Affiliated with ReflectionsReflections The Newsletter of the Popular Astronomy Club February 2020 President’s Corner FEBRUARY 2020 Mercury’s disk. A bit higher in the sky, the planet Neptune is very much dim- Welcome to another edition of mer at magnitude 8. Binoculars or a “Reflections”, the telescope will be needed to see it. Final- universe’s best as- ly, follow the ecliptic up past Venus to tronomy newsletter. find Uranus, which at magnitude 5.8 is easier to find, but you will still want to Page Topic This issue has some 1-2 Presidents Corner great articles about use a pair of binoculars. A telescope will 3 Announcements/ astronomical events reveal Uranus’ diminutive pale blue disk. Info Alan Sheidler occurring during the 4-7 Contributions month of February. For starters, this If you happen to be an early riser, Feb- 8 Paul Castle ruary’s morning sky has some treats in Observatory Prog- month will be a great one for those of ect us who love to observe planets. During store for you. Saturn, Jupiter and Mars 9 NCRAL Messier the first half of the month, right after will be visible before sunrise. February’s Marathon/ 2020 sunset, the planet Mercury will be big event will be the occultation of Mars Sky Guide/ th about as high in the sky as it will be and by the moon on the 18 . If you have 2020 an ideal object for your telescope. never seen an occultation, you should Celestial Calendar put this on your calendar. Binoculars 10 Astronomy in Print While you are observing Mercury 11 First Light by (closest to the horizon), three other will help you see Mars as the moon ap- David Levy planets will also be visible, strung out proaches, but if you have a telescope, I 12 Upcoming Events like pearls on the ecliptic: Neptune, recommend you get it ready for this 13 Sign up Report Venus and Uranus. Venus, a dramati- event. 14 Astronomical cally bright naked eye object, will serve I have not yet observed the occultation Calendar of of a planet but I did observe the occulta- Events / The as a guidepost to finding the other plan- Planets ets dwelling nearby in the southwest- tion of the bright star Aldebaran on the 15-16 Sky views / Mars ern sky. If you have a clear horizon in (Continued on next page) Occultations that direction, draw an im- 17 Deep Sky Won aginary line between Venus ders 18-19 Astronomical and where the sun dipped League below the horizon. Follow 20 Spotlight: Messier this down and your eye will 41– the Little Bee- catch a fairly bright magni- hive tude -0.5 “star”, which will 21-22 Space Place Article in fact be the planet Mercu- 23-25 News links 26-27 Photographic ry. A pair of binoculars Experiment with might help you pick it out of the Orion Nebula the glare of early twilight. If 28 PAC Monthly you have a telescope, you Meeting might be able to discern (Continued in next column) 1 (Continued from previous page) could “see” a difference in the brightness of Betelgeuse between Popular th evening of October 18 , 2016. I’ve then and now. On the evening of Astronomy included a picture of this here. I re- January 20th, I took another picture Club call waiting and watching as the of Orion from my front yard. Unfor- Officers moon slowly lumbered toward Al- tunately, the camera settings were debaran and being amazed at being not the same so the images are not PRESIDENT - Alan Sheidler able to actually perceive the moon’s directly comparable, but neverthe- 3528 56th Street Court, Moline, IL, 61265 motion in real time, and then being less, we can compare the relative Phone: (309) 797-3120 even more amazed when all of a sud- brightness of the stars to each other den, Aldebaran simply “winked out” in each image. I’m including these VICE PRESIDENT – Dino Milani of existence as the moon swept past images here for you to examine 2317 29 1/2 Street, Rock Island, it. Because stars are so far away, yourself. What do you think? Is Be- IL, 61201 they actually have no discernable telgeuse noticeably dimmer now? It Phone: (309) 269-4735 angular size from our vantage point. might be the camera settings, but to Thus, the moon was able to cover it SECRETARY - Terry Dufek me it looks maybe a little bit dim- 2812 W. 65th Street, Davenport, in a mere fraction of a second. This mer and a lot less red in color. Does IA, 52806 Phone: (563) 386-3509 will not be the case with Mars how- that mean it’s getting ready to ex- ever. Mars will have a definite size plode? What do you think? TREASURER – Dale Hachtel and should require some time (15 Keep looking up! 1617 Elm Shore Drive, Port Byron seconds or so?) to be “eclipsed”. I