Pac Newsletter Active May 2018
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Newsletter of the Popular Astronomy Club MAY 2018 President’s Corner May 2018 maraderie and discussions we had during the visit is what I will remember most. We also got Spring has finally sprung (more a chance to problem solve how to attach an or less). April’s weather was SLR camera to the scope and managed to get very changeable and not always a picture of Mizar and Alcor. This was a very favorable for observing ses- successful and memorable observing session. sions; either cloudy or very cold Hopefully we can do it again sometime. I am at night. I’m afraid this is typical also looking forward to having Monmouth Col- of early spring. But we amateur lege’s involvement at NCRAL 2019. astronomers are optimistic and flexible sorts, finding ways to A number of PAC members will be attending Alan Sheidler enjoy ourselves despite inclem- NCRAL 2018 conference in Door County, Wis- ent weather. A number of PAC consin this month. I expect this to be a very members joined QCAS for their Astronomy Day interesting convention with members from all event at Bettendorf High School. We had hoped over our region in attendance. There will be a to do some solar observing and invite visitors to report on that in the June Reflections. There glimpse sunspots, but it turned out to be very are also a number of other astronomical con- cloudy. You can read about it here in this edition ferences occurring at locations not too far from of Reflections. Despite the poor weather, we had us this summer. The Astronomical League a great time telling stories, enjoying fellowship, Convention, ALCON 2018 is in Bloomington, looking at pictures and engaging curious visitors. MN. The Mid States Region’s MSRAL 2018 We also had the opportunity to visit the BHS convention is June 22-24th in Springdale, AR. planetarium and view some of their programs in a You can find out more at this link: http://www. state of the art planetarium. msral.org/ . The Astronomical League Great Lakes Region, Greatcon 2018 convention will Over the past few months, I have been in contact be July 10-15 at Camp Cullom, Mulberry, Indi- with a number of people concerning their partici- ana. You can find out more at http://www. pation in our NCRAL 2019 convention. One of indianastars.com/starparty/. These confer- these is Dr. Ashwani Kumar at Monmouth Col- ences are not very far from the Quad Cities, lege. On the evening of April 28th, Ashwani and and I would highly encourage some of you to students studying astronomy at the college invited make plans to attend one or more these and to PAC to visit their Adolphson Observatory for an spread the word about our own NCRAL 2019. evening of observing using their 20” Planewave Please let me know if you will be attending reflector. This was really a great observing ses- these great events. I have some fliers you can sion and the weather was excellent. Again, we take along to generate enthusiasm for atten- had some great fellowship and discussions about dance from outside our region. Keep looking student projects and the future of astronomy at up! Monmouth College. Of course, it isn’t often one Al Sheidler gets a chance to view objects through a first-class telescope like they have there. But for me the ca- (Continued in next column) (Continued on next page) 1 (Continued from previous page) CONTENTS Page 1 Presidents Corner 2 Index /Officers List 3 Announcements/ Info 4 NGC 3628 The Hamburger Galaxy 5 Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower/ Ceres 6-7 PAC Outreach Events 8 Upcoming Events 9 Astronomical Calendar of 2018 PAC OFFICERS Events/ The Planets 10-11 Crossword Puzzle PRESIDENT - Alan Sheidler 3528 56th Street 12-13 NASA Space Place Court, Moline, IL, 61265 Phone: (309) 797- 14-16 News Links 3120; Email: [email protected] 17 Astronomy Software 18-19 Visit To An Observatory VICE PRESIDENT – Dino Milani 2317 29 1/2 20-22 Member Observations Street, Rock Island, IA, 61201 Phone: (309) 23-27 Paul Castle Observing 269-4735 ; Email: [email protected] Sessions 28 PAC Monthly Meeting Notes SECRETARY - Terry Dufek 2812 W. 65th 29 Indian Family Star Party Registration Street, Davenport, IA, 52806 Phone: (563) Form 386-3509; Email: [email protected] 30 Crossword Puzzle Answers TREASURER – Dale Hachtel 1617 Elm Shore Drive, Port Byron Illinois, 61275 Phone: (614) 935-5748; Email: [email protected] ALCOR – Roy E. Gustafson 11 Deer Run Road, Orion, IL, 61273 Phone: (309)526-3592; Email: [email protected] DIRECTOR OF OBSERVATORIES - Rusty Case 2123 W. 16th Street, Davenport, IA, 52804 Phone: (563) 349-2444 Email: rusty- [email protected] PAST PRESIDENT - Wayland Bauer 3256 Pleasant Drive, Bettendorf, IA., 