THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 45, Number 2 February 2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – Dick Wentzel RIP 2«President’s Note 3«Calendar of Celestial Events – February 2020 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4«This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4«TCAA Calendar of Events for 2020 5«Minutes of the January 7, 2020 BoD Meeting 6«Message from NCRAL Chair Carl Wenning 6«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 7«Make Plans Now to Attend TCAA Annual Meeting 8«My New Spectrometer by Tim Stone 9«February 2020: Moon Occults Mars; Planet Parade 15«TCAA Active on Facebook 16«Did You Know? 16«Renewing Your TCAA Membership 16«Public Viewing Sessions for 2020 17«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of January 28, 2020 DICK WENTZEL (1930 – 2020) It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Richard (Dick) Frank Wentzel, 89, of LeRoy. He died peacefully at home in The TCAA is an affiliate of the Le Roy on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. Our sincerest condolences Astronomical League as well as its to his wife Sally and daughter Lisa. North Central Region. For more Dick was born March 12, 1930 in Lorain, OH. He is survived by information about the TCAA, be his wife of 68 years, Sally Jean (née Resch), brother Willard certain to visit the TCAA website at Wentzel, daughters Jayne Wentzel Johnson (Walt), and Lisa tcaa.us/ Wentzel, grandchildren Erik Johnson (Tiffany) and Haley Johnson, as well as great-grandchildren Zeke and Vaylen. He was preceded Visit Astroleague.org for additional in death by his parents, two brothers, and two sisters. information about the League and its After serving as a sergeant in the Army during the Korean numerous membership benefits, Conflict, Dick returned home to Ohio to work in the family including observing programs. photography business, and later in other photography businesses mostly in California and Colorado. After retiring, he became a popular substitute teacher, retiring from that job at age 85. Also, visit the NCRAL website at Dick enjoyed many activities including scuba diving, boating, ncral.wordpress.com for information flying, travel, cruising, and RV-camping. He loved any opportunity about our North Central Region. Find to learn something new or make another friend. He was especially out about our next Regional known for his great cooking and lighthearted jokes. He was a convention during May 2020. warm, caring, and wonderful soul who will be dearly missed. The family is grateful to Dick’s friends and family for their kind visits and best wishes while Dick was in hospice. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to Samaritan’s Purse. Copyright © 2020 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 2 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers February 2020 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER On January first, Dick Wentzel passed away. He was a is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin great friend to our club. I have many fond memories of his City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational involvement with our activities. Here are a few of them. At organization of amateur astronomers inter- our solar eclipse field trip to Camp Ondessonk, Dick and ested in studying astronomy and sharing his daughter Lisa drove their RV and stayed in it. I think it their hobby with the public. was at lunch the first full day we were there, that I was walking from our dorm to the cafeteria, and I was getting TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS HOT. If you recall, it was very hot those days, and about President Tim Stone President, Director, & Property Manager halfway to the cafeteria, the door popped open and Lisa asked if I wanted to cool Tim Stone 309-531-2401 down. I took advantage of the opportunity and had a delightful time in their air [email protected] conditioning talking about RVs, astronomy, telescopes, and eclipses, as well as Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. random other topics, with both Lisa and Dick. Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 Dick was a faithful attender of our Board meetings. He would always bring a [email protected] bottle of white wine, and we’d share some with him. He would sit patiently and Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent listen to our proceedings with interest and every now-and-then he would interject Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 a quip of some kind to keep the mood light. After the meeting was over, he’d get [email protected] up and invariably have a joke ready for everyone. He’d tell the joke, we’d laugh, Secretary & Director/Historian/Editor and he would head on out to the car with a smile on his face. Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 I’m sure Dick had bad days. We all do. But I never saw him without that smile. [email protected] He will be missed. When we have our moment of silence at the beginning of each 5th Director/Assistant Property Manager annual meeting, amongst others I will remember him. Scott Wade 309-310-2464 In case you haven’t heard, consider this your invitation to attend our annual [email protected] th banquet on Saturday, February 8 , at the Normal Township Hall, 304 East Mulberry Astronomical League Correspondent Street in Normal. The hall is across the street, to the north, of Ace Hardware. We Robert Finnigan 309-846-9533 will have great food catered by Nelson’s (starting at 6:30 PM), our short annual [email protected] business meeting, and an excellent presentation by Dr. Matt Caplan from the Illinois Technology Coordinator State University Physics Department. He uses computational astrophysics Justin Meyer 630-649-0611 [email protected] techniques to study the interiors of neutron stars. Personally, I can’t wait to hear his presentation, and I can’t wait to see YOU there! Webmaster Keep looking up, Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] Tim Stone, President Lighting Educ. & AL Observing Club Coordinator Lisa Wentzel unlisted number EGISTER OW OR ANQUET [email protected] R N F TCAA B Members need not register to attend the TCAA’s annual business meeting; The OBSERVER however, reservations are required for the associated banquet. This year’s banquet Carl J. Wenning, Editor will consist of chicken and vegetarian entrées, potatoes, green beans, tea, coffee, Submission deadline two days before water, lemonade, and a celebratory cake. Despite the great banquet menu, the end of each month. members are encouraged to bring a small side dish (e.g., a regional or ethnic food) to share to increase the amount and variety of food options. The banquet cost will MEMBERSHIP DUES remain at $20 per person (sorry, no discounts for children). Payment is to be made Individual Adult/Family $40 upon arrival at the event. Full-time Student/Senior $25 You may register now by going online to the signup page for the 2020 Annual (Senior status equals ages 60+) Meeting banquet at: http://tcaa.us/AnnualMeeting2020.aspx. The deadline for banquet registration is Monday, February 3rd at noon. For additional information To join, send your name, contact info, and about the proceedings, schedule, speaker and so forth, see further on in this issue dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL of the newsletter. Alternatively, for information not found in this publication, 61761-1471. contact Treasurer Dave Osenga using his information found in the left column of this page. Copyright © 2020 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 2 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers February 2020 CALENDAR OF CELESTIAL EVENTS – FEBRUARY 2020 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (2/14): Mars (♂), Jupiter (♃), & Saturn (♄) The following individuals have paid dues for new or EVENING PLANETS (2/14): Mercury (☿), Venus (♀), Uranus (⛢), renewed memberships as of January 28, 2020. (Others who paid after that date will appear in the February 2020 & Neptune (♆) 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: Renewing: Vivian Hoette (two years); David Peters; Allan Griffith; Jim Gibbs (2 years); William Carney Day Time Event Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! 01 19:30 Moon at Apogee: 404580 km 02 22:45 FIRST QUARTER MOON DUES BLUES 04 03 Quadrantid Meteor Shower If you have received a “your dues are due” 05 02 Earth at Perihelion: 0.98324 AU statement along with the email that brought you this 07 15:09 Aldebaran 3.0°S of Moon issue of The OBSERVER, please remit your dues to Mr. 09 17:29 Moon at Ascending Node Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 10 09 Mercury at Superior Conjunction Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 10 13:10 Pen. Lunar Eclipse; mag=0.896 10 13:21 FULL MOON SUBSCRIBING TO THE NEW TCAA EMAIL LIST 10 20:26 Pollux 5.3°N of Moon Welcome to the [email protected] group at Groups.io. 11 17:54 Beehive 1.0°S of Moon This is a free, easy-to-use group email service set up for 13 05:37 Regulus 3.8°S of Moon the TCAA’s communication purposes. You can subscribe, 13 08 Saturn in Conjunction with Sun visit your group, start reading and posting messages here: https://groups.io/g/tcaa 13 14:20 Moon at Perigee: 365964 km The email address for this group is [email protected].