IL, 61275 want to see this, so I am hoping for Alan Sheidler Phone: (614) 935-5748 clear weather. Stay ALCOR – Roy E. Gustafson tuned to your email as 11 Deer Run Road, Orion, IL, we will be putting out 61273 information closer to the Phone: (309)526-3592 time of the occultation. I can hardly wait! DIRECTOR OF OBSERVATORIES - Rusty Case 2123 W. 16th Street, Davenport, Finally, I would like to IA, 52804 discuss Betelgeuse. Phone: (563) 349-2444 There has been a lot of social media reports PAST PRESIDENT - about how much this Wayland Bauer bright star in Orion has 3256 Pleasant Drive, Bettendorf, dimmed so dramatically IA., 52722 Phone: (563) 332-4032 of late. There also has been a lot of hubbub NEWSLETTER EDITOR - about this massive star Terry Dufek going supernova at any 2812 W. 65th Street, Davenport, minute—and I would IA, 52806 love to see that happen Phone: (563) 386-3509 too, but, I went back into Contact for Information my archive of astro- or questions here: photos and found an popularastronomy- image of Orion from [email protected] 2012. I was curious if I (Continued in next column) 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS / INFO READY FOR MEMBERSHIP ORTO RENEW? Thank you Click Here LOOKING FOR OLDER ISSUES OF REFLECTIONS ForFor PAC Renewing Documents and NEWSLETTER? use “EnrollmentDave Smith Form ” OR Click HERE use last page in October Reflections HISTORY OF PAC? Click HERE SUBMISSIONS If you have an article or photos to submit or Popular Astronomy Club items of interest, we encourage you to send on Facebook? them in by the 25th of the month. Links to Click HERE stories are welcome also. Thank you! Astronomical League Observing Programs The Astronomical League provides many different Observing Programs. These Observing Programs are designed to provide a direction for your obser- vations and to provide a goal. The Observing Pro- grams have certificates and pins to recognize the observers’ accomplishments and for demon- strating their observing skills with a variety of in- struments and objects CLICK HERE! Click Here MORE NCRAL VISION 2020 INFORMATION HERE! 3 CONTRIBUTIONS 4 CONTRIBUTIONS Stop abbreviating 2020. Police say it leaves you open to fraud and can cost you big! Link to Story HERE BBC’s The Sky At Night Guide to Comets Asteroids CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO YOU TUBE 5 Sun, it is summer for that hemisphere. When the CONTRIBUTIONS Earth's axis points away, winter can be expected. Since the tilt of the axis is 23 112 degrees, the north Editors Note: The following two pages are some of pole never points directly at the Sun, but on the the notes from Wayland Bauer’s presentation at summer solstice it points as close as it can, and on the January 2020 meeting on Seasons the winter solstice as far as it can. Midway between these two times, in spring and autumn, the spin axis Standards: The Seasons of the Earth points 90 degrees away from the Sun. Seasons are major divisions of the year. The Earth's This means that on this date, day and night have tropical and subtropical regions experience two sea- about the same length: 12 hours each, more or less. sons (wet, or monsoon, and dry), while its polar and temperate regions experience four (spring, summer, Why should this tilt of the Earth's axis matter to our autumn, and winter). climate? To understand this, take a piece of paper and a flashlight. Shine the light from the flashlight Astronomical seasons change on the days the Earth straight onto the paper, so you see an illuminated is tilted closest or furthest from the sun (solstices), circle. All the light from the flashlight is in that cir- and those on which the sun is directly over the cle. Now slowly tilt the paper, so the circle elon- equator (equinoxes). In the northern hemisphere: gates into an ellipse. All the light is still in that el- Astronomical spring begins on the spring equi- lipse, but the ellipse is spread out over more paper. nox . The densify of light drops. ln other words, the Astronomical summer begins on the summer amount of light per square centimeter drops (the solstice number of square centimeters increases, while the Astronomical autumn begins on the autumnal total amount of light stays the same). equinox . Astronomical winter begins on the winter sol- The same is true on the Earth. When the Sun is stice overhead, the light is falling straight on you, and so Meteorologists use whole months to identify sea- more light (and more heat) hit each square centime- sons (meteorological seasons). In the northern hem- ter of the ground.