THE OBSERVER OF THE TWIN CITY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS Volume 44, Number 7 July 2019 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1«Editor’s Choice: Image of the Month – Apollo XI 2«President’s Note 3«Calendar of Celestial Events – July 2019 3«New & Renewing Members/Dues Blues/E-Mail List 4«This Month’s Phases of the Moon 4«This Month’s Solar Phenomena 4«TCAA Social & Public Viewing Session July 13th 5«Scott and Emily Wade “Graduate” 6«AstroBits – News from Around the TCAA 7«E/PO Updates for June 2019 7«Meteorite “Display” in El Paso, IL 8«Central Illinois Mini Conference September 21st 8«Intro. to Amateur Astronomy Course to Resume 9«Remaining Public Viewing Sessions for 2019 9«TCAA Calendar of Events for 2019 9«TCAA Active on Facebook 10«TCAA Image Gallery 12«July 2019 with Jeffrey L. Hunt 16«TCAA Treasurer’s Report as of June 28, 2019 16«Renewing Your TCAA Membership The TCAA is an affiliate of the IMAGE OF THE MONTH: EDITOR’S CHOICE – APOLLO XI Astronomical League as well as its North Central Region. For more While this space is normally reserved for images taken by one information about the TCAA, be of our club members, the editor’s choice for this month is image certain to visit the TCAA website at chosen to commemorate one of the most monumental tcaa.us/ achievements of mankind – the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. That event took place 50 years ago this month, on July 20, 1969. Visit Astroleague.org for additional Because your editor is 66 years old, he can vividly remember information about the League and its the evening when a fellow Ohioan from only 20 miles away membership benefits. (Wapakoneta) set foot on the surface of the moon. He and four of his friends were plastered to the TV watching “scratchy” images originating from the lunar surface. Also visit the NCRAL website at That year 16-year-old Carl Wenning also stood agog looking at ncral.wordpress.com for information the moon in the evening twilight as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin about our North Central Region. began their EVA. The moon was a 5.9-day-old waxing crescent located in the southwestern sky 10° to the left of magnitude –1.8 Jupiter, with Mars dominating the south at magnitude –1.3. These images will be forever etched in your editor’s mind. What do you remember of this night? Do you remember any of the moon landings, that last of which occurred in 1972? If you are younger than about 52 years old, then probably not much. Too bad! Copyright © 2019 TCAA 1 All rights reserved. Vol. 44, No. 7 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers July 2019 PRESIDENT’S NOTE The OBSERVER Well, summer has arrived! is the monthly electronic newsletter of Twin Though the nights are short, the air is City Amateur Astronomers, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit educational warm, and it is prime time for organization of amateur astronomers inter- observing the summer Milky Way – ested in studying astronomy and sharing my favorite section of our night sky. their hobby with the public. As I write this, I’m in Enid, Oklahoma, visiting my son, his wife, TCAA OFFICERS & CHAIRPERSONS and our grandson Hudson. Yes, this President, Director, & ProPerty Manager trip is about seeing all of them, but I Tim Stone 309-531-2401 have a secondary motive to be here. [email protected] We timed the trip during this Vice President & Director/MembershiP Coord. month’s dark moon, in the hope that Tom Willmitch 309-846-2423 perhaps I might get a night under the [email protected] incredibly dark skies of Copper Breaks TCAA President Tim Stone Treasurer & Director/Registered Agent State Park near Quanah, Texas. It’s Dave Osenga 309-287-0789 about four hours away from here, and the forecast for the next few days is for [email protected] spectacularly clear skies. I couldn’t be more excited! Secretary & Director/Historian/Editor I didn’t bring a telescope or anything like that. I brought my portable mount Carl J. Wenning 309-830-4085 with a fabulous DSLR setup I borrowed from a friend, and with that I hope to do [email protected] some good wide-sky photography. It’s distinctly different than my typical deep-sky 5th Director/Assistant ProPerty Manager photography and my lunar imaging. I’m still a novice at this, but I’ve done it enough Scott Wade 309-310-2464 now that I think I can capture a decent image of the spectacular band of our galaxy, [email protected] stretching from