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Prime Focus Page 2 August 2020 the Third Time Is Indeed the Charm

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Prime Focus Page 2 August 2020 the Third Time Is Indeed the Charm Highlights of the August Sky - - - 1st - - - DAWN: Venus and Zeta (ζ) Tauri are less than 2° apart. DUSK: A waxing gibbous Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn form a triangle. - - - 3rd - - - Full Moon 11:59 am EDT KAS - - - 9th - - - AM: Mars and a waning gibbous Moon are 1° apart. Perseid Potluck Picnic: Saturday, August 8 @ 6:00 pm - - - 11th - - - Last Quarter Moon ― Canceled Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic ― 12:45 pm EDT PM: Perseid Meteor Shower Member Observing: Saturday, August 8 @ 9:00 pm peaks. Jupiter, Saturn & The Summer Triangle • See Page 13 for Details th - - - 13 - - - AM: A waning crescent Moon and Aldebaran are Training Session: August 14, 21 & 28 @ 8:00 pm less than 4° apart. Owl Observatory • See Page 14 for Details and to Register th - - - 15 - - - DAWN: A slender waning crescent Moon is 3.5° to the Member Observing: Saturday, August 22 @ 9:00 pm upper le of Venus. Jupiter, Saturn & Summer Nebulae • See Page 13 for Details - - - 18th - - - New Moon 10:42 pm EDT - - - 22nd - - - Inside the Newsletter. DUSK: A waxing crescent Moon is over 5° to Spica’s upper right. Board Meeng Minutes..................... p. 2 - - - 25th - - - Observaons of NEOWISE................. p. 3 First Quarter Moon 1:58 pm EDT Member NEOWISE Images................ p. 4 DUSK: The Moon is 6° to the KAS Member Observatories...............p. 7 upper right of Antares. Stellar Walkabout.............................. p. 8 th - - - 27 - - - NASA Night Sky Notes........................ p. 10 DUSK: The Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn form a line. Membership of the KAS..................... p. 11 - - - 28th - - - August Night Sky................................ p. 12 DUSK: A gibbous Moon and Jupiter are separated by 2°. KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 13 - - 28th - - - Owl Observatory Training.................. p. 14 DUSK: The Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter form an arc. Board Meeting Minutes The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Board held a virtual meeting from their homes using Zoom on June 28, 2020. Those present were President Richard Bell, Joe Comiskey, Scott Macfarlane, Jack Price, Aaron Roman, Don Stilwell (who acted as Zoom host), and Roger Williams. The meeting began at 5:00 pm with the Treasurer’s Report, which had just been e-mailed by Don. It showed a balance that was adequate for anticipated expenses. Transactions included deposits from Greg Sirna (for purchase of a donated telescope) and Kalman & Becky Csia (a donation to purchase a parallelogram mount for the 25×100 binoculars that they donated last year). Don had also written a check for $705 to the Astronomical League for our membership dues, and he had reimbursed Mike Patton for the cost of a new web switch needed for powering the Remote Telescope on and off. The 25×100 binoculars on a parallelogram mount are now In consideration of July-September events, the July General available for loan to members! Meeting had already been canceled, and all agreed that the July observing sessions and the August Perseid Potluck operation, regarding this as a donation. The Board thanked Picnic should also be canceled. The August 8th observing Dave for this contribution. A procedure for operating the roll session was also canceled, and the August 22nd session was -off roof was written by Dave, modified by Richard, and left open, with a decision to be announced by e-mail later. shared with the Board by e-mail. After brief discussion, a The Kindleberger Park event had been scrubbed earlier. Don few changes were regarded as worthwhile, and Richard noted that CraneFest in October was still officially on, but agreed to implement them. Richard proposed some whether it would really happen had yet to be decided. additional work on Owl Observatory, beginning with a solar- Richard noted that the September General Meeting would powered ventilation fan for the building. After some happen, since we could always use Zoom if things have not discussion, this idea was generally approved. Other items opened up by then. He is unsure if the planned speaker for included a series of adapters and spacers needed for use with that meeting would be interested in giving a presentation by the Tele Vue refractor ($143), some red lighting for the Zoom, if not we would need a replacement. Richard had in cabinet, and two observers’ reference books. A final mind a backup who is OK with Zoom, so we can decide later proposal, namely an Optec temperature-compensating how this meeting will work. focuser ($795) gave rise to vigorous discussion concerning its cost. Jack moved and