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Prime Focusfocus Highlights of the August Sky. - - - 6thth - - - Last Quarter Moon 10:03 pm EDT PrimePrime FocusFocus - - - 8thth - - - A Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society AM: The Moon forms a triangle with the Pleiades November 2013 and Aldebaran in Taurus. August 2015 DAWN: Mars is about 8º below Pollux. Look low in the ENE as the sky brightens. ThisThis MonthsMonths KAS EventsEvents - - - 11thth - - - DAWN: On this or the next few mornings, look low in Perseid Potluck Picnic: Saturday, August 8 @ 6:00 pm the ESE about 20 minutes before sunrise for Sirius as Kalamazoo Nature Center - See Page 5 for Details it emerges from the Sun’s glare. Observing Session: Saturday, August 8 @ 9:00 pm - - - 12thth → 13th - - - Saturn & The Summer Triangle - Kalamazoo Nature Center PM - DAWN: The Perseid meteor shower peaks; a waning crescent Moon Observing Session: Saturday, August 22 @ 9:00 pm makes for ideal viewing conditions this year. Overwhelming Open Clusters - Kalamazoo Nature Center Expect at least 60 meteors per hour at maximum. - - - 14thth - - - New Moon 10:53 am EDT InsideInside thethe Newsletter.Newsletter. .. .. - - - 16thth - - - DUSK: Use binoculars to July Meeting Minutes.............................. p. 2 spot Mercury ~6º right of a thin waxing crescent NASA Space Place.................................. p. 3 Moon, very low in the west. - - - 22nd - - - Observations............................................p. 4 First Quarter Moon 3:31 pm EDT Perseid Potluck Picnic............................p. 5 DUSK: The Moon is less Stories Behind the August Perseids....p. 6 than 4º from Saturn, just above and right of Beta Scorpii. New Horizons Reveals Pluto...............p. 9 th - - - 29th - - - August Night Sky.................................... p. 12 For Cecil Full Moon 2:35 pm EDT KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 13 DAWN: Look due east about 30 minutes before Robotic Telescope Project................... p. 14 sunrise, where Venus is now about 10º above the horizon. www.kasonline.org JulyJuly MeetingMeeting MinutesMinutes The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, July 10, 2015 at 7:11 pm EDT. Only 17 members and guests were in attendance in the amphitheater (located next to Owl Observatory) at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. The theme of the July meeting, as it has been for the past several years, was Gadget Night. Gadget Night is one of the longest running traditions for the KAS; dating back to at least 1954. This year six KAS members brought a variety of gadgets, gizmos, and whatchamacallits to share. Jim Kurtz does most of his observing and imaging from home, so he often keeps his telescope and equatorial mount setup in the garage. It would be time consuming to breakdown his equipment and setup it up again in the Richard Bell constructed this counterweight caddy - backyard. It’s also too heavy to pick up and carry. That’s making it easier to transport his counterweight. why Jim built wooden wheeley bars. This enables him to easily push his entire setup from the garage to the backyard. He can then use leveling screws to level and stabilize his He said it gives a whole new meaning to the expression mount. Jim’s Mobile (JMI) sells wheeley bars for ~$400 “light bucket!” with shipping, but Jim built his for a fraction of the cost. KAS Vice President Jack Price shared a red LED glow stick Eric Jeska had four gadgets to share. The first was a red that twists on and off. They’re not at all expensive and LED with a head strap. This allows him to read star charts provide up to 20 hours of light. They can be used for reading and find accessories in his case, while keeping his hands charts, taking notes, or hung from your tripod so no one free. (Plus, it wouldn’t be Gadget Night if someone didn’t bumps into your telescope at night. share some sort of red-lighted flashlight.) Eric also shared a customized tripod head for his beautiful Questar Maksutov- Joe Comiskey does most of his observing from his home Cassegrain, which allows him to more easily attach the driveway as well. Carrying the two pieces of his 10-inch f/6 telescope to the tripod. Extra counterweights can be Starsplitter Dobsonian isn’t too time consuming, but a little expensive, but Eric found a way to make a cheaper one for hard on the back. Therefore, instead of purchasing or his 8-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain (C8). He attached building wheeley bars Joe uses an ordinary hand truck. A several large washers and bolted them on to a threaded rod. rubber bungee cord is all that’s needed to secure the Eric also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a dew cap