Highlights of the May Sky - - - 2nd - - - DAWN: A very thin waning crescent Moon is about 4.5° to the lower right of Venus. - - - 4th - - - New Moon 6:46 pm EDT - - - 6th - - - AM: Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks before dawn. KAS PM: The Moon is 2° to the upper right of Aldebaran. General Meeting: Friday, May 3 @ 7:00 pm th - - - 7 - - - Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 10 for Details PM: The Moon is less than ½° from Zeta Tauri, with Mars less than 4° to the Observing Session: Saturday, May 11 @ 9:00 pm upper right of the pairing. Moon & Double Stars - Kalamazoo Nature Center - - - 10th - - - PM: The Moon is in the Beehive Cluster (M44). Board Meeting: Sunday, May 19 @ 5:00 pm th - - - 11 - - - Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome First Quarter Moon 9:12 pm EDT th Observing Session: Saturday, May 25 @ 9:00 pm - - - 12 - - - PM: The Moon is 6° to the Grand Globular Clusters - Kalamazoo Nature Center le of Regulus. - - - 15th - - - PM: A waxing gibbous Moon is about 8.5° from Spica in Virgo. Inside the Newsletter. - - - 18th - - - Full Moon April Meeng Minutes....................... p. 2 5:11 pm EDT Board Meeng Minutes..................... p. 3 th - - - 20 - - - Observaons...................................... p. 3 PM: Jupiter and the Moon are 5° apart. NASA Night Sky Notes........................ p. 4 - - - 23rd - - - Exploring Amateur Astronomy.......... p. 4 AM: The Moon and Saturn First Image of a Black Hole................ p. 5 are 4° apart. Membership of the KAS..................... p. 7 th - - - 26 - - - May Night Sky.................................... p. 8 Last Quarter Moon 12:34 pm EDT KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 9 General Meeng Preview.................. p. 10 - - - 28th - - - PM: Asteroid 1 Ceres is at opposion. April Meeting Minutes The general meeting of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Joseph Fraunhofer created the first astronomical was brought to order by President Richard Bell on Friday, spectroscope in 1814 and looked at flames of different April 12, 2019 at 7:05 pm EST. Approximately 36 members elements. For the Sun, he saw hundreds of lines. Like and guests were in attendance at the Kalamazoo Area Math Wollaston, he labeled the sharpest lines with letters, starting & Science Center (KAMSC). with A on the red side of the visible spectrum. Comparing with known elements burned in the lab, he noticed that the D Richard started his President’s Report with a brief review of line doublet matched a bright line for sodium. Fraunhofer the 2019 Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF). He reminded also used his new spectroscope on other objects like the members about the first ever Remote Telescope Training Moon, Venus, Mars, and the stars Sirius, Pollux, Castor, Session on April 26th. The Meade 16-inch SCT OTA for Capella, Betelgeuse, and Procyon. Owl Observatory has been delivered and the Astro-Physics 1600GTO German equatorial mount is on order. A volunteer Using Robert Bunsen’s newly improved laboratory burner, is needed to construct the new observatory pier (Josh Taylor- Gustav Kirchhoff set up an experiment in 1859 that allowed Lehman stepped forward). Scott Macfarlane and Roger him to compare the dark line absorption spectrum from the Williams will be representing the KAS at the Green-A-Thon Sun with the bright line emission spectra from different in Portage on April 13th. Richard concluded by passing out a elements. In his publication, Kirchhoff noted that volunteer sheet for the Rock & Mineral Show on May 4th and Fraunhofer’s lines “exist in consequence of the presence, in 5th at the Kalamazoo Expo Center. the incandescent atmosphere of the Sun, of those substances which in the spectrum of a flame produce bright lines at the Dr. Lauren Woolsey, an Assistant Professor of Physical same place.” This included Na, Fe, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, Ni and Sciences at Grand Rapids Community College, was the guest others, elements also found on Earth. speaker for the April meeting. Her presentation was entitled Unlocking the Sun: Spectroscopy in the 1800s. Using Just as Robert Bunsen worked with Kirchhoff to set up his thermometers, William Herschel measured the temperatures experiments, which many have called the foundations of of all of the colors and of the space beyond the rainbow in astrophysics, he also was a mentor to Sir Henry Enfield 1800. This led to the discovery of infrared radiation. Dr. Roscoe, who studied the spectra of many different Woolsey then reviewed the entire electromagnetic spectrum. astronomical objects in the 1860s. During this same period, From shortest to longest wavelength (or highest to lowest Angelo Secchi built a catalog of over 4,000 stars using a energy) the order is gamma-rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible series of spectroscopic