Houston Astronomical Society Page 1 January, 2015 January, 2015 Volume 34, #1 At the January 9 Meeting Highlights: Note: 2nd Friday to avoid conflict with Novice-Jupiter and the Winter Sky 3 President’s Message 4 New Year’s travels. Greg Bragg—Explorer Scientific 8 The Great Moons of the Outer Texas 45 Awardees 11 Solar System, Parts II & III Carbon Stars Will Make You See Red 12 Justin McCollum, MS Physics, Professor Carbon Stars Observing List 14 Comet Diadem—Alpha Com 17 This is a continuation on the topic of Astrogeology and HAS Web Page: Geological Sciences on the major satellites that orbit the http://www.AstronomyHouston.org Gas and Icy Giant planets that reside within the outer solar system. Last month's discussion was focused solely See the GuideStar's Monthly Calendar of on the latest scientific theories and discoveries on the Events to confirm dates and times of all events Galilean Satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) for the month, and check the Web Page for any that orbit continuously last minute changes. the planet Jupiter. This coming talk will be a final continuation on the topic starting with the seven major moons of Saturn All meetings are at the University of Houston (Part II) along with a short Science and Research building. See the last overview of the major page for directions to the location. moons of Uranus (six in all) along with Triton & Proteus, the two major moons of Neptune. Novice meeting: ······················ 7:00 p.m. The talk is limited to the moons of what we now refer to Debbie Moran — “Jupiter and the Winter Sky” as the Classical Planets. General meeting: ···················· 8:00 p.m Justin McCollum — satellites of the outer planets, part 2 & 3 The GuideStar is the winner of the 2012 Astronomical League Mabel Sterns See last page for directions Newsletter award. and more information. The Houston Astronomical Society is a member of the Astronomical League. Page 2 January, 2015 The Houston Astronomical Society The Houston Astronomical Society is a non-profit corporation organized under section 501 (C) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. The Society was formed for education and scientific purposes. All contributions and gifts Ad-Hoc Committee Chairpersons are deductible for federal income tax purposes. General membership meetings are open to the public and attendance is encouraged. AL Doug [email protected] Officers Coordinator McCormick Audio/Visual Michael [email protected] President Rene [email protected] Rapp Gedaly C: 281-300-3559 GuideStar Bill Pellerin C:713-598-8543 Vice President John [email protected] Haynes Texas 45 Rene [email protected] Secretary Bill [email protected] Coordinator Gedaly Flanagan 713-699-8819 Texas Star Steve H: 713-721-5077 Treasurer Don Selle [email protected] Party Goldberg Directors at Large Video Rob [email protected] Morehead Ash Alashqar [email protected] Webmaster Jeffrey [email protected] Mark Holdsworth [email protected] McLaughlin H:713-478-4109 Jessica Kingsley, [email protected] Advisors Debbie Moran [email protected] Dr. Reginald DuFour Rice University H:713-774-0924, C:713-562-7670 Dr. Lawrence Pinsky University of Houston Bram Weisman [email protected] Dr. Lawrence Armendarez University of St. Thomas Bill Pellerin (Past president) C:713-598-8543 Annual Dues and Membership Information Committee Chairpersons Regular $36 Audit Scott H:281-293-7818 Associate $6 Mitchell Sustaining $50 Education & Bram [email protected] Outreach Weisman Student $12 Field Tr./Obsg Stephen [email protected] Honorary n/c Jones Membership Steve Fast [email protected] All members have the right to participate in Society functions and to 713-898-2188 use the Observatory Site. Regular and Student Members receive a sub- scription to The Reflector. The GuideStar, the monthly publication of the Novice Debbie [email protected] Houston Astronomical Society is available on the web site. Associate Members, immediate family members of a Regular Member, have all Moran H:713-774-0924, C:713-562-7670 membership rights, but do not receive publications. Sustaining mem- bers have the same rights as regular members with the additional dues Observatory Mike [email protected] treated as a donation to the Society. Sky & Telescope and Astronomy Edstrom 832-689-4584 magazines are available to members at a discount. Program Justin [email protected] Membership Application: Send funds to address shown on last page of McCollum GuideStar. Attention - Treasurer, along with the following information: Name, Address, Phone Number, Special Interests in Astronomy, Do you own a Telescope? (If so, what kind?), and where you first heard of Publicity Bram [email protected] H.A.S. You can also join (or renew at the organization web site, Weisman www.astronomyhouston.org. Telescope Allen [email protected] Wilkerson 832- 265-4773 Page 3 January, 2015 Table of Contents Other Meetings... Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society meets in the the Lunar and Planetary Institute on the 2nd Friday of each 4 ..... President's Message month. Web site: www.jscas.net ..... Novice Announcement Fort Bend Astronomy Club meets the third Friday of the 5 ..... January/February Calendar month at 8:00 p.m. at the Houston Community 6 ..... Observations of the Editor College Southwest Campus in Stafford, Texas http://www.fbac.org/club_meetings.htm. 7 ..... Observatory Corner Novice meeting begins at 7:00 p.m., regular 8 ..... Greg Bragg - Explore Scientific meeting begins at 8:00 p.m. Website: http://www.fbac.org 11 ..... Texas 45 Awardees 12 ..... Carbon Stars Will Make You See Red North Houston Astronomy Club meets at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Friday of each month in the Teaching Theatre of the 14 ..... Carbon Stars Observing List Student Center at Kingwood College.Call 281-312-1650 15 ..... TSP Astrolearn Workshop or [email protected]. Web site: www.astronomyclub.org 17 ..... Diadem - Alpha Com Brazosport Astronomy Club meets the third Tuesday of each month at the Brazosport planetarium at 7:45 p.m. The Brazosport planetarium is located at 400 College Boulevard, Clute, TX, 77531. For more information call 979-265-3376 GuideStar deadline for the February issue is January 15th Novice Presentation—January 9, 2015 Jupiter and the Winter Sky By Debbie Moran In January I will give a talk called Jupiter and the Winter Sky. Some of the most spectacular objects to be seen in a small telescope are up in the winter. Jupiter is also prominent in the evening sky ap- proaching its opposition on February 6th. The February meeting occurs right at Jupiter’s opposition so Bill Flanagan will present more detail about observing Jupiter and in- troduce what is involved in becoming a good planetary imager. Page 4 January, 2015 President’s Message by Rene Gedaly, President Thank you for voting in the 2015 leadership team; they’re a dynamic built the society we have now and who con- group and you can expect continued great things from them. I’m hon- tinue to do so. This team of dedicated volun- ored to be the next HAS president, and before talking about plans for teers will be bringing their vision for the 2015, I'd like to reflect on how much has been accomplished during coming year, and as a team, we will position the tenures of my recent predecessors. ourselves to respond to the needs of a st changing membership, for new members The framework for a 21 century society and for ourselves. The new website had its genesis while Ken Miller was president and it Stay tuned; more great things are coming. continues to transform our organization. Gordon Houston developed a new set of observers through his basic observational astronomy class, a well-attended urban observing program, and his two-minute drill ..Rene Gedaly that brought basic astronomy education to the general membership meeting. The scaffolding was now in place for an HAS renaissance. President During Bill Pellerin's presidency we saw novice meetings retooled for beginners, a homegrown observing program, expanded outreach activ- ities, video recorded presentations of first rate speakers, field trips on prime nights, and Messier marathons. Improvements to the observato- ry site included a remodeled bunkhouse and a spruced up chart room, site-wide WiFi, personal observatories, expanded space for trailers and parking, a sky cam and weather station, and an astrophotography ob- servatory. Necessary changes to the bylaws and articles of incorpora- tion kept us in business. At the Founders Day event, we honored the architects of the observatory and the contributions of past observatory chairmen, master observers, and members who made important astro- nomical discoveries at the site. In 2014 alone, HAS welcomed 190 brand new members, comfortably pushing us past the 500 member mark. We are becoming a different Society I believe we are at another tipping point. While meeting attendance remains stable, visits to the dark site have exploded and there are waiting lists for observatory and trailer space. Yet only half of us attends at least one meeting a year, though attendance is required to learn the ropes to access the dark site. Who are the other half of us who don’t get to meetings, to the dark site, or to outreach events? Here are some guesses. Some of us are still hoping to do so. We want to get to UH on a first Friday to hear a speaker, or get some novice training, or take the dark site orientation—but we can’t quite get there. Others of us are true virtual members—an evolution of the arm- chair astronomer. And others of us will leave in the waxing and waning of the membership cycle not having engaged at any level.