Highlights of the September Sky. - - - 5thth → 6h - - - DUSK: Low in the west- southwest, look less than Prime Focus 2º below Venus for much fainter Spica. A Publication of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society - - - 5th - - - September 2013 New Moon 7:36 am EDT - - - 8thth → 9thth - - - AM: Mars passes through M44, the Beehive Cluster ThisThis MonthsMonths KAS EventsEvents in Cancer. - - - 8thth - - - DUSK: Venus is very close General Meeting: Friday, September 13 @ 7:00 pm to a thin crescent Moon, Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 8 for Details with Spica nearby and Saturn to their upper left. th Observing Session: Saturday, September 14 @ 8:00 pm - - - 9th - - - DUSK: Saturn is to the The Moon, Uranus & Neptune - Kalamazoo Nature Center right of the Moon, with Venus to their lower left. Board Meeting: Sunday, September 15 @ 5:00 pm - - - 12thth - - - First Quarter Moon Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome 1:08 pm EDT Observing Session: Saturday, September 28 @ 8:00 pm - - - 16thth → 19thth - - - DUSK: Saturn is less than Overwhelming Open Clusters - Kalamazoo Nature Center 4º from Venus. - - - 19th - - - Full Moon 7:13 am EDT InsideInside thethe Newsletter.Newsletter. .. .. - - - 22nd - - - Equinox: Autumn begins in the Northern Hemisphere Perseid Potluck Picnic Report............. p. 2 at 4:44 pm. Observations........................................... p. 2 - - - 24thth - - - DUSK: Binoculars and Stargazing at the Kiwanis Area............ p. 3 telescopes should show Spica just ¾º below Bruce C. Murray..................................... p. 4 brighter Mercury very low in WSW 15 - 30 minutes NASA Space Place.................................. p. 5 after sunset. September Night Sky............................. p. 6 - - - 26th - - - Last Quarter Moon KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 7 11:55 pm EDT General Meeting Preview..................... p. 8 - - - 28th - - - DAWN: Jupiter is upper left of Waning Crescent Moon. www.kasonline.org Perseid Potluck Picnic ObservationsObservations by Richard S. Bell The nineteenth annual Perseid Potluck Picnic was again held If you pay close attention to the KAS website then you may at the Kalamazoo Nature Center on Saturday, August 10th have noticed we changed the date of the September General with a start time of 6:00 pm. Attendance was very similar to Meeting. It will now be held on Friday, September 13th last year’s picnic with an estimated 50 members and guests instead of September 6th. There are a couple of reasons for present. this. Some of us (including the KAMSC key holder, Mike Sinclair) will be adjusting to the start of a new school year, One thing not similar to last year’s picnic was the weather. so it’ll be an exhausting week for teachers and students. Skies were too cloudy for solar observing last year, but Secondly, several key members (including that perfectly clear this year. Both Richard Bell and Roger aforementioned Sinclair fellow) will be attending the 11th Williams brought their solar telescopes to share. Several annual Great Lakes Star Gaze near Gladwin, Michigan. prominences protruded along the solar limb and one of the longest filaments in year’s snaked across its surface. Here’s This year’s Star Gaze is being held from September 5th - 8th an image of Bob Havira checking out the Sun in Richard’s at the River Valley RV Park. A few of us (including yours Lunt 60mm telescope: truly) attended in 2008 (read my report) and KAS Member- At-Large Scott Macfarlane has attended several times. A larger contingent of KAS members is attending this year (five for sure so far). If you’re interested in joining then let me know and I’ll pass along your name to those that are a planning to go for sure. I’m not sure I’ll attend myself. It really depends on how good the weather will be. Remember though, the more the merrier (or misery loves company if it’s cloudy). If you don’t attend the Star Gaze then be sure to attend the general meeting on September 13th. We’ll be back at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center (KAMSC) and we’ve got an excellent guest speaker lined up. Dr. Stephen Bougher, a Collegiate Research Professor in the Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences Department at the University of Michigan, will discuss the status and Dinner was served shortly before 7:00 pm. Special thanks science preparations of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile again goes to Don Stilwell for bringing his grill and doing all Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft. [Seriously. What is the cooking for the fourth year-in-a-row. The hamburgers it with NASA and their obsession with anagrams?] We are were juicy and the hot dogs were pleasantly