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June 2019 OBSERVER

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June 2019 OBSERVER THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 44, Number 6 June 2019 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – The WO 24” 2«President’s Note 3«Calendar of Celestial Events – June 2019 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4«This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4«Minutes of the May 14th BoD Meeting 6«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 6«E/PO Updates for May 2019 5«TCAA Image Gallery 7«A Brief Report from NCRAL 2019 9«Central Illinois Mini Conference September 21st 9«Intro. to Amateur Astronomy Course to Resume 10«Remaining Public Viewing Sessions for 2019 10«TCAA Calendar of Events for 2019 11«TCAA Image Gallery 12«June 2019 with Jeffrey L. Hunt 16«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of May 29, 2019 17«Renewing Your TCAA Membership 17«TCAA Active on Facebook IMAGE OF THE MONTH: EDITOR’S CHOICE – THE WO 24” While this is not one of our more “traditional” astronomical images showing deep space objects, it’s still highly significant. This image was taken by TCAA president and property manager Tim Stone on Monday, May 13th, shortly after the 24” AG Optical telescope was placed on its Taurus yoke mount at Waynesville Observatory (WO). The telescope’s optical tube assembly was a The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League. For heavy lift because it weighs about 300 pounds. Assisting Tim with more information about the TCAA, be certain to visit the the mounting of the telescope were Tony Cellini and Justin Meyer. TCAA website. Visit Astroleague.org for additional According to Tim, “Tony and Justin were a HUGE help… [T]hey were information about the League and its membership able to figure out how the mounting actually works. Great team benefits. effort.” Copyright © 2019 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 44, No. 6 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers June 2019 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER I feel like I spend a lot of time in is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin this column complaining about the City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational weather, but… this is getting organization of amateur astronomers inter- ridiculous! Ok, there’s my monthly ested in studying astronomy and sharing installment of weather commentary. their hobby with the public. Moving on… I don’t know how many of you TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS have seen news about the SpaceX President, Director, & Property Manager launch of the first prototype StarLink Tim Stone 309-531-2401 satellites. The goal of the program, [email protected] funded by SpaceX, is to provide low- Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. cost, high-bandwidth internet access Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 around the globe. This is surely a [email protected] laudable goal, but it threatens TCAA President Tim Stone Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent disaster for the astronomy Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 community, both amateur and professional. The final planned constellation will [email protected] place thousands of satellites in low earth orbit, each one bright enough to be seen Secretary & Director/Historian/Editor with the naked eye, and occasionally flaring to considerable brightness like the Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 Iridium satellites we all are familiar with. As SpaceX moves these plans forward, [email protected] competitive companies might very well launch their own satellites, crowding the 5th Director/Assistant Property Manager skies with potentially tens of thousands of satellites. It is the fervent hope of this Scott Wade 309-310-2464 astronomer, as well as many others I’ve talked to, that these plans are modified to [email protected] include far fewer satellites and thwart the creation of a new kind of light pollution – Astronomical League Correspondent satellite reflection. Robert Finnigan 309-846-9533 I will personally stay versed on developments with this program. It will be [email protected] magnificently expensive, and as we all know, plans often get changed for economic Technology Coordinator reasons. Is SpaceX being entirely altruistic in this endeavor? Perhaps somewhat, Justin Meyer 630-649-0611 [email protected] but in the end, nothing is ever free, and SpaceX will need to recoup their considerable cost somehow. Perhaps reason will prevail, projected bandwidth Webmaster capacity will be reduced, occasional outages will be deemed acceptable (as they are Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] today