telescope for transport. Joe also shared the step ladder he for his C8, so he built one out of an ordinary black bucket. uses, since his f/6 telescope is close to 6-feet tall when pointed straight up. It’s tall enough so you can grip the top handle and not worry about falling over while viewing through the eyepiece. Richard Bell got tired of carrying three 9-lb counterweights to the car, which often required about two trips. He thought about buying a counterweight caddy from JMI, but they’re pricey (about $60) and they don’t make them for his style of counterweight. Richard decided to make his own out of wood. The counterweights are held in the box with a wooden dowel and cotter pins on either side. He glued black felt on the inside to avoid scratching the weights. A hard plastic suitcase handle is bolted to the top. The total cost of the project was only $15. Don Stilwell just purchased a new Meade 10-inch LX90 telescope, which was on sale at OPT. As part of the deal, Jim Kurtz built wheeley bars to easily move his telescope Don received a Meade LXPS 7 Power Supply (similar, if not and mount from the garage to his backyard. identical to Celestron’s PowerTank). The Power Supply Prime Focus Page 2 August 2015 easily powers his telescope for a night of observing, and can be used to power or charge a variety of other electronic devices. Thanks to all for sharing gadgets! On the Brightness of Venus Richard gave a brief President’s Report after the snack break. Volunteers were needed for our participation at the annual by Dr. Ethan Siegel Kindleberger Festival in Parchment - held on July 11th. (Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Rich Mather, Don Stilwell, and Dave Woolf for volunteering with Richard. They got to Throughout the past few months, Venus and Jupiter have do solar observing early on, but it got cloudy during the been consistently the brightest two objects visible in the afternoon which also forced the cancellation of the Public night sky (besides the Moon) appearing in the west shortly Observing Session at the Nature Center.) after sunset. Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet in the solar system, yet Venus is the planet that comes closest to Don Stilwell made final preparations for the field trip to our world. On June 30th, Venus and Jupiter made their Yerkes Observatory. It was agreed upon to meet at the closest approach to one another as seen from Earth — a Oakland Drive Park-and-Ride at 6:00 am for carpooling. conjunction — coming within just 0.4° of one another, (Editor’s Note: Nine members attended the field trip on July making this the closest conjunction of these two worlds in 18th. We hope to have a full report with pictures in next over 2,000 years. month’s issue of Prime Focus.) And yet throughout all this time, and especially notable near Upcoming events, including an observing session on July its closest approach, Venus far outshines Jupiter by 2.7 25th (which was successful) and the Perseid Potluck Picnic astronomical magnitudes, or a factor of 12 in apparent on August 8th (see page 5), were covered. Richard brightness. You might initially think that Venus’s proximity mentioned his trip to Cherry Springs State Park (see page 4 to Earth would explain this, as a cursory check would seem for more information). He also said his schedule allows him to show. On June 30th Venus was 0.5 astronomical units to attend the 2016 Texas Star Party, being held from May 1st (AU) away from Earth, while Jupiter was 6 AU away. This - 8th. Six members attended TSP in 2001 and 2002. The appears to be exactly the factor of 12 that you need. weather can be mixed, but very transparent when it’s clear. Jean DeMott mentioned that you can watch the Hubble Only this doesn't explain things at all! Brightness falls off as Space Telescope cross the Texas sky every night! the inverse square of the distance, meaning that if all things were equal, Venus ought to seem not 12 but 144 times Both Joe Comiskey and Chris Taylor reported observing the brighter than Jupiter. There are three factors in play that set recent conjunction of Venus and Jupiter with their things back on the right path: size, albedo, and illumination. telescopes. New Horizons historic encounter with Pluto and Jupiter is 11.6 times the diameter of Venus, meaning that its moons was discussed. Roger Williams also gave an despite the great difference in distance, the two worlds update on Rosetta’s mission at Comet 67P/Churyumov– spanned almost exactly the same angular diameter in the sky Gerasimenko. Jack mentioned that former KAS member on the date of the conjunction. Moreover, while Venus is Carol Morin recently moved to Fort Myers, Florida.
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