Don seconded to acquire the In the Follow-up category, Richard reported that the Remote adapters and the books, but not the focuser at this time. Telescope was working well but that the Arizona weather After discussion, the motion passed unanimously. Richard didn’t show much promise for further viewing before the then introduced a motion (seconded by Joe) to purchase the Monsoon shutdown on July 1st. For Owl Observatory, Dave Optec focuser. After further discussion, the motion failed by Garten notified Richard that he did not wish to be reimbursed a vote of 2 in favor, 3 against, and one abstention. Richard for his expenses in getting the motorized roll-off roof into said that he would introduce the motion on another occasion. In further Follow-up business, Richard noted that he was offering member training sessions for the renovated Owl Observatory to make it as available as possible. No sessions had been scheduled so far. Delivery of the parallelogram mount for the 25×100 binoculars was expected on July 1st. Richard planned to give it a trial run and then to announce that it is ready for borrowing by the members. Efforts are still underway to convince members to submit a profile for the website, with zero response thus far. Richard reminded the members that he had made a major upgrade to the website during the shut-in time necessitated by the pandemic. Everyone was urged to check it out. With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:10 pm. The next meeting was set for September 13th at 5:00 pm, with the venue depending upon pandemic developments. Dave Garten installed a 40W solar panel to power Owl Observatory’s new ventilation system on July 8th. Respectfully submitted by Roger Williams Prime Focus Page 2 August 2020 The third time is indeed the charm. After both C/2019 Y4 depleted. The spacecraft was put into hibernation in February (ATLAS) and C/2020 F8 (SWAN) fizzled out, C/2020 F3 2011, but brought back into service in September 2013 as (NEOWISE) became the brightest comet visible from the NEOWISE. Its new mission is to help find near-Earth Northern Hemisphere in 23 years. This poor little visitor asteroids and comets. from the Oort Cloud wasn’t mentioned in recent issues of Prime Focus or during the last general meeting on June 5th. The comet reached perihelion (its closest point to the Sun) on No one was really sure this comet was going to put on such a July 3rd. At that time, it was 27 million miles (0.29 AU) from fine show until it passed through the field-of-view of our local star; that’s about 9 times closer than Mercury’s SOHO’s LASCO C3 coronagraph between June 22nd and average distance. As noted, the comet survived its sunbath. 28th. It didn’t fizzle in the slightest. In fact, during its close This was not NEOWISE’s first closeup visit to the Sun, it passage of the Sun, the comet’s brightness increased by a had an orbital period of 4,500 years. I say had because this factor of three. latest encounter increased the comet’s orbital period to 6,800 years. I’m sure the comet doesn’t mind at all. Observations C/2020 F3 was discovered on March 27th by the Near-Earth of the comet have yielded a diameter of 3 miles for its rocky Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). and icy nucleus. Typical comet nuclei have diameters of only This space-based observatory began its mission as just a mile, so NEOWISE is a decent sized comet. WISE. It scanned the entire sky in four infrared wavelengths starting in December 2009. The mission ended in September I first laid eyes on NEOWISE during the excessively humid 2010 after the frozen hydrogen cooling its instruments was morning of July 7th from Richland Township Park. The comet was easy to spot with my 7×50 binoculars through thin clouds and the light of dawn. The comet was damned impressive with the 25×100 binoculars we now have available for loan. Once it got high enough, I spotted it with my unaided eyes (eyeglasses don’t count). This was the fourth comet I’ve seen with no optical aide and the first that didn’t start with the letter H! (The others being Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, and Holmes.) I ventured out to Richland Township Park on two other mornings for some comet gazing. On the last occasion, I was joined by KAS members John Miller and Don Stilwell. The comet transitioned to the evening sky around July 11th. I decided to head to South Haven on July 13th to photograph the comet over Lake Michigan. There are times I wish we had more photogenic foregrounds, like some mountains, instead of a bunch of trees and this was one of them. The photos I took that evening are my favorite of this comet’s apparition. That ion tail was very difficult to get. I was never able to capture it as convincingly as I wanted to thanks to the light of dusk or dawn, light pollution, and humid conditions.
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