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THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 45, Number 8 August 2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – C/2020 F3 2«President’s Note 2«The Ring Nebula: A Work in Progress 3«Calendar of Astronomical Events – August 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«Minutes of the July 14, 2020, BoD Meeting 6«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 6«TCAA Facebook Page Making an Impact 8«TCAA Image Gallery 11«Did You Know? 11«Renewing Your TCAA Membership 12«August 2020 with Jeffrey L. Hunt 22«Benefits of TCAA Membership 24«TCAA Participation in Facebook Encouraged 25«Online Public Talks for 2020 25«AAVSO Free Online Courses 26«Waynesville Observatory Use Policy Statement 26«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of July 27, 2020 The TCAA is an affiliate of the Astronomical League as well as its North Central Region. For more information about the TCAA, be certain to visit the TCAA website at http://www.tcaa.us/ Visit http://www.astroleague.org for additional information about the Astronomical League and its numerous membership benefits, EDITOR’S CHOICE: IMAGE OF THE MONTH – C/2020 F3 including observing programs. This month’s editor’s choice was tough. Many TCAAers have provided excellent images for consideration. This particular image Also, visit the NCRAL website at shows Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) taken by Tony Cellini. Tony http://ncral.wordpress.com for in- noted, “Here are my rendition from 07/17. [This is a] widefield [shot formation about our North Central taken] during the pass of the International Space Station.” Image Region. Find out about the many particulars are as follows: 28mm lens, 15-second exposure @ f/3.5, benefits of your membership from ISO 1600, unguided. See other images of the comet inside this issue. this site. Copyright © 2020 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 8 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers August 2020 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER A few months ago, if you’d have told is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin me a comet was coming that would capture City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organiz- our attention and inspire us astronomers ation of amateur astronomers interested in like nothing else in the past few years, I’d studying astronomy and sharing their hobby have thought you were a bit delusional. with the public. But… here we are, after a month of the most delicious cometary dessert since Hale-Bopp! TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS Unlike most “comet of the decade” President, Director, & Property Manager flops, NEOWISE failed to disappoint us, and Tim Stone 309-531-2401 the results have been astounding. Our club [email protected] has actively engaged in making Vice President & Director/Membership Coord. observations, both visual and photographic, President Tim Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 on a scale I’ve not seen in my tenure here. Stone [email protected] I’m so proud of us, and what a beauty it has been. With both a dust and ion tail, Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent spreading over several degrees of sky, its juxtaposition with Ursa Major has made it Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 easy to find with the naked eye and binoculars, giving us all pause to stop and [email protected] consider how awe-inspiring the universe really is. Assistant Property Manager/ALCor My personal thanks go to everyone who has submitted an observation report Scott Wade 309-310-2464 or a photograph. We’ve made some great images (which as you know are my bias), [email protected] but the visual observations have been wonderful! It’s all been a fabulous break from 5th Director the weather and difficulties of the first half of the year. Sunil Chebolu 678-896-5967 [email protected] Keep your eyes open. There’s more to come! Secretary/Historian/Editor Tim Stone Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 [email protected] HE ING EBULA ORK IN ROGRESS Technology Coordinator/Assistant Editor T R N : A W P Sandullah Epsicokhan 309-828-0227 Editor’s Remark: Tim’s President’s [email protected] Note is quite short this month and Webmaster there’s a good reason for it. Finally, Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] after months and months of clouds, we are getting some clear skies. Tim AL Observing Club Coordinator has been using nearly all of his free Lisa Wentzel unlisted number [email protected] time bringing the CDK 24” telescope at Waynesville Observatory online. The OBSERVER Tim noted recently, “With the Carl J. Wenning, Editor refined polar alignment, I acquired Submission deadline two days before this set of 3x600 RGB unguided the end of each month. images [see composite shown left]. “There’s a little star elongation, MEMBERSHIP DUES but hey, that’s not bad! Still ice on Individual Adult/Family $40 the sensor, and the G and B filters Full-time Student/Senior $25 need to be put in in place of the (Senior status equals ages 60+) Johnson photometric V and B To join, send your name, contact info, and filters... That’ll be this weekend... dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA “I have the fields of view of the main cam and the piggyback marked in the sky Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL so we can easily use the piggyback for accurate positioning now. I don’t have the 61761-1471. rotator configured to the main cam field of view, nor do I have the location of the AO pickoff mirror determined yet. All to come :)” Copyright © 2020 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 8 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers August 2020 CALENDAR OF ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS – AUG 2020 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (8/15): Mercury (☿), Venus (♀), Mars (♂), The following individuals have paid dues for new or renewed memberships as of July 27, 2020. (Others who Uranus (⛢), and Neptune (♆) paid after that date will appear in the September 2020 EVENING PLANETS (8/15): Mercury (☿), Jupiter (♃), and issue of The OBSERVER.) Saturn (♄). Mercury is north of the sun and so is in both morning and evening skies of mid-August. (It is not visible.) Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of New: None important astronomical events for this month. All events are Renewing: Matthew Will given in Central Daylight Time. Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Day Time Event UES LUES D B 01 15:14 Mercury 6.6°S of Pollux If you have received a dues statement email along 01 18:30 Jupiter 1.5°N of Moon with this issue of The OBSERVER, please send your dues 02 08:17 Saturn 2.3°N of Moon to Mr. Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 03 07 Mars at Perihelion Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for seniors 03 10:59 FULL MOON (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 05 23 Mercury at Perihelion 09 02:57 Mars 0.8°N of Moon: Occn. SUBSCRIBING TO THE TCAA EMAIL LIST 09 08:51 Moon at Apogee: 404658 km Welcome to the [email protected] group at Groups.io. 11 11:45 LAST QUARTER MOON This is a free, easy-to-use group email service set up for 12 08 Perseid Meteor Shower the TCAA’s communication purposes. You can subscribe, 12 20 Venus at Greatest Elong: 45.8°W visit your group, read and post messages here: 13 05:06 Aldebaran 4.0°S of Moon https://groups.io/g/tcaa 14 14:22 Moon at Ascending Node The email address for this group is [email protected]. 15 08:01 Venus 4.0°S of Moon After you successfully subscribe, please add this email 16 14:10 Pollux 4.5°N of Moon address to your safe sender list in your email client’s 17 10 Mercury at Superior Conjunction contacts, so emails from this list are not classified as junk 18 21:41 NEW MOON mail. Once subscribed, you can set your subscription 21 05:59 Moon at Perigee: 363513 km settings here: https://groups.io/g/tcaa/editsub. You can 25 12:58 FIRST QUARTER MOON opt to receive all messages in individual emails, collections 25 23:04 Antares 6.2°S of Moon of messages in a digest, a daily summary, or only special 27 06:52 Moon at Descending Node notices. If you do not wish to belong to this group, you 28 20:33 Jupiter 1.4°N of Moon may unsubscribe by sending an email to 29 11:40 Saturn 2.2°N of Moon [email protected] If you have general questions about the group, email This Calendar of Astronomical Events courtesy of Fred Espenak. [email protected]. For questions not answered there, http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2020cst.html contact the moderators of this group (Deva C., Tim S., and Carl W.) by emailing [email protected]. EVENING SKY MAP Get the current evening sky map along with a more detailed celestial events calendar at the following URL: http://www.skymaps.com/ Copyright © 2020 TCAA 3 All rights reserved. Vol. 45, No. 8 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers August 2020 THIS MONTH’S PHASES OF THE MOON Full Moon Last Quarter New Moon First Quarter Monday, August 3 Tuesday, August 11 Tuesday, August 18 Tuesday, August 25 All moon phase dates are Central Time.