the southern horizon to nearly overhead. Astronomical League CorresPondent Copper Breaks State Park is an IDA-recognized International Dark Sky Park. I’ve Robert Finnigan 309-846-9533 been there once before, and the skies remind me so much of the sky in Central [email protected] Illinois when I was a kid. It breaks my heart that those same skies are so badly Technology Coordinator polluted now, but I’m glad there’s still some place to go where the dark sky is Justin Meyer 630-649-0611 [email protected] actively being preserved. If you’ve never been to a dark sky park, it’s well worth the trip! Stay tuned; Webmaster perhaps next month I’ll have an image to publish in The OBSERVER. Lee Green 309-454-7349 [email protected] Oh, and by the way, everyone down here is doing quite well! Lighting Educ. & AL Observing Club Coordinator Lisa Wentzel unlisted number Tim Stone [email protected] TCAA President The OBSERVER Carl J. Wenning, Editor TAKE NOTE! Submission deadline two days before The next meeting of the TCAA Board of Directors we be held on Tuesday, July the end of each month. 16th. We will be meeting at the Wenning residence in Normal at 6:30 PM. Send agenda items to Secretary Carl Wenning if you have any. See his contact MEMBERSHIP DUES information in the column to the left. Individual Adult/Family $40 Full-time Student/Senior $25 Bob Finnigan has asked for us to announce that he will work with Scott and Emily (Senior status equals ages 60+) Wade to develop a training class in astronomical imaging for interested To join, send your name, contact info and individuals on Tuesday, July 2, at SGNC’s Prairie Sky Observatory. The session is dues payment to Dave Osenga, TCAA informal and will start at 5:00 PM. Participants will contribute to the Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., Normal, IL development of the next class and need not be members of the TCAA to attend 61761-1471. this session. Contact Bob for additional information. See his contact information in the column to the left. Copyright © 2019 TCAA 2 All rights reserved. Vol. 44, No. 7 The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers July 2019 CALENDAR OF CELESTIAL EVENTS – JULY 2019 NEW & RENEWING MEMBERS MORNING PLANETS (7/15): Venus, Uranus, & Neptune The following individuals have paid dues for new or renewed memberships as of June 28, 2019. (Others who EVENING PLANETS (7/15): Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, & Saturn paid after that date will appear in the August 2019 issue The following table gives the date and time (24-hour clock) of of The OBSERVER.) important astronomical events for this month. All events are given in Central Daylight Time. Tom Willmitch and Matthew Will Day Time Event 02 14:16 NEW MOON DUES BLUES 02 14:23 Total Solar Eclipse; mag=1.046 03 01:53 Moon at Ascending Node If you have received a “your dues are due” 04 03:34 Mercury 3.3°S of Moon statement along with the email that brought you this issue of The OBSERVER, please remit your dues to Mr. 04 08:20 Mercury 2.5°S of Beehive Dave Osenga, TCAA Treasurer, 1109 N. Linden St., 04 10:02 Beehive 0.2°S of Moon Normal, IL 61761-1471. Dues are currently $25 for 04 18 Earth at Aphelion: 1.01676 AU seniors (60 years of age and over) and $40 regular. 04 23:54 Moon at Perigee: 363729 km 05 18 Mercury 3.8° of Mars SUBSCRIBING TO THE TCAA EMAIL LIST 05 21:17 Regulus 3.2°S of Moon By subscribing to a group’s mailing list, you will 07 02 Mercury at Aphelion receive email messages from the group though you 09 05:55 FIRST QUARTER MOON won’t have access to the group’s web features (like 09 11 Saturn at Opposition photos, files, links, polls, calendar, etc.) unless members 13 02:06 Mars 0.4°S of Beehive activate it later. The club has an open email listserv. It is 13 14:43 Jupiter 2.3°S of Moon known as the TCAA YahooGroups listserv. It will be used 16 02:27 Saturn 0.2°N of Moon: Occn. to share announcements and reminders about 16 04:05 Moon at Descending Node astronomical and club events. To join this main listserv, you must do the following: 16 16:31 Partial Lunar Eclipse; mag=0.653 16 16:38 FULL MOON 1. To subscribe: Send a blank email to TCAA- 20 19:01 Moon at Apogee: 405480 km [email protected] Note: You’ll be sent a 21 08 Mercury at Inferior Conjunction confirmation email from the group. Reply to the 24 20:18 LAST QUARTER MOON confirmation email to activate your subscription. 27 19:47 Aldebaran 2.3°S of Moon 2. To post a message: [email protected] 3.