaller only than the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), being wider that the full moon. (Modern estimates are more conservative, giving the apparent size as one-half to two- thirds the diameter of the full moon. (Wiki)

Supernova in NGC 5643 by Dave Halupowski

Supernova 2017cbv in the spiral galaxy NGC 5643 was discovered by a team of astronomers on March 10. I took this Tuesday night with Slooh robotic telescope Chile. --Dave Haupowski

Another New Star for the EAAA

Last month it was Chris and Gina Gomez with Leonardo, now Jon and Miranda Ellard welcome Liam to the club. Congratulations!

Starting them Young

My RODP student Ngizinha King shows her daughter Saturn at the Sudekum Planetarium in Nashville. They will have a front row seat for August’s totality! Saturn by Mina Wooten

My own five year old granddaughter Mina, daughter of Michael and Charlene Wooten of West Melbourne, Florida, is getting more interested in astronomy. Perhaps it just skipped a generation! She and her sister Lily recently built a Galileoscope painted by Grandma Merry in Pink and Purple (my little pony colors). Have to get a shot of it!

Many thanks to Pensacola State College!

As I approach retirement on August 8th, I thanked the college for its support of me, my family, and our club over the last 40+ years. Here we meet with the college board on February 28thth to present a Blue/Green Galileoscope, in the PSC colors, to Dr. Meadows, our President. Jay Phillips reported “For decades, Pensacola State College students have been inspired to dig deeper into the world of natural sciences and astronomy thanks to the passion Dr. Wooten brings. Now, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Wooten’s Galileo Project and other astronomy inspired events, he has spread his joy and passion of astronomy to so many different children and schools all over the area. As of token of his appreciation to the college, Dr. Wooten presented one of his Galileo Telescopes to PSC’s president, Dr. Meadows on Tuesday, February 28th. With events, such as stargazes held at Fort Pickens, The Meteor and the Galileo Project, which Dr. Wooten has beenrunning for the past two years, PSC has made a valiant effort to support not only astronomy in general but the Escambia Amateur Astronomy Association (or EAAA) as well. With the Galileo Project, students assemble 30-power refractive Galileo telescopes and paint them for extra credit. At that point the students can either buy the telescope for themselves or return it to Dr. Wooten to be donated to a local school that schedules a star gaze with EAAA. “We already have 30 in circulation and more in preparation,” Dr. Wooten said about the number of telescopes he has donated to high schools all over the area already. The telescope presented to Dr. Meadows was painted and assembled by two of Dr. Wooten’s students, Nicole Gunter and Losmie Lutaya, respectively.Chosen by Dr. Wooten to help present the telescope to Dr. Meadows, Nicole Gunter gave an insightful speech regarding why the telescopes are such an important project.

“Putting the telescope together is an invaluable opportunity,” she said, “It gives Dr. Wooten’s students a much better understanding of how they work and how to use them properly.” Dr. Wooten expanded on this, “After building the telescope, the students have to bring it to me, I check it and they get to keep it and use it for 30 days after that. Even if they’re donating it.” To all the board members, Dr. Wooten presented a different gift, 10-power binoculars, equivalent to what Galileo used, but these have a solar filter. With these solar filters, you can view the sunspots and eclipse on August 21st, safely. PSC’s Vice President, Tom Giliam, shared a few words regarding his time being a student in Dr. Wooten’s class in addition to how much he respected Wooten and “all of the things he’s done” for the college. Talking to him after the event, Giliam went even further into why he holds Wooten in such high regard. “Dr. Wooten was my favorite professor when I was a student at PJC. I know he is retiring soon and I wanted to make my comments to the board to give him the recognition he deserves.” Even though he will be retired by that time, Dr. Wooten’s passion for astronomy still shines bright. If the weather permits on the date of the solar eclipse, he plans to set up a spot outside of the planetarium to watch the event with whoever would like to come.” PS: For more on the $15 10x25 Tasco solar monoculars, link to: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Baader%20filters%20for%20Tasco%2010x25%20binoc s%20REVISED.pdf?token=AWwSVKccZa8RhKxXyFX4glXuDD3xcAzIPFGciQvXNA9b1 ur9Pg-mUb9QRrEVeTSyQtn8iYpX_FXZWcxQHd- 7IeNnNfDbbfKGQBz5XpXY1YSojzw5NWvcxvpfP1GdlF5QS- FjqV0rQq7GbLAOOgmKII6i Many Thanks to Lisa Knuth!

PJC alumnae and EAAA member Lisa Knuth now lives in New Jersey, but is thinking about retiring back to our area. She most generously shared her father’s collection of Mercury 7 photos in the January’s Meteor, and also donated 36 Galileoscope kits for our student member to build. Only six are now left!

Galileoscopes in Many Colors

Here Nicole Gunter, Jacque Falzone, and Emily Adams add artistic touches to some of the scope kits that will soon be in the hands of local science teachers and their students.

Dewey Barker Presents Galileoscope to Rhodes Elementary

We hope all of these will be pointed sunward on the afternoon of August 21, 2017 (a Monday, and yes, schools will be back in session then!) to watch the moon cover 82% of the sun at maximum partial eclipse locally, about 1:37 PM. All these kits are provided with Draco Production’s 1.5” Baader solar filters for safe sunspotting and eclipse observing! If you still need safe photographic quality Baader, access Draco Productions website at: http://www.dracoproductions.net/baader_solar_filter_material.html

The Blue Wahoos want you!

We have an invitation from Tommy To to go to a game and set up scopes for the public! Observing the Moon with Galileoscope at Scenic Heights

These little scopes do a great job on sunspots, lunar craters and mare, the moons of Jupiter, phases of Venus, and many other starter objects. Here Wayne Wooten and Richard Walker are at Scenic Heights Elementary for their science night. Teacher Karla Trawick was the recipient of this year’s Galileoscope, the third this local school has been given at the stargazes we sponsor for our schools.

PS: If you like Merry’s eclipse commemorative Draco totality T-shirt, you can order it from Café Press at this link: http://www.cafepress.com/mf/107743294/draco- productions_tshirt?productId=2019655591 They come in a variety of colors (black is best!) and sizes for men and women. And of course, while many of you already have the Draco mugs, you can get more of them. Santa was good to Steve Schumbert!

Marc Glover’s new toys are cool, too!

Here is the rig he is using for his nice shots in our Gallery! Thanks to everyone for their submissions, and if you got left out, will try to get you next time! Keep looking up!

Dawn at the beach

Heather Culpepper captures the majesty of a night ending, and promise of new day.