52722 Phone: (563) 332-4032 Email: [email protected] NEWSLETTER EDITOR - Terry Dufek 2812 W. 65th Street, Davenport, IA, 52806 Phone: (563) 386-3509; Email: [email protected] 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS MEMBERS NCRALNEW 2018 Indiana Family Star Party Event dateRENEWINGMEMBERS: and Greatcon 2018 Fri May 4, 2018 & Sat May 5, 2018 Event date: Location FORof event: 2018 Tues July 10, 2018 thru Sun July 15, 2018 Lodge at Leathem Smith Location of event: 1640 Memorial Drive Camp Cullom, 50 miles northwest of Indian- Sturgeon Bay , WI 54235 apolis, Indiana WELCOME! North CentralTHANK Region of the YOU Astronomical! LINK: http://www.indianastars.us/starparty/ League annual convention presented by the index.html Door Peninsula Astronomical Society in Door Registration form on page 28 of this issue County, Wisconsin. LINK: https://www.doorastronomy.org/ NCRAL 2019 ncral-2018 Event date: Fri May 3, 2019 & Sat May 4, 2019 MSRAL 2018 Location of event: Event date:YES! We have Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center Fri June 22, openings2018 thru Sun for….. June 24, 2018 101 18th St, Location of event: Moline, IL 61265 ExploreNEWSPAPER Scientific facility ARTICLES 1010 S. 48th StreetJune, August, North Central Region of the Astronomical Springdale ArkansasSeptember, 72762 October, League annual convention presented by the November, December 2018 Popular Astronomy Club , Moline Illinois Mid(If States you have Region need of somethe Astronomical ideas, we can League LINK: TBD annualhelp– convention It isn‘t presentedas hard as by it looks)the Sugar Creek Astronomical Society of Northwest Ar- kansas Please contact Dino Milani LINK: http://www.msral.org/if Interested LOOKING FOR OLDER ISSUES OF REFLECTIONS ALCON 2018 NEWSLETTER? Event date:SUBMISSIONS Try this Link: Wed JulIf you 11, have2018 an- Satarticle Jul or14, photos 2018 to http://www.popularastronomyclub.org/ Locationsubmit of event: or items of interest, news-letters/ we encourage you to send them in HILTON MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL AIRPORT by the 25th of the month. Links to MALL OF AMERICA HISTORY OF PAC? stories are welcome also. 3800 American Bldd. E Try this Link: Bloomington , MNThank 55425 you! http://www.pacastronomy.50megs.com/ history.htm Annual Convention of the Astronomical League LINK: https://alcon2018.astroleague.org/ 3 NGC 3628, also known as the Ham- burger Galaxy or Sarah's Galaxy An unbarred spiral galaxy about 35 mil- lion light-years away in Leo Discovered by William Herschel in 1784 but overlooked by Charles Mess- ier Approximately 100,000 light years across Has an approximately 300,000 light- years long tidal tail Along with M65 and M66, NGC 3628 forms the Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies A little fainter than its companion galax- ies Most conspicuous feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms Occupies an area of 15 by 3.6 arc min- utes of apparent sky. Found only 0.5 degrees to the north of the galaxy pair Messier 65 and Messier 66 The interaction with M65 and M66 is also believed to be re- sponsible for the warped disk of NGC 253 NGC 3628 The Hamburger Galaxy shares its name with Centaurus A, the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky, located in the constellation Centaurus. This boxy or “peanut-shaped” bulge, seen as a faint X-shape, is formed mainly of young stars and gas and dust, which create the bulge away from the plane of the rest of the galaxy A number of globular clusters can be seen as fuzzy reddish spots in the halo of the galaxy. Visual magnitude 9.5 View through eyepiece Size: 13.1' x 3.1' 4 Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower 2018 an above average shower, capa- ble of producing up to 60 mete- ors per hour at its peak but lower in the northern hemisphere visible from about April 21 to about May 20 each year with peak activity on or around May 6 members of the Eta Aquariid shower separated from Halley’s Comet hundreds of years ago. radiant appears to lie in the con- stellation Aquarius, near one of the constellation's brightest stars, Eta Aquarii. best viewed in the pre-dawn hours away from the glow of city lights Full moon will interfere with it this year but since the shower runs from April 19th to May 26 and it has more of a plateau instead of peak, it may be possible to view it. Have a look at Ceres Even though the dwarf planet Ceres is past oppo- sition, a fairly easy way to observe it is coming up June 3rd. At 11:30 pm, it will be less than 30” away from Algenubi (ε) or Epsi- lon Leo. This is a 2.95 magnitude star at the head of Leo. If you start looking at it a couple of hours be- fore, you can watch it slide past the star.