instruments of his own invention. light, infrared, microwave, and radio waves. In 1868, J. Norman Lockyer commissioned a spectroscope William Hyde Wollaston, in 1802, was the first to notice that that could study the outer layers of the Sun (the corona) sunlight actually has dark lines in it. He noted seven separate without waiting for a solar eclipse. On October 20, 1868, he dark lines. This led to the review of the different types of made an observation which noted a bright yellow/orange spectrum. A continuous spectrum has no absorption or emission line that had never been seen before. The same day emission lines. An absorption spectrum results when Lockyer presented his results to the Royal Society in radiation passes through a gas. Atoms in the gas absorb England, the results from Pierre Janssen’s expedition to view photons of certain wavelengths, which we see as dark lines. the Aug. 18th eclipse in India reached the French Academy. An emission spectrum is produced by photons emitted by an He had seen this same new yellow/orange emission line. excited gas. The year after Lockyer and Janssen discovered that new line, named Helium after the Greek word for Sun (Helios), William Harkness and Charles Augustus Young each independently observed an eclipse in the U.S. and found a bright green emission line. Even after Helium was discovered on Earth, the new bright green line (named coronium) remained a mystery. In 1939, Swedish spectroscopist Bengt Edlèn was able to identify the “coronium” line as a very high ionization state of iron: Fe- XIV a.k.a. Fe13+. This level of ionization requires a temperature of millions of degrees This identification wrapped up the mystery of the 1800s but created a new mystery that we are still solving today. During observing reports, Aaron Roman said he’s completed about 95% of the A.L. Messier program. The big news item discussed was the first ever image of a black hole (see page 5 Dr. Lauren Woolsey, an Assistant Professor at Grand for more). Israel’s Beresheet mission crashed on the Moon Rapids Community College, was the guest speaker at our on April 11th. After discussing upcoming KAS activities, the general meeting on April 12th. meeting concluded at 9:07 pm. Prime Focus Page 2 May 2019 In New Business, the Board set prices on several telescopes to be sold. This includes the 12-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope from Owl Observatory ($1,200), the Celestron 8- inch NexStar mentioned earlier ($800), and the 8-inch SCT on a Super Polaris EQ mount currently available for loan ($800). A donated Celestar 8-inch SCT will become a new loan telescope. On another topic, Richard suggested some preliminary plans for the “Quintuple Conjunction” gathering The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Board met on April of area astronomy clubs in Kalamazoo on September 14th. 14, 2019 at Sunnyside Church. Before the meeting was convened, the Board spent some time assembling and In the Other category, Don reported that Kiwanis CraneFest checking out an 8-inch Celestron NexStar telescope recently will be on October 12th & 13th, and he would like to offer donated to KAS. The meeting was then called to order by solar viewing for this event. He also mentioned that Kiwanis President Richard Bell at 5:22 pm. Board members present and Kingman Museum will be collaborating on an event with were Joe Comiskey, Jean DeMott, Scott Macfarlane, Rich an astronomy theme. Some presentations may be desired. Mather, Jack Price, Don Stilwell, and Roger Williams. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:15 The Treasurer’s Report was still missing because of a pm. The next meeting was set for May 19th, with a caution problem with Rich’s computer. He said that the data were all from Jack that he might not be available on that date. present on the hard drive, but have yet to be recovered and used to generate the usual report format. A summary was Respectfully submitted by Roger Williams provided of the amounts present in all of our Advia accounts, however. In discussion of the current state of treasury funds, concern was expressed about the amount of time elapsed since the last complete report (May, 2018) and about the method for backing up files. Don moved that he and Rich proceed to access the treasury files and to generate reports for January - April, 2019 (seconded by Joe). Jean offered an amendment to include June - December, 2018 in the time period to be reported. A deadline of May 19th was also set. All voted in favor of the amended motion. One aspect of this effort was understood to be copying the files to a thumb We have yet to hold the first Public Observing Session of drive as soon as possible. For the future, Rich will e-mail 2019. Skies were beautiful up until about sunset on April 7th, Don and Richard treasury files for back-up on a monthly but then thin clouds moved it and spoiled our view of the basis.