plump, so kudos very fortunate that Dr. Bougher agreed to speak to the KAS to the chef! As usual, thanks to all the members that brought since MAVEN will begin its 10-month journey to the Red the fantastic side dishes and deserts. Planet on November 18, 2013 (weather permitting, of course). A Public Observing Session immediately followed the picnic. Many members and even more guests came (or There is also a volunteer opportunity during the month of stayed) for the near-peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. The September. The Portage District Library will celebrate their area around the observatory was packed with reclining chairs 50th anniversary on Saturday, September 28th from 10am - and blankets. A star party feeling was in there air. The 6pm and they’ve asked us to participate. The Board hasn’t evening star, Venus, was in prime viewing position and yet approved our participation, but that’s just a formality. Saturn also looked good. The Moon was also a popular The Portage District Library has been very good to us. target early on. The International Space Station was also We’ve had the most successful installment of the seen in the northern sky. However, skies grew cloudier the Introduction to Amateur Astronomy lecture series there and darker it got and eventually became completely overcast. the Library Telescope Program has seen its greatest success Everyone was patient since they meteor shower wouldn’t be there. They’ve offered to provide us a table, so we can pass in full stride until after midnight. One by one though people out KAS literature, but we could also setup some telescopes became to loose hope and head home. The last of the for solar observing if conditions are favorable. Drop me a members left at ~1:00 am. A disappointing end to an line and let me know if you can help out. If not, then at least otherwise great day! stop by and see us! Prime Focus Page 2 September 2013 StargStargaazinzingg fromfrom tthehe KiwaKiwaniniss AArearea by Don Stilwell Kiwanians Sean, Amy, Connor, Alainey, Dan and I had fun able to view the D-shaped partially lit disc of Venus. Due to at the Kiwanis Youth Conservation Area on Saturday, its inferior orbit (orbit closer to the Sun than Earth), Venus August 24, 2013. The weather could not have been better; reflects the Sun’s light in a phases similar to the Moon. After warm and sunny. Beginning about 3:30 pm, with the loan of scanning the sky with our eyeballs and binoculars, we finally Dick Gillespie’s Lunt Hydrogen Alpha solar telescope, we found the unmistakable steady shine of Saturn. Its position were able to safely view the surface of the Sun in stunning along the ecliptic in Virgo was fortunately about 10 degrees red detail. We saw the apparently small flames around the above the trees. This gave us about 35 good minutes of edge or limb of the Sun and realized the little flames were Saturn admiration. larger than Earth and can rise up or go down in a matter of minutes. At various times in my eyepiece, both a 13mm (115×) and 9mm (167×), you could get an image of Saturn’s disc with at We were also able to study the Sun’s “bubble, bubble, toil times planetary banding and could easily see the ring but and trouble” with granules and filaments snaking across its without the Cassini division. Titan and one other moon surface. The intense pressure and heat at the Sun’s core inside Titan’s orbit were visible. For being so low on the creates helium from hydrogen by nuclear fusion. The fact horizon, we had a good view. that the resulting plasma released at the Sun’s core can take up to 100,000 years to migrate to the surface to create this At a couple of minutes before 9 pm the International Space turmoil boggles the mind. When you watch this all unfold in Station (ISS) appeared below the handle of the Big Dipper in real time before your very eyes it is awesome. the northwest and silently zoomed across the sky toward the southeast to set in Capricorn. The easily visible ISS traverse Also in the course of the day, we toured the trails. Along the across the sky took about 3 minutes and reached a magnitude way, we removed fallen tree parts and spotted some wildlife of about -0.67 or brighter than Vega. This was not our last including a tree frog which Conner caught. In particular, satellite display, as we saw a half dozen or so dimmer while Sean’s kids searched for snakes near the dam, Sean traverses. Our satellite spotting culminated in a short lived, and I spotted a Kingfisher in flight. Then later, near supper just a few seconds, but brilliant Iridium flare about time we all spotted a Great Blue Herron standing with his magnitude -2 or -3 near the sky’s crest. head pointed straight up and wings spread out to the side, Anhinga style, as if drying his wings.