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The Observer of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 43, Number 10 October 2018 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: September Image – Altair Spectrum 2«President’s Note 3«Calendar of Celestial Events – October 2018 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4«This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4«CUAS Summit a Great Success 5«Some Pictures from the CUAS Astronomy Summit 6«Minutes of the September 25 TCAA Board Meeting 7«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 9«Quarterly Membership Meeting October 16th 10«Updates at Prairie Sky Observatory 10«Education/Public Outreach for September 2018 10«One Public Viewing Session Remaining for 2018 11«ALCon 2019 – First Reminder 12«TCAA Photo Gallery 13«Updates at Prairie Skies Observatory 14«Public Viewing Schedule for 2019 14«TCAA Calendar of Events for 2018-2019 15«HowTimeFlies 15«October 2018: Opposing Lunar Crescents/Venus 20«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of September 30, 2018 21«TCAA on Facebook and Twitter 21«Renewing Your TCAA Membership The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League. For more information about the TCAA, be certain to visit the EDITOR’S CHOICE: IMAGE OF THE MONTH – ALTAIR TCAA website. Visit Astroleague.org for additional information about the League and its membership This month’s Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month is by Tim benefits. Stone. Read more about this spectral image on page 2. Copyright © 2018 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 43, No. 10 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers October 2018 THE SPECTRUM OF ALTAIR The OBSERVER This spectrum of Altair is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin was acquired on 9/22, with City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational my 8" Meade Schmidt- organization of amateur astronomers Newtonian and Tony Cellini's interested in studying astronomy and PointGray Chameleon web- sharing their hobby with the public. cam, using a Star Analyzer 200 lines/mm transmission TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS diffraction grating. I calibrat- ed and created the spectral President, Director, & Property Manager Tim Stone 309-531-2401 profile with Rspec software [email protected] from Tom Fields' https://www.rspec-astro.com/. This camera/grating combination gives 5.8 angstroms/pixel dispersion. A huge thanks to Jamey Jenkins for his Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. mentoring and encouragement as I learn how to do this! Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 [email protected] PRESIDENT’S NOTE Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 We’ve had quite a month in [email protected] September. Finally, the skies cleared and Secretary & Director/Historian/Editor gave us a whole week of moonless and Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 pristine clear skies. I know many of us [email protected] were out observing or photographing. I Director/Technology Coordinator hope you found some time to make your Justin Meyer 630-649-0611 own observations. [email protected] Inspired by Jamey Jenkins’ fantastic spectrograms published in the last couple Astronomical League Correspondent Robert Finnigan 309-846-9533 of months here in The Observer, I’ve [email protected] personally gotten involved with making spectral photographs. I’m still a novice, Webmaster but it’s a whole lot of fun to do Lee Green 309-454-7349 TCAA President Tim Stone [email protected] something more scientific and research- oriented. I have no idea what I’ll “discover” in this pursuit, but I do know it’s great Lighting Educ. & AL Observing Club Coordinator to learn something new and experience astronomy outside, under the stars. Of Lisa Wentzel unlisted number [email protected] course, I’ll sing a little bit different song in the dead of winter, but… The point here is that it’s exhilarating to try something new and learn about Publicist something you don’t know much about. There are all kinds of opportunities in our Rick Lasher 309-530-2678 club to do just that. [email protected] The Prairie Sky Observatory is being outfitted as a training facility where the The OBSERVER complexities of high-end astrophotography are greatly simplified. You can make a Carl J. Wenning, Editor in Chief good image of a deep sky object in a single night and learn the basics of image data acquisition and processing in the process. It’s a great way to “test the water” and Submission deadline two days before the end of each month. see if astrophotography is something you might get hooked on. That’s exactly how it worked for me! MEMBERSHIP DUES It’s time to begin thinking about our February annual meeting, and whether you’d like to take a role on our Board. Think about it. This is an exciting club with Individual Adult/Family $40 Full-time Student/Senior $25 which to be involved! (Senior status equals ages 60+) Meanwhile, let’s hope October holds some more crystal-clear moonless skies for us. Here’s to nothing but clear air between us and the edge of the universe! To join, send your name, contact info and dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA Until then, clear skies! Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL Tim Stone, President 61761-1471. Copyright © 2018 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 43, No. 10 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers October 2018 ALENDAR OF ELESTIAL VENTS CTOBER EW ENEWING EMBERS C C E – O 2018 N & R M The following individuals have paid dues for new or MORNING PLANETS (10/15): Uranus renewed memberships as of September 30, 2018. EVENING PLANETS (10/15): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, (Others who paid after that date will appear in the Saturn & Neptune November 2018 issue of The OBSERVER.) The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of important astronomical events for this month. All times are Central Daylight Time. Geoffrey Hughes, Tom Weiland, Rick Lasher, Tony Cellini, Jim Gibbs, and Lisa Wentzel Day Time Event 02 03:45 LAST QUARTER MOON DUES BLUES 03 21:10 Moon at Ascending Node If you have received a “your dues are due” 04 03:51 Beehive 1.3°N of Moon statement along with the email that brought you this 05 15:58 Regulus 1.8°S of Moon issue of The OBSERVER, please remit your dues to Mr. 05 16:29 Moon at Perigee: 366396 km Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 08 21:47 NEW MOON Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for 11 15:21 Jupiter 4.1°S of Moon seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 14 21:01 Saturn 1.8°S of Moon SUBSCRIBING TO THE TCAA EMAIL LIST 15 21 Mercury 6.2° of Venus 16 12:02 FIRST QUARTER MOON By subscribing to a group’s mailing list, you will 17 06:03 Moon at Descending Node receive email messages from the group though you 17 13:16 Moon at Apogee: 404227 km won’t have access to the group’s web features (like photos, files, links, polls, calendar, etc.) unless members 18 07:01 Mars 1.9°S of Moon activate it later. The club has an open email listserv. It is 21 11 Orionid Meteor Shower known as the TCAA YahooGroups listserv. It will be used 23 19 Uranus at Opposition to share announcements and reminders about 24 10:45 FULL MOON astronomical and club events. To join this main listserv, 26 08 Venus at Inferior Conjunction you must do the following: 27 07:04 Aldebaran 1.6°S of Moon 1. To subscribe: Send a blank email to TCAA- 29 00 Mercury 3.1° of Jupiter [email protected] Note: You’ll be sent a 30 21:46 Moon at Ascending Node confirmation email from the group. Reply to the 31 09:24 Beehive 1.0°N of Moon confirmation email to activate your subscription. 31 10:40 LAST QUARTER MOON 2. To post a message: [email protected] 31 14:05 Moon at Perigee: 370201 km 3. To unsubscribe: [email protected] http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2018cst.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 © 2018 TCAA 3 All rights reserved. Vol. 43, No. 10 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers October 2018 THIS MONTH’S PHASES OF THE MOON Last Quarter New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Tue, Oct 2 & Wed, Oct 31 Tuesday, October 8 Tuesday, October 16 Wednesday, October 24 All moon phase dates are Central Daylight Time. Additional moon phases for the 2018 calendar year (Central Time) can be found by clicking here. Images provided by J. K. Howell of the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society & used with permission. THIS MONTH’S SOLAR PHENOMENA In the table below, you will find times of sunrise and sunset along with rising and setting azimuths, length of day including difference from previous day, start and end times of astronomical twilight, and the time of solar noon along with the elevation of the midday sun. These data come from https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/bloomington 2018 Sunrise/Sunset Day Length Astronomical Twilight Solar Noon Oct Sunrise Sunset Length Difference Start End Time 1 6:52 AM (94°) 6:38 PM (266°) 11:45:34 -2:38 5:26 AM 7:36 PM 12:45 PM (46.2°) 11 7:02 AM (99°) 6:21 PM (261°) 11:19:15 -2:36 5:32 AM 7:52 PM 12:42 PM (42.3°) 21 7:13 AM (104°) 6:07 PM (256°) 10:53:33 -2:31 5:42 AM 7:38 PM 12:40 PM (38.7°) CUAS SUMMIT A GREAT SUCCESS Eleven members of the TCAA attended the September 29th Amateur Astronomy Summit hosted by the Champaign- Urbana Astronomical Society.
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