with the GPS constellation), and the cost and number of satellites will drop to more reasonable numbers. Lighting Educ. & AL Observing Club Coordinator Lisa Wentzel unlisted number I am personally in favor of increased access to information around the world, [email protected] but as we’ve seen, information can be made to do whatever someone wants, and can be as dangerous as it is beneficial. Simply giving access to those who don’t have The OBSERVER it today solves a technology problem but threatens to further exacerbate the many Carl J. Wenning, Editor in Chief social ills that come with social media and high-speed access to information. How will governments respond to what they perceive as threats caused by access to Submission deadline two days before information? Can we as human beings disseminate and use information the end of each month. responsibly? These, and many others, are vital questions and we are rushing MEMBERSHIP DUES headlong into a world without answers, laws, norms, ethics, and a moral compass. Astronomers would do well to be very concerned about these satellites. So Individual Adult/Family $40 Full-time Student/Senior $25 would the rest of the world. Let us proceed with caution. (Senior status equals ages 60+) Meanwhile, let’s hope the skies clear this month. I’m itching to take some deep sky images and spectrograms! To join, send your name, contact info and dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA Tim Stone Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL TCAA President 61761-1471. Copyright © 2019 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 44, No. 6 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers June 2019 CALENDAR OF CELESTIAL EVENTS – JUNE 2019 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (6/15): Venus, Saturn, Uranus, & Neptune The following individuals have paid dues for new or renewed memberships as of May 29, 2019. (Others who EVENING PLANETS (6/15): Mercury, Mars, & Jupiter paid after that date will appear in the July 2019 issue of The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of The OBSERVER.) important astronomical events for this month. All events are given in Central Daylight Time. Day Time Event 01 13:15 Venus 3.2°N of Moon DUES BLUES 03 05:02 NEW MOON If you have received a “your dues are due” 04 10:42 Mercury 3.7°N of Moon statement along with the email that brought you this 05 10:05 Mars 1.6°N of Moon issue of The OBSERVER, please remit your dues to Mr. 05 17:46 Moon at Ascending Node Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 06 04:41 Pollux 6.2°N of Moon Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for 07 02:19 Beehive 0.2°S of Moon seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 07 18:21 Moon at Perigee: 368508 km UBSCRIBING TO THE MAIL IST 08 14:36 Regulus 3.2°S of Moon S TCAA E L 08 20:51 Venus 5.0°S of Pleiades By subscribing to a group’s mailing list, you will 10 00:59 FIRST QUARTER MOON receive email messages from the group though you 10 10 Jupiter at Opposition won’t have access to the group’s web features (like 16 13:50 Jupiter 2.0°S of Moon photos, files, links, polls, calendar, etc.) unless members activate it later. The club has an open email listserv. It is 16 18:09 Venus 4.6°N of Aldebaran known as the TCAA YahooGroups listserv. It will be used 17 03:31 FULL MOON to share announcements and reminders about 18 13 Mercury 0.2° of Mars astronomical and club events. To join this main listserv, 18 20:49 Moon at Descending Node you must do the following: 18 22:58 Saturn 0.4°N of Moon: Occn. 1. To subscribe: Send a blank email to TCAA- 19 08:04 Mercury 5.2°S of Pollux [email protected] Note: You’ll be sent a 21 03:00 Mars 5.4°S of Pollux confirmation email from the group. Reply to the 21 10:54 Summer Solstice confirmation email to activate your subscription. 23 02:50 Moon at Apogee: 404549 km 2. To post a message: [email protected] 23 18 Mercury Greatest Elong: 25.2°E 3. To unsubscribe: [email protected] 25 04:46 LAST QUARTER MOON 30 10:06 Aldebaran 2.3°S of Moon http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2019cst.html EVENING SKY MAP Click on the icon found here to access a current evening sky map along with a more detailed celestial events calendar. Copyright © 2019 TCAA 3 All rights reserved. Vol. 44, No. 6 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers June 2019 THIS MONTH’S PHASES OF THE MOON New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter Monday, June 3 Monday, June 10 Monday, June 17 Tuesday, June 25 All moon phase dates are Central Time. Additional moon phases for the 2019 calendar year can be found by clicking here. Images provided by J. K. Howell of the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society